Depression is a psychological disease - an illness of the mind. Many depressed people often feel secluded and alone. They begin feeling depressed (this generally lasts for quite a long time) and do not tell anyone necessarily. They begin to feel that the sad feeling is their fault and nothing can help it. They become more nervous, may drastically change eating and sleeping habits. They often feel tired and unimportant. Only about one third of depressed people seek help for their condition. This may be because they are unaware that they are depressed or they think that nothing can help it. However, it's been shown that treatment helps in most cases. So, it's important and quite helpful for depressed people to seek treatment.



Understanding depression is important for the patient. This way they can begin to see that their depression is not something that they necessarily caused or that it's their fault. They can begin to see that depression can be helped and treated in a multitude of ways. Once depressed people learn about depression, they feel hope that they will feel happy and better some day.

One of the better known treatments for depression is using drugs. These must be prescribed. However, drugs are not the most effective way of treating depression. Drugs treat only the symptoms of depression and not the cause itself. Psychologically speaking, drugs may not help at all. Antidepressants are only effective in about one third of the cases in which they are applied; they're only partially effective in another third and completely ineffective in the last third. The rate of relapse of antidepressants is quite high. People may become Dependant on them for the rest of their lives. Some people find the side effects of antidepressants so unpleasant (and dangerous sometimes) that they stop treatment completely.

Those who have used antidepressants once are likely to undergo a second major depression again, after using the drug.

There are more options beyond antidepressants for help for depression. The most important option to note is counseling. Therapy helps depressed people in over 80% of the time. People are less likely to experience another significant episode of depression following therapy. Therapy seeks to understand the cause of depression and treat that, instead of just treating the symptoms. Many people feel quite alive after receiving therapy treatment for depression.

It's important to seek help for depression. Before choosing your method of treatment, consider to pros and cons of each. Research each option thoroughly before committing. Remember that you want to treat your depression and not just delay it or ignore it.