Depression is one of the most prevalent emotional disorders of our modern culture. It has dramatic and damaging effects on both individual functioning and happiness as well as significant costs to organizations and the general community. At its most extreme, depression is the main factor contributing to the ultimate loss in society through suicide.
The detection of depression is not difficult. Acute sadness or distress persisting over an extended period of time, not just hours or days, but more often weeks and even months. It is often accompanied by lethargy, tiredness, or a need to sleep constantly, as well as loss of interest in normally pleasurable interests and activities including sports, hobbies, sexual activity and relaxation pursuits like movies, reading and so on.
These are all strong indicators that a person is chronically or acutely depressed. Sometimes just the apparent loss of zip or drive in a person's day to day functioning is enough of an indicator for people to consider having professional assistance.
Treatment for depression by DSA Psychologists predominantly revolves around individual counselling and psychotherapy. This is almost always done on an individual basis where the person's issues, life stressors, history, thinking styles and patterns and personality are shared and examined in a therapeutic and supportive way with difficult issues being critically examined and discussed.
Methods of dealing with the issues and ways of coping may be altered and reviewed during the counselling process. Sometimes considerable gains are made in only a handful of sessions but very often chronic depression requires considerably more than this.
Medical assistance may be required either by the client's GP or through referral to a psychiatrist for treatment using psychotropic medication. This may be required where the depression is assessed to have a biological basis or where the symptoms are so debilitating that short-term drug treatment is initially required.
Where the person's depression is so chronic or acute that he or she is in danger of harming him or herself, hospitalisation will be considered and discussed with the client. This will also usually involve referral to and management by a psychiatrist.
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