6 Questions to Ask Your Doctor About How to Fight Depression

by editor on March 24, 2010

If you suspect that you may have a mood disorder and you are wondering how to fight depression, where can you turn for help?  The first thing to do is to schedule an appointment with the family doctor for a complete physical.  This is important because there are many possible physical conditions that can generate the signs and symptoms of depression.  A strenuous learning curve for how to fight depression may not be necessary if the signs and symptoms of depression that you are experiencing are caused by a hormone deficiency, for example.

There are specific questions you need to ask your doctor.  QUESTION 1:  During the examination, say to the physician,  “I’m wondering if I have the symptoms of depression.  What do you think?”  This will ensure that part of the physician’s time will be spent having a simple discussion with you about what you are experiencing and discuss how to fight depression in a clear, straightforward manner.

It’s useful to understand a little about the purpose of lab work.  A standard part of an annual physical examination is to send a sample of your blood to the lab for various tests.   There are always scores of different tests that the doctor does NOT order the lab to do because of the added expense (for the insurance company or for you) and because many conditions represented by those added tests are relatively rare.

TIP: it’s best to ask the  question about depression near the beginning of the exam, especially before the doctor orders the routine lab tests. The reason for this is simple.  There are various conditions such a anemia or low thyroid that can produce depression symptoms.

Asking about depression near the beginning of the exam allows your doctor to order additional tests on the blood sample that is drawn from you. When you are thinking about how to fight depression, take one of the easier steps right away and ask for a photocopy of the actual numbers of your lab results.

Once it has been diagnosed, the challenge of how to fight depression becomes easier to map out.  This naturally leads to the next question to ask your doctor during your physical examination.  QUESTION 2:  Ask the doctor, “Do you know of a good psychologist or therapist that I could meet with for an evaluation?”   TIP:  although clinical depression is a medical condition, it can be caused by non medical factors that can easily escape the notice of someone lacking specialized training.

QUESTIONS 3:  Additionally, ask the doctor, “Can you explain which antidepressant medications seem to work the best for your patients?”  QUESTION 4:  “If medication is what your patients choose for how to fight depression, what have you found are the pros and cons of the main antidepressants?”  TIP:  ask this followup question, mentioning specific medications by name.  For example, “Can you explain to me the benefits and side-effects of Zoloft, Lexapro, and Cymbalta?

Mentioning the medications by name is important if you are in an HMO insurance plan because doctors are sometimes restricted from telling you about the more expensive medications unless you specifically ask. Also, keep in mind that when someone starts a course of treatment with medication, it will take some time (at least a few weeks) to start feeling the positive effects of the medication.

QUESTION 5:  Also ask, “Are you comfortable prescribing these medications?”  This is important because not all general practitioners have as much training as they would like in order to monitor medication for depression.

TIP:  Before you actually meet with your physician for the exam, make a short list of these questions and others.  Depression makes concentration and memory temporarily less reliable and more frustrating.  A simple list will ensure that you ask all the questions you had been thinking about beforehand.

A final question can be asked just before you leave.  QUESTION 6:  “Is there anything else you can tell me about how to fight depression?”  If you ask these six questions you will have made a good start in catching on to how to fight depression and as well as acting on what you have learned.

{ 1 comment }

Self Help for Panic Attacks, Depression, and Questioning the Value of Therapy

by editor on March 22, 2010

Does Self Help for Panic Attacks Make Therapy Unnecessary?

Self help for panic attacks provides a good example of the possible relationship between therapy and self help. The proliferation of self help resources in recent years allows many people the opportunity to learn information previously available only in the office of a mental health professional. This has raised the question of whether or not therapy is even necessary. Research the web, buy a book online, save money. Why shoulder the expense of therapy when self help information is so readily available?

Comparing Therapy with the Process of Self Help

To answer this question, it is necessary to clarify the respective roles of self help and psychotherapy. Good therapy should provides targeted knowledge and information, a process sometimes referred to as psychoeducation. But the face-to-face aspects of therapy support the process of positive change in a way that can’t be obtained from a web page, video or a book.

Self help for panic attacks offers a good illustration of how therapy and self help approaches compare and contrast. There are tools and techniques that can be extracted from information sources. Information and skills can be obtained using audio training and other types of media learning. But there are at least two important challenges that are difficult to meet without live therapy.

Two Feathers in the Hat of Therapy

First, therapy can save time in the process of change by utilizing the unique strengths of a person for maximum benefit. A good therapist is always listening and adjusting the direction of therapy based the personality strengths and needs of the client as well as the details of the situation. In contrast, a set outline of self help for panic attacks uses the same approach for everyone.

Second, the underlying causes of panic are significant in determining how to proceed in therapy.  If a person is anemic and never engages in exercise, then stopping panic attacks may be quite simple. If the anxiety attacks are primarily due to a long-standing depression, then the therapy takes an entirely different direction.  The relationship between past trauma and present anxiety attacks (and depression, for that matter) is often not recognized by the man or woman seeking relief. Self help for panic attacks and self help for depression become  hard-pressed to provide the kind of emotional intelligence to understand subconscious forces giving rise to recurring panic attacks or the signs and symptoms of depression.

Changing the Question

So, is self help for panic attacks worth the effort? It is worth it and here is the main reason: the more that knowledge, skills, and tools can be acquired via self help for panic attacks, then the less these same basic tasks need to take up the more expensive time of therapy sessions. This has the advantage of freeing up more time in therapy for the conversations that cannot be obtained any other way. On the other hand, the benefit might be that fewer therapy sessions are necessary.

{ 0 comments }

Signs and Symptoms of Depression in Men

March 18, 2010

Men can experience the signs and symptoms of depression in many different ways. A man may be grumpy or irritable, or have lost his sense of humor. He might drink too much or abuse drugs. It may be that he physically or verbally abuses his wife and his kids. He might work all the time, [...]

Read the full article →

The Signs and Symptoms of Depression

March 14, 2010

When do the signs and symptoms of depression become a medical condition that needs treatment?  For the signs and symptoms of depression to have clinical significance these two important criteria must both be true:

The signs and symptoms of depression last for several days (at least 2 weeks)
Depression symptoms become disruptive to major [...]

Read the full article →

Could Anger in Your Marriage Be Related to Hypoglycemic Symptoms?

February 18, 2010

Anger, moodiness and arguments happen in all marital relationships. Every couple has arguments and disagreements. Every couple gets angry now and then – sometimes with each other, sometimes with circumstances of life. When anger is due to hypoglycemic symptoms, then eating a snack becomes more important than marriage councelling. Everyone gets moody now and then [...]

Read the full article →

What Happens When Adult Children of Alcoholic Parents… Become Mom or Dad?

February 18, 2010

Know Your Blind Spots
Adult children of alcoholic parents are wise to figure out their own blind spots when they become parents themselves. Although you grew up in a home with one or both of your parents being alcoholics, you want to be certain that you provide a better atmosphere for your own children to grow [...]

Read the full article →

Basic Healthy Habits and Self Help for Panic Attacks

February 13, 2010

Many people try self help for panic attacks and don’t get very far. The reason is that they try to run before they can walk. If you can’t use self help anxiety control methods on mild anxiety, how do you suppose you will be successful with self help for panic attacks which involve the most [...]

Read the full article →

Depression and Self Help for Panic Attacks

February 7, 2010

Panic Attacks Complicate Efforts to Get Rid of Depression
Fighting the signs and symptoms of depression becomes doubly difficult when a person is suffering from anxiety attacks.   This forcefully raises the question, “How to fight depression?”  Many people find that when they finally admit they are having panic attacks, they are surprised to find just how [...]

Read the full article →