Causes of more effective depression and treatments

Content

• What are the main causes of depression?
• What to do to get out of depression?
• What psychotherapy is more effective?
  • Behavioral activation
  • Treatment of depression with cognitive therapy
• Is it possible to cure depression without medications?

What are the main causes of depression?

It is not possible to describe a precise etiology of the disorder. The most accredited hypothesis is that the individual would develop the depressive episode for the presence of a series of Vulnerabilities:

• Genetics: which refers to the genetic composition present in the individual.
• Biological: given by the presence of certain neurotransmitters in specific areas of the brain;
• Psychological: that is, the way of thinking and reacting to the events of life;
• Social: The presence of healthy and functional relationships.

In other words, we can say that depression develops in genetically predisposed people and who are exposed to environments that accentuate their vulnerability.

What to do to get out of depression?

First, it is necessary to realize that the depressed individual has developed A clinically significant picture, And this can be seen because the person usually retracts socially, decreases activities during the week or even the day, eats less, sleeps a lot and has a thought that is prone to rumination; You can also notice frequent crying attacks and references to "overcome it at once" or failure thoughts.

In Most cases the beginning of the depressive episode coincides with a trigger As, for example, the loss of work, retirement, entrance to the university, the change of school, the transfer of city/town town, the loss of a loved one, the end of a relationship, etc.

If you notice the symptoms described above or, in any case, a change in daily functioning compared to an earlier period, it is best to contact a psychotherapist, a psychiatrist or your head doctor.

Clinophilia: When the bed looks like a safe place

Here are some suggestions that people generally find very useful and decisive:

1. Healthy nutrition. Following a healthy diet is the basis of general well -being. Specifically for depression, you must complement your diet with foods that increase serotonin, such as bitter chocolate, omega-3 fish and eggs.
2. Sleep regularization. Avoid sleeping more than 8 hours a day. Depression generally brings incapacitation, insomnia, drowsiness and feeling of fatigue and tiredness. But Sleeping a lot reinforces depression.
3. Avoid daytacks to sleep better at night: It will have a homeostatic impulse to sleep that will make him sleep well at night. Remember that sleep efficiency decreases the longer you stay in bed before falling asleep and waking up.
4. Non -catastrophic thought. When you are depressed you have a tendency to amplify your feelings and experiences related to external events, and be "catastrophic" reinforces depression. You don't have to be optimistic, but realistic. Realistic does not mean that you are a failure or that the events that lead to negative consequences are related to you somehow, otherwise you make a cognitive error called "personalization".
5. Avoid ruminations. A peculiar symptom of depression is rumination. Most people ruminate because they have the belief that this mental operation can be a problem solving strategy, or that through it they can improve or even that it can be a tool not to "feel" emotions.
6. Assessment of positive facts and their own qualities. Another way to change the course is to take note and write all positive events during the week. Some therapists prescribe the so-called “positive newspaper”, and you can also write your qualities in a post-it using the pronoun me (for example: I am available, I am good, etc.); You can also write what you are able to do (for example: I can dance, I am painting, etc.).
7. Be kind to yourself / have compassion for yourself. Do not punish yourself, do not judge yourself and do not criticize yourself for being depressed. Tract with kindness, as you would with a loved one; Let yourself feel bad and listen to your suffering and pain and make sense.
8. Live the present. The majority of our disturbing emotions derive from the fact that we focus our attention on thoughts that do not belong to the sphere of the present, but to that of the past and the future. Living in the present means listening to your body and focusing on the activities you are experiencing at that time.
9. Cultivate social relations. Social relations are a protective factor for vulnerable people to develop depression. Do not stop seeing and listening to your friends and family, and remember to be assertive, that is, express your opinions, your emotions and your needs without stepping on others but not even yourself.
10. Regularity of activities. Choose 1 or 2 useful and/or pleasant activities to do per day and strive to complete them and repeat them in the following days. At first it will be very tired of apathy and anhedonia, but you will see that the utility and pleasure of performing the activity is in itself a positive reinforcement; And the feeling of domain when doing that activity will bring you an increase in self -esteem.

What psychotherapy is more effective?

According to the website of Division 12 of the APA, and the NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health), the treatments that have received a classification with strong empirical evidence of scientific research are: cognitive therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy.

In any case, cognitive-behavioral therapy represents the therapeutic path that offers a greater integration of evidence-based therapeutic techniques that combine behavioral activation with the change in dysfunctional beliefs and thoughts.

Next we will briefly illustrate both approaches.

Behavioral activation

It is choice therapy for depressive disorders and It is based on the reactivation of behavioral activities of the person who, during the depression period, is deactivated, Inhibiting behaviors, withdrawing socially, recruiting themselves and stopping the previous actions, and not performing the pleasant and useful activities carried out by Anhedonia and Apathy (Lewinsohn, Schaffer, 1971; Ferster, 1973).

It is based on the principle of reinforcement (Skinner, 1953). The depressed person stopping doing activities also stops self -reforting and, therefore, of enjoying doing the activities. By not gathering any reinforcement, The person is not motivated to continue his life because he cannot enjoy it and see its meaning.

Therefore, Behavioral activation aims to plan activities During the week that the subject considers useful and pleasant and that they can lead him to feel a sense of dominion of the activity itself and, therefore, to increase his self -esteem. These two very important components strengthen the person pushing them to repeat the same activity.

Bases and foundations of behavioral therapy for mental health

How do you find useful and pleasant activities? In most cases, people find pleasure in carrying out the activities they carried out before the depressive period or in a particularly productive and positive period of life. However, in the most serious cases, the person may not be able to find pleasure in the activities he previously carried out, so the subject is invited to experience what could be in his chords according to the knowledge of his own personality.

How long does it take to obtain results? This question depends on the level of severity of depression and even more on the patient's commitment and motivation. It is not possible to go back to an approximate moment. The subject should not expect immediate results, because he will see them in the medium and long term. Behavior activation requires that you get involved every day several times a day for a long time. In cases of severe depression, the parallel use of pharmacotherapy is recommended to strengthen serotonergic and noradrenergic systems.

What activities should we leave? In cases of depression it is very easy to find general deactivation in several areas of life: family, work, friends, hobbies and passions, sport. Behavioral activation should aim to gradually restore all these activities according to the values ​​and objectives of the person. If the goal is too large, it must be divided into small attainable goals, otherwise, it is frustrating.

Treatment of depression with cognitive therapy

This psychotherapy (Beck et al., 1979) integrates the behavioral part of activation and intends to help the subject to have a more functional and adaptive way of thinking.

The objective of cognitive therapy is to restructure thoughts about oneself, the world and the future that are strongly influenced by the beliefs themselves about failure and lack of internal resources to deal with stressful situations.

It is very important that Cognitive therapy makes the patient aware of his internal depressive dialogue (negative automatic thoughts). The typology of automatic thoughts reveals how the person activates their cognitive distortions (Beck, 1976) such as generalization, dichotomous thinking (black or white, all or inside), idealization and devaluation, but also many others. Such cognitive distortions derive from the basic beliefs of the patient, called in other patterns, formed throughout the history of the person.

Scientific research report how the union of these two forms of psychotherapy is able to strongly prevent possible depressive relapses in the future.

It should be noted that in certain situations it is useful, in addition to cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, to pharmacotherapy as a crutch at least during the first period, so that the subject is helped to produce those neurotransmitters involved in the Restoration of psychophysical balance.

What is and what consists cognitive therapy (Trec and based on science)

Is it possible to cure depression without medications?

Yes in cases of mild depression; In the rest of the cases it is advisable. In cases of severe / severe depression it is useful to use a dopaminergic combined with an antipsychotic Because due to the strong rumination the subject is particularly obsessive in addition to deactivated.

Cases have been informed in which drugs had the same effectiveness as placebo therapy or cases in which the symptoms were resolved after 6 months without the use of psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy.

Anyway, in most cases, as already mentioned, behavioral cognitive therapy is combined with a simple serotonergic antidepressant.