Depression is a common mental illness, how to face it? How to perfect yourself from depression?
1.See Chinese medicine or physical therapy? Hard to touch the kernel of depression
There are many voices in the society about how to treat depression, and TCM is one of them, thinking that doing an acupuncture or taking some Chinese medicine can solve the problem. Among TCM, there are indeed a few national treatments and certain prescriptions that are effective in improving mild depressive moods and some depressive symptoms; however, from the perspective of modern scientific evidence, TCM is far less effective and lasting than western drugs that are anti-depressants. When people are depressed, they may experience some somatic symptoms (such as fatigue, insomnia, etc.), and TCM methods or herbs can indeed play a role in regulating them, but for the core problems of depression, the current technical level of TCM is still beyond the reach of TCM, therefore, it is not recommended to use TCM alone to treat depression when the condition is severe.
Some depressed patients are reluctant to receive professional treatment for various reasons, but spend a lot of time and money to seek help from TCM practitioners, to which Bit Zhaoguo pointed out in a nutshell that in most cases these do not have much effect, “it’s more of a placebo effect.
Acupuncture, massage and other physiotherapy methods can be used, but because they do not touch the core of depression, and can not solve the many causes of depression root, so the treatment of depression can only play some auxiliary effect, do not put the hope of cure on these auxiliary means. Some patients think that physical therapy can cure depression because they feel relaxed and feel better after physical therapy, but the effect of physical therapy is not only physical, but also has a significant comforting effect and interference with attention, which is not lasting.
We compared several different treatments: drugs, the most direct and effective treatment, can help patients relatively quickly, but cannot eliminate the deep depression susceptibility factors; psychotherapy is very profound, proper treatment can improve the psychological quality, can treat patients more fundamentally, but the treatment effect is the slowest; Chinese medicine physical therapy is very superficial, and does not touch the kernel of depression at all.
2.Ask a doctor? Beware of being misled by wrong information
When depression occurs, some people do not go to the doctor, but silently ask the “doctor”, this must be cautious. The content of “Dr. Dounian” is actually full of falsehoods, and non-professionals tend to understand those terms with complex professional connotations in layman’s terms, which can easily lead to misunderstanding, and it is also easy to spread falsehoods and lead patients into misunderstanding on the Internet. In the clinic, we often encounter such a situation: patients are convinced by “Dr. Douche” or non-professional online rumors, but do not believe in the words of professional doctors.
Nowadays, when doctors are dealing with depressed patients, what they are doing is not so much advanced medical work as correcting patients’ and families’ basic medical knowledge mixed with a lot of specious errors. Because if not corrected, the patient will have all kinds of problems. For example, if a patient stops taking his medication after 2 weeks, he tells the doctor at his follow-up appointment a month later that he looked up Baidu and thought he was very suspicious and possibly schizophrenic, and that the doctor was wrong in his diagnosis, so he stopped taking his medication, and his condition worsened. It is not recommended that patients follow the “doctor who is a doctor” to treat themselves. If you have doubts, you must consult a professional doctor, otherwise it is easy to take a detour or take the wrong path.
3.Scientific assessment, objective analysis, and cooperation with treatment are recommended.
What to do after depression? Since everyone’s situation is different, there is no one-size-fits-all approach, it must be a specific analysis of each case, according to different conditions, to develop different treatment plans.
Usually, you can go to a regular psychological specialized institution to have a standardized assessment of your psychological condition first and follow the advice of a professional doctor or psychologist to make targeted treatment choices. The doctor may tell you some psychological methods to adapt, or suggest medication, or medication combined with psychological counseling.
”Both psychologists and psychiatrists follow a basic pattern: assess-treat, re-assess-treat again. As the condition and symptoms are repeatedly assessed, treatment plans are constantly adjusted on a case-by-case basis.”
Two common assessment tools used by physicians are in-person assessments and psychological testing. “Standardized scientific assessment is the basis for ensuring effective treatment, so patients should remain objective in their approach to depression treatment, rather than hearsay or following their own feelings.” For example, due to lethargy and lack of interest, depressed patients are prone to be alone and move less. After the doctor’s assessment, he thinks that being alone will aggravate depression and proposes to increase outdoor activities, then the patient should not act according to his own feeling, but go out for a walk or climb a mountain according to the doctor’s order, and once he really goes for it, he will find that his state becomes better instead of feeling more fatigued.
4.Deep psychological adjustment, learn to accept and keep positive thoughts for a long time
Depression is not enough to rely on medication alone, but requires lasting and deep psychological adjustment, especially to understand and learn ways to promote and maintain mental health, learn to reduce stress and develop a healthy lifestyle.
In fact, all of us have, or have had, ways to promote and maintain mental health. For example, children between the ages of four or five and eleven or twelve are very happy most of the time, and even if they have just been criticized, they will soon be happily engaged in play. Children approach their surroundings and things differently than most adults. For example, adults may find it meaningless to look at an ant’s nest, but children can be excited to play for half a day. In the process, the child is not doing anything but observing, exploring and understanding the world without any experience, so he does not judge and has no purpose, but simply immerses himself in it and accepts the existence of what he observes. It is precisely this approach that fills the children with joy.
Observation, experience, acceptance, these are actually the ways of taking pleasure that people are born with; but as they grow up, they begin to accumulate various experiences, have more and more criteria, and begin to learn another way in order to survive – to do things according to the experience they have acquired, with purpose, to study well, to be a successful person, to work decently, etc. People are increasingly looking for results, and the process of achieving goals is rather less important. While such an approach promotes favorable personal survival, it also generates stress, and if all aspects of life are conducted in such a way, one can imagine the pressure one has to face. Therefore, modern people always complain that life is too stressful because they not only pursue certain goals at work, but also unconsciously set such and such goals and requirements for themselves and their families in their family life according to their own experience, such as thinking that their wives are lazy and do not clean, their sons are disobedient, and they are not successful enough compared to their classmates. In this way, it also determines that there will not be much happiness in life, and over time, there will be less and less happiness, and the higher the pressure base, which eventually affects the emotions and problems.
Even so, people are still consciously and unconsciously trying to be happy. For example, when tasting food and enjoying the taste on the tongue, or when traveling and lingering over beautiful or unattractive scenery, people are taking pleasure in almost exactly the same way as children: experiencing and experiencing without a destination, observing and accepting without judgment. Once this approach is broken down, such as when you think of the fat that makes you fat when you enjoy a meal, or when the piles of trash along the street make you feel that the tickets to the attraction are not worth it, the joy is bound to slip away.
The method described above is “positive thinking”: letting go of personal standards, observing and experiencing the here and now, focusing on the present moment, and accepting the now. This is both a psychotherapeutic technique and a method of personal psychological maintenance and depression prevention, and can be found in many fitness and mindfulness activities such as Buddhist meditation, Western meditation, yoga and Tai Chi.
Observe and experience the here and now, focus on the present moment, let go of the ego, and accept the present. When you are constantly aware of, and try to be present in your life in this way, you will find that life is full of joy everywhere, and will depression ever come back?