Understanding Clinical Depression Treatment and the Best Options for Recovery
Accepting when someone needs clinical treatment for depression can mean the difference between life and death. Major depression is a serious mental health condition, and treatment can help restore one’s connections to life, to themselves, and to others. In an understanding community environment, clients learn to manage their depression for long-term recovery success.
While we wouldn’t question the severity of a terrible wound in need of immediate medical attention, it can be easier to question the severity of a mental health condition that is invisible to the naked eye. But the potential consequences of untreated severe depression can be devastating—and yet, they are also entirely preventable.
Greg lost a brother to depression and suicide years ago. Because psychological conditions had been stigmatized in their family, his brother had a difficult time accepting the need and knowing just how to reach out for help. But following his loss, Greg attended grief support groups and learned a lot more about how major depression and other severe mental health disorders can take a toll stronger than we can handle on our own sometimes. Now that he is experiencing lasting depression himself that is making it difficult to navigate daily life, his marriage, fatherhood, and work, he has a new perspective on his opportunities for recovery. Clinical depression treatment may seem too hard, too heavy, too much, but it is often the key to opening the door back to oneself and one’s life. The depression itself is hard and heavy, but you don’t need to suffer alone; help is ready and waiting.
When Does Someone Need Clinical Treatment for Depression?
Where is the line between depression that touches us for a while and responds to time and self-care, and depression that is severe enough to warrant clinical treatment? This line is not measurable by blood tests or other visual inspections, but major depression deserves to be treated with as much attention and care as other serious conditions and disorders. When you or a loved one is at risk of severe depression complications, it is important to err on the side of caution and take very seriously the signs that depression is significant enough to have lasting and devastating consequences:
- Trouble sleeping at night or the inability to get up in the morning and out of bed.
- Loss of interest and willingness to participate in activities once enjoyed, often including sex.
- Diminished appetite.
- Diminished concentration.
- Diminished energy.
- General slowing down, physically and mentally.
- Irritability, impatience, and/or anger.
- Greater interest in dark things and subjects.
- Unusual risk-taking behavior that puts oneself in danger.
- Withdrawal and other isolating behavior.
- Inexplicable increase of energy after a lull—which can happen once someone has decided to end their life.
- Thoughts of death and suicide.
- Self-injury to inflict pain.
- Greater substance use for self-medication.
- Paranoia about bad things that could happen.
- A break from reality as severe depression can lead to psychosis with hallucinations and delusions.
The best way to determine whether someone might need clinical treatment for depression is not to gauge the severity based on expectations or any external views of what major depression is—but, rather, to gauge the individual’s present condition based on how they have been during a healthier time in the past. Someone with severe depression will not necessarily exhibit all of the signs in this list, so don’t dismiss their distress because they are experiencing only one or two symptoms of depression. If their life has deteriorated in the face of this depressive pressure, they need help to recover their life and their vibrancy once again.
Begin Your Recovery Journey Today.
619-466-0547What to Expect from Major Depression Treatment
Clinical depression treatment is an interactive process of developing the physical, mental, and spiritual strength to manage the condition into the future. It is an empowering experience of medical and psychological recovery methods while in a supportive and compassionate community. Long-term residential treatment for depression allows someone to take a step away from some of the stress of everyday life and to put one’s health and well-being in the foreground.
Major depression is typically treated with psychotherapy and medication together. The medication is an important support system for the body to recover its chemical balance, and in the treatment setting, clinicians are able to work closely with clients to find the optimal medication options and dosages. In addition, cognitive behavioral therapy is a common method for successful treatment of major depression. This introspective form of therapy helps clients to identify the stressors in their life that are challenging, to discover strategies for managing their reactions and moods, to rebuild their self-confidence, and to strengthen relationships and other important areas of everyday life.
Treatment is further enhanced by an environment of peer and community support. In this setting, clients feel a sense of belonging as they can relate to others also navigating their recovery journeys, and others can understand and relate to them. The recovery community becomes almost like a family, but client’s families take part in the journey as well. Especially in the interest of long-term success, it’s important that family members know how to be supportive and manage their own part in a loved one’s recovery process. Together, we transform the isolation of depression into connections inside and out.
Life in Recovery Following Clinical Depression Treatment
From this place of heavy sadness and perhaps hopelessness, it’s difficult to imagine a time following treatment when one is integrating recovery strategies into a life that is refreshed and renewed. But that future is on the horizon, and hope is alive in the treatment setting for depression rehab. It makes sense to feel disempowered when life feels unmanageable and even your own emotions seem to be working against you. But clinicians and therapists see your condition differently: they know that there are ways to manage these experiences of depression and they know how to guide and empower you in that direction.
Treatment is not just about addressing what’s happening in the moment; it’s also about building the future from this empowered place and perspective. It’s about reimagining your relationship to experiences in a way that supports the life you really want. This is the kind of task that often calls for help from knowledgeable and supportive individuals—and it’s a journey made better by the community involvement and the lasting support system that results.
If you’re concerned about a loved one and believe they may need residential care, we can help. BrightQuest offers long-term treatment for people struggling with complex mental health illnesses and co-occurring disorders. Contact us to learn more about our renowned program and how we can help you or your loved one start the journey toward recovery.
