What You Need to Know about Treatment-Resistant Depression

If you are being treated for depression but think your treatments are not helping you as much as they could, you may be dealing with treatment-resistant depression. In treatment-resistant depression, you may notice that your symptoms come and go frequently, or they may never even go away. If you are undergoing the typical depression treatments of counseling and medication and you still are having symptoms, the following may be helpful:

Change Your Medication Strategy

If you are taking medication for your depression and it is still not helping you, you need to talk to your doctor about changing your medication. Some medications are more helpful than others, and everyone responds differently to medication. You and your doctor may need to try different medications until you find the best one for you.

Your doctor may opt to also increase the dosage of your current medication to see if it is helpful. Do not increase your dosage yourself. You must have your doctor's approval before you can make changes to these medications.

There may also be some other medications generally meant for other health conditions that have beneficial side effects. Many medications meant to help with a completely separate issue can often help with depression symptoms. Be sure to talk about the options available with your doctor.

Try a Different Counseling Approach

If you do not feel your current approach to counseling is helping you, discuss with your therapist different strategies you can try to help improve your outcome. Keep in mind it may take some trial and error until you find the best strategy for you. The most common therapy for depression is cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps you understand negative thinking and helps you develop more positive strategies to face challenges.

Another approach is interpersonal psychotherapy, which helps you focus on relationship issues that might be contributing to your depressed state.

You may want to add additional therapies to your cognitive behavioral therapy to help you overcome any issue that may be causing your symptoms. This can include family therapy and marriage counseling. Discuss the different therapy options available to you to learn more about them and if they may help you.

Get a Different Opinion

At the end of the day, you need to do what is best for you. You may have to seek out a second opinion from different providers. It is possible that you may have another mental health condition you have not yet uncovered for which depression is a side effect. Bipolar disorder, dysthymia, or borderline personality disorder, for example, are all mental health conditions that also cause depression.

To learn more about depression treatments, contact a local counseling center such as Advance Wellness Centre.