Depression

Depression is a mood disorder that can have a devastating effect on every aspect of your life. Far more than just a spell of feeling miserable or sorry for yourself, depression is a serious mental health condition that can drain every drop of joy from your life and leave you in a state of utter despair.

Everyone feels down now and again as a normal part of life. When things aren’t going your way, you might have a day of feeling blue. If you experience a more serious life event like a relationship breakup or bereavement, feeling depressed and emotional for several weeks or months is also perfectly normal.

Grieving can take time, but you should go through a process that sees you recover and carry on with your life. If you have depression, not only does the misery never leave you, it continues to worsen. People who have major depressive disorder often struggle to function normally, finding it impossible to even get out of bed.

There are numerous potential symptoms of depression. Those that tend to be most common are the negative emotions and feelings, which could include:

• Sadness
• Worthlessness
• Hopelessness
• Self-loathing
• Guilt

These feelings persist despite there being no basis for them in reality. You might also experience symptoms that affect you physically. You might want to sleep more or turn to food as a source of comfort. On the other hand, you might find it hard to sleep or lose your interest in food.

Other symptoms of depression include:

• Falling energy levels
• Feeling tired all the time
• No interest in normal activities
• Loss of libido
• Difficulty thinking clearly
• Problems concentrating
• Impaired memory

People who have depression often suffer from anxiety, as well. The causes might be related, or one might develop as a result of the other. In any case, it’s important that these separate conditions are diagnosed and treated in their own right.

The earlier you get treatment for depression, the sooner you’re likely to recover. If your depression is still fairly mild, you might only need a course of expert psychotherapy at Nashville Brain Institute.

However, if your depression is more severe, or you have anxiety as well, medications can be a great help. Antidepressants come in several different forms. SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are the drugs most commonly prescribed as they achieve excellent results for many patients.

If they don’t work for you, there are other choices, such as tricyclics and MAOIs (monoamine oxidase inhibitors). If you have anxiety problems, SNRIs (selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors) might be helpful.

It can take time for these drugs to start working, and you may not find the most effective treatment at your first try. However, it’s worth persisting. The team at Nashville Brain Institute can also use pharmacogenomic testing, which identifies genes that could affect the way you respond to certain drugs. This can help in selecting the best treatment for you.

Other treatments available at Nashville Brain Institute include:

• Biofeedback
• Neurofeedback
• ​Herbal medicines
• ​Nutritional therapy
• ​Acupuncture

These treatments can improve your overall health as well as helping with depression, and form an essential aspect of Nashville Brain Institute’s holistic approach to patient care.

The team also offers advanced treatments such as esketamine therapy (Spravato™) and TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation), which are particularly helpful for treatment-resistant depression.

Find a way out of the torture of depression with help from the team at Nashville Brain Institute. Call today to schedule a consultation or book an appointment online.