Depression: can a psychologist or psychotherapist help?

Choosing a specialist can create additional stress and only worsen your condition. Depression is a state in which there is little energy; any expenditure of energy only aggravates the depressive state.

To begin with, to understand which specialist is best suited if you you need to understand how bad you feel about depression.
People like to self-diagnose themselves without fully understanding what real depression looks like.

When a person experiences failure or a bad mood, the word “depression” often comes to mind. For most people, depression actually occurs in a mild form and can be hidden behind hormonal imbalance or exhaustion.
And sometimes this insidious disease takes on life-threatening forms.

According to severity, depression can be::

1. Mild (small) – minor changes in mood. Does not require drug treatment and is easily treated with talk therapy.
2. Medium - characterized by the influence of the emotional state on sleep and appetite. It is already more difficult to treat, you may need antidepressants
3. Severe (major) - the most dangerous, a complex of psycholic and physiological symptoms. You can't do this without antidepressants. Most likely you will even have to go to the hospital. Will require long-term treatment.

In any case, if you are already thinking about which specialist to contact and can’t cope on your own, you definitely need help.

Seeking help for depression is quite common request. The sooner you start solving this problem, the better. An advanced depressive state is treated extremely poorly.

So who do you need? Psychologist, psychotherapist or psychiatrist?

Depending on the severity of your depression, different specialists will be able to help you.

Psychologists, including clinical ones, help with mild conditions.  Contrary to popular belief, psychologists do not give advice on what to do, but help to understand problems using psychodiagnostics and certain techniques, and gain new communication experience. They will get rid of installations and blocks that do not allow development. Offer possible solutions. The client himself decides which option to use or not to use at all.

When you can express your thoughts and feelings during the consultation. They will help redirect negative thoughts into a positive direction. They can work both online and in person, but cannot make diagnoses and prescribe pills.  What they will definitely be able to do is test you and determine the severity of your symptoms. Whether you need to see a psychiatrist or not.

Psychotherapists can work with more complex, borderline conditions. When a person cannot go to work due to his condition. (Sometimes psychotherapists have medical training, in which case they can prescribe medications).  They mainly provide emotional support and train the brain, teaching the client to healthy behaviors. You will learn to manage your unhealthy reactions, overcome anxious thoughts, insomnia.

As a result, your attitude towards yourself changes, you will stop tormenting yourself and will find strength in what caused depression. The psychotherapist helps to recognize the approach of depression so that there is no relapse.

Psychotherapists can also work online and in person when treating depression.

Psychiatristsalso treat depression, but in advanced cases (moderate and severe forms), when talking psychotherapy and work with a psychologist no longer help, the person has not gone to work for a long time and cannot force himself to do anything. These are approximately 25% of the total number of clients with depression. A psychiatrist is a doctor who can make diagnoses and prescribe medications. That is, the psychiatrist treats mainly with medication, sometimes with the help of physiotherapy. As a rule, psychiatrists work face-to-face.
Sometimes psychiatrists work in tandem with a psychologist or psychotherapist. Psychiatrists select antidepressants (sometimes even a good psychiatrist can try up to 5 types before he chooses yours), track the dynamics of improvements, and a psychotherapist, in parallel with drug treatment, helps with talk therapy.

You should forget about online consultations with a psychiatrist. , most likely you will need to stay in a hospital. Heart-to-heart conversations and help to understand problems are not the specialty of a psychiatrist.  He treats c with tablets: tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, nootropics, dual-action antidepressants. Sometimes electroconvulsive therapy, insulin and suggestive therapy are used.
You cannot prescribe the right antidepressants for yourself - since the effect can be exactly the opposite of what you want. usually have many side effects, and if there is an error in dosage, there may be unnecessary complications. Treatment usually lasts several months.

Neurologists can also diagnose and treat depression, but only those that accompany neurological diseases (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, vascular dementia, condition after a stroke, etc.). But neurologists do not treat severe (major) depression, only psychiatrists do this. Neurologists usually prescribe treatment in the form of antidepressants.

Depression is the scourge of our time. Every year in the European Union, expenses related to the treatment of depression amount to 600,000,000 euros. In both Ukraine and Russia, the statistics of depression are growing. In general, more than a third of the world's population suffers from some form of depression.
Therefore, it is important to engage in early prevention. A bad mood is not depression.

Types of depression

Depression is divided into several types.

• Somatogenic depression - when the cause of depression is a somatic disease (for example, associated with the thyroid gland). It goes away as soon as the disease that caused it goes away. Therefore, to rule out this cause, it’s a good idea to see a therapist.
• Endogenous depression has nothing to do with external circumstances. As a rule, a person himself cannot understand the type of depression and tries to explain his condition to himself.  This depression is based on genetic metabolic disorders in the brain, which are responsible for mood and mental activity. And in this case, neither a psychologist nor a psychotherapist will help - only a psychiatrist is needed. Since it is necessary to restore the chemistry of processes in the body, the balance of substances and the failure in their regulation. She is being treated with antidepressants. May be a manifestation of schizophrenia or manic-depressive psychosis - serious mental problems.
• Exogenous (psychogenic) depressiondepends on external circumstances. If these circumstances go away, the depression will go away too. And even if the circumstances have not gone away, you can change your attitude towards them.  It can be reactive (related to stress) and neurotic (related to personal characteristics).  Neuroticism occurs due to prolonged stress (troubles at home, at work, moving, etc.). As a rule, this shape insecure and indecisive people suffer.
May be lethargy, insomnia, headaches , decreased mood, decreased interest in life. Reactive occurs as a result of acute trauma (death, loss of a loved one, dismissal, etc.). It affects emotional and sensitive people. Characterized by lethargy, weakness, negative perception of life, irritability. This type of depression can be treated by psychotherapists.
• Masked (hidden or erased) depression – when there is some pain without a real reason. Without proper diagnosis, doctors can begin to treat a non-existent disease, but the pain does not go away, but only increases. In this case, the patient may not have a decrease in mood, pace of thinking, motor activity, but only sleep disturbance or lack of appetite.

It is correct to make a diagnosis and determine the type depression can only be achieved by a psychiatrist.  Remember that any disease is treated faster in the early stages. You will not be a “crazy person” if you go to a psychotherapist or psychiatrist for a consultation.

Typical symptoms of depression

• Lack of joy
• The perception of the world is distorted, it becomes gray, faded
• It is difficult to maintain communication with friends and family,
• Strength melts, weakness
• Movements and thought processes are inhibited.
• At the same time, a depressed person experiences an acute feeling of guilt due to his inaction.
• Negative, sad, joyless thoughts
• Feelings of guilt
• The desire to live decreases.
• State of anxiety
• Irritability
• Insomnia
• Lack of appetite
• Lack of sexual interest
• Low self-esteem
• Withdrawal
• Outbursts of anger
• Craving for drinking alcohol

If you observe one or more signs for more than two weeks, and even more so if you have been observing them all your life, this is a serious reason to go to see a psychotherapist. If you constantly fall back into your “bad” state after training, then that’s whyone can also be depressed. Depression, like any disease, is easier to treat in the early stages. Prolonged depression can cause complications in the heart and other organs. In any case, you should not diagnose yourself yourself; turn to friends and relatives instead of doctors and psychotherapists.

As an alternative to my list, you can use the scale Zanga. There are free tests with the Zanga scale on the Internet. If the test shows that you are depressed  -  this will be an additional reason to contact a specialist so that he can confirm or refute your assumption. You yourself won’t be able to diagnose yourself correctly even with the help of a test; psychiatrists have been studying this for more than 10 years. 

I hope this article helped you understand which specialists work with which stage of depression.

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