5 Therapies To Help Battle Your Depression!
Depression comes in many forms. It can result in periods of prolonged sadness, anger, and irritability. Many other mental illnesses can by a side issue as well, for example, anxiety. Here are five ways of approaching treatment for your depression:
1. Dialectical behaviour therapy: Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is a variation of cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy that focuses on the psychosocial aspects to treatment. The idea behind it is that certain people are more likely to respond in a more intense way towards emotional situations, mainly in situations that involve someone they have a close relationship with. DBT provides skills that will help with regulating the unusually intense surges of emotion. DBT is support oriented, cognitive based, and collaborative. By being support oriented, an individual finds their strengths and builds them to create confidence and to feel better about themselves. Cognitive based means restructuring unhealthy and misguided thoughts into a more realistic version. A collaborative setting is described as having a constant, healthy relationship between a client and staff.
2. Cognitive behavioural therapy: Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a mix of cognitive and behavioural therapies. CBT has proven to help people with both various mental and physical conditions. Examples of these conditions are: depression, eating disorders, OCD, anger management, etc. Studies have shown that a CBT course can be just as effective as medication, and long-term, CBT might be even more effective as skills can be used your entire life.
3. Mindfulness practices. Mindfulness practice is the ability to stay focused on the here and now. For example, keeping your attention on a certain smell, sight, or sound. This often helps with depression because it stops your negative thoughts from spiralling and creating a dark headspace for you. Use it in times when you can’t stop thinking about something, or you can simple use it in times when you want to regulate your emotions. Practicing a little mindfulness day by day will help increase your skill level and your ability to use mindfulness in high stress situations.
4. Neurofeedback: Neurofeedback is a proven way to help overcome depression and other mental health issues. The goal is to improve brain functions through intensive brain exercise. While the technology is quite complex, the process is actually very simple. All you have to do, for one example, is sit back and watch movies. There are wires connected to your head that control the screen in front of you. Depending on your brainwaves, the screen will respond in a certain way, like becoming smaller. Your brain then learns which waves are rewarded and will act in a similar way more often. There is no talking involved, you are just simply watching a movie or playing a game, and your brain will learn how to respond correctly.
