Imagine this scenario:
You have been feeling sad or down lately and noticed it wasn't typical sadness, so you decided to seek professional help. After your appointment you’ve been told that you have been diagnosed with Depression or a Depressive Disorder, and there’s one question running through your mind, now what?
Being told you have depression can feel overwhelming, even if you already felt like you knew that is what you had. This does not mean that there is no hope moving forward, identifying what has been bothering you is just the first step in addressing it.
There are so many treatment options when it comes to depression, although the most common approach is usually a combination of verbal therapy and medication therapy. At this time, Simple Therapy only provides verbal therapy services so we will talk mostly about that.
Verbal therapy can be used to help you identify your depressive symptoms and how they impact you. You and your therapist will process your day to day feelings, while also exploring coping skills which are effective for you to help manage your depressive symptoms. Some coping skills that are common are working out, arts/crafts or DIY projects, music and journaling. Utilizing these coping skills will help reduce and manage depressive symptoms but of course you are not limited to the things on this list. My policy with my clients is if it doesn’t hurt yourself or others, there’s a high chance you can use it as a coping skill.
Get creative with it! Sometimes people are able to turn their hobbies and passions into coping skills and sometimes a coping skill ends up becoming a hobby or a passion. You never know what you might end up falling in love with when you try new things, so I highly encourage it.
The point is depression doesn’t mean the end of the road, it just means we have to learn to navigate it differently.
Let’s talk more in therapy? Reach out today at Simple Therapy.