Does Depression Ever Go Away? (A Comprehensive Guide)
Depression is a psychological disorder in which a person might lose interest in any physical activity.
Depression puts a negative effect on your mental health, the way you think, feel, or act all are affected.
It also affects your routine mood and ability to play your role in-home or at the workplace.
Depression makes a person less active and he might not show any interest in any activities.
People in depression feel sad and emotional most of the time. In this article we will discuss, does depression ever goes away.
15 adults (6.7%) are estimated to be in depression in any given year. And one in six people (16.6%) can face depression later in their life.
Depression can affect a person at any age but mostly it hits in late teenage. The ratio of women to face depression is more than men.
When a feeling of depression is out of control one cannot help stop feeling depressed.
If depression is not treated it can go long for days to weeks and weeks to months.
Depression must be treated, and the treatment depends on the type and reason for depression.
In this article we will try to answer a question: does depression ever go away?
Symptoms of depression: (does depression ever go away)
The symptoms of depression are different for different ages of groups.
These are different for young children, teens, and adults.
There is a list of some emotional and physical symptoms of depression.
One can have only emotional or physical symptoms but some can have both of these symptoms.
The list of symptoms is given below:
Emotional symptoms:
Some of the emotional symptoms of depression are as follow:
- You feel like crying without any reason to cry.
- You start to feel as if you are worthless and feel guilty over the things you were not even wrong about.
- While having emotional symptoms you can easily feel sad and you also get annoyed very easily and everything around you makes you feel irritated.
- There is a feeling of hopelessness and sadness and sometimes you as if your feelings are numbed.
- While having emotional symptoms you lose interest in everything even if those things used to excite you before that. You also start to lose interest in intimate relationships or sex.
- Having thoughts about your own death and thoughts about committing suicide.
Physical symptoms:
Some of the physical symptoms of depression are as follow:
- When you are facing physical symptoms of depression there is a clear change in your appetite, you will start to eat less or you will start to eat more.
- A person might feel exhausted and tired all the time.
- You will start to have different aches in your body which do not get better even if you are getting treatment for those pains.
- You start to have trouble remembering things.
- It becomes difficult for you to recall things.
- You will face difficulty in concentrating.
- Decision making will become hard for you.
- Your digestive system will be disturbed.
- You can have headaches and backaches most of the time.
- Your sleeping pattern will also change you will be sleeping too much, or you will have trouble sleeping.
- Depression causes weight loss and weight gain without any effort included in it.
What causes depression?
Before discussing, does depression ever go away easily or not, we shall discuss causes if depression.
Depression can be caused by one or more factors.
Different factors might include genetic factors, biological factors, environmental factors, and psychological factors which can result in severe or mild depression.
Depression can also be caused by an imbalance in the chemicals in the brain.
Sometimes there are not enough neurotransmitters in the brain to make the process even in the body.
Neurotransmitters that affect your mood are serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine.
A chemical imbalance in the brain can be caused through one or more of the following given below:
Your genes:
Depression is hereditary in some cases which means it runs through generation to generation.
If depression runs in the family there are more chances that you can also have depression especially when your parents or any of the siblings are having depression.
A medical condition:
Problems with your thyroid or nutrient deficiencies can increase the risk of having depression or might even push you on the path of having depression with mild cases.
Events in your life:
Some stressful events of life that include the death of someone you love, a divorce, chronic illness, or loss of a job can trigger the problem of depression.
Medicines, drugs, or alcohol:
Having a drug history, excessive use of alcohol can cause depression.
There are certain medications used in the nay treatment process containing certain chemicals which can also cause depression.
How is depression diagnosed?
Before discussing, does depression ever go away easily or not, we will discuss how it is diagnosed.
After reading the above-mentioned symptoms you should see a doctor who might help you in this situation.
You should tell all the symptoms to your doctor instead of letting him guess that you are depressed by merely just looking at your face.
When you are depressed there might be a feeling that no one can help you or the feelings you are having cannot be dealt with by the doctor.
You can also feel tired enough to go to a doctor and seek help but these are just other feelings and thoughts of depression.
You should not wait for it to get worse day by day and seek help through any experienced therapist.
When you go to the doctor he might ask you questions about many things, it can be related to your family, health, routine, your problems, and the symptoms you often feel.
The doctor may give you some physical tests also. You should also inform your doctor about any surgeries or medicine you have been taking.
Does Depression Ever Go Away: Reasons to get help early:
- Early diagnosis and treatment can help a person to prevent depression and keep it away; it also helps in preventing it from happening later in life. A famous rapper of UK, Stormzy talked about his depression to encourage people to get it treated as early as possible.
- Depression can affect you and your lifestyle but treatment can help you bring back the enjoyment in your life.
- It can also happen that you feel depressed for a specific period of time and it may go away but the treatment can prevent the depression to come back.
- When a person is experiencing depression it is more likely to have suicidal thoughts. But an early and regular treatment of depression can take away the risk of attempting suicide in person.
Does Depression Ever Go Away?
Depression cannot be excluded from a person’s life or it cannot be fully prevented but with the help of treatment or therapies we can minimize the effects and of depression.
The answer to this question (Does Depression ever Go Away) is yes by seeking proper treatment.
Depression treatment (Does Depression ever Go Away):
Depression can be treated like other mental illnesses can be treated.
Depression can be treated through medicines and counseling.
It can also be prevented if one tries to change their lifestyle for example; the can change their diet; they can add up some more exercise if they do exercise already.
Reducing or leaving the habit of alcohol less use of drugs can also help in reducing symptoms of depression.
Does Depression Ever Go Away: Medicine
When you want to treat your depression with the help of doctors they may prescribe you some medicines which are known as antidepressants.
They help increase the number of chemical messengers such as serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine in your brain which helps in reducing stress.
Antidepressants have different side effects also and it works differently for different age groups.
It is possible that if the medicines you are taking one of the helpings you to cure depression and the other one is causing some side effects.
It is also possible that you may see results within a week and it is also that you don’t see any improvement in 12 weeks.
Some medicines take time and some might cause side effects d first and then cause improvement but do not stop taking your medicine without consulting your doctor.
Does Depression Ever Go Away: Counseling
Counseling is another way to deal with depression. But only counseling might not help to prevent it.
It can help any mild or moderate type of depression. Counseling doesn’t work for major depression.
In order to deal with major depression one must have both medicines and counseling to prevent the depression.
And if they keep doing both for at least a year then there are fewer chances that depression will come back to you again.
In counseling you have to consult a trained therapist and share with them about your symptoms and the things that trigger your depression.
Therapists might ask you a lot of questions to dig in and find the reason for your depression.
His focus could be your past relationships, it could be your behavior.
This is known as psychotherapy and it usually lasts in 8 to 20 visits depending on the condition of depression.
Does Depression Ever Go Away: Dos and don’ts for recovery
Here are some dos and don’ts when you are moving towards your recovery these are given below:
Do:
- Don’t get started too quickly but it is important to pace yourself during your recovery.
- You should engage yourself in some activities in which you feel as if you are mentally and physically occupied and can have a sense of achieving something.
- To get away from depressing situations people often fall for drinking and drug abuse it actually makes the depression even worse. Or if you are taking medicines it will cause dangerous side effects.
- Make a habit to exercise daily as it helps in boosting energy and has a very good effect on your mood.
- Start eating healthy food and avoid all fast and processed food.
- Work on your sleeping routine. Try to get enough sleep and take your nap on the same schedule.
- You have to become serious about your medicines and regular checkups with your doctor.
- If you feel like you don’t have enough energy to do all the exercise and other stuff so you can set yourself for small goals.
- Encourage and motivate yourself.
- Whenever you have suicidal thoughts immediately call your doctor or the local suicide crisis center.
Don’t
Don’t make yourself isolated from the world instead you need to stay in touch with your family friends and doctor too.
Do not let any negative thoughts come into your mind.
Don’t let your mind think that you cannot fight this situation. You will have thoughts as if you will fail.
These thoughts will go away when your depression will go away.
Do not make any important life decisions when you are depressed because at that time you are not thinking clearly which can surely let you make the wrong decision which you will repent later.
Don’t get discouraged, you need to be more patient with yourself to face this situation.
FAQ about Does Depression ever Go Away
Does Depression Ever Go Away?
You can prevent depression through counseling and medicines but there are chances that it can come back later in life.
Does antidepressant have any side effects?
Yes some of them have some side effects.
References:
familydoctor.org: Depression