Therapies for depression
Over the past few years I’ve tried various different therapies for depression. Here are my experiences:
Family doctor – My family doctor never thought there was anything wrong with me. I had to try repeatedly to get a referral to see a therapist/psychiatrist. He kept saying “don’t worry, it’s just stress! Everyone has stress these days, it’s no big deal!” 
Psychiatrists – I saw a few different ones. Few of them saw nothing wrong with me as I seemed to be knowledgeable about what might be causing me stress and what I could about it. They said “you know what to do, you don’t need anything, and you’ll be fine!” While one suggested I could try to go on medication which I refused at that time.
Talk therapy – Quite effective. I worked with a good therapist and she knew just the right questions to ask me to make me think deeper about my issues. By just talking with someone who’s not going to judge can be very comforting in itself.
Only thing is that it can easily make you dependent. Plus those were one hour sessions and she would always be looking at her watch to keep track of time so I never really felt comfortable opening up as I would always be thinking of trying to summarize every thing so it could fit in that one hour session.
Eft – I mentioned in a previous article about how I cured my lower back pain using EFT. After that I worked with an EFT practitioner for some time to resolve a lot of deeper issues. Even though she thought everything was ok, working with her actually did not help directly. She was very good practitioner and a good person but I think the problem arose because she tried to use techniques of EFT without really taking into account my background.
After we had stopped the sessions I continued with EFT for another six months at least and for 1-2 hours every single day so I got quite knowledgeable in applying EFT. Every time something negative happened in my life, I would just apply EFT and get rid of the negative association to that event. This enabled me to look objectively at the situation and thus learn from it but overall it did not help me resolve deeper issues.
I eventually stopped using it so much when I started using NLP.
NLP – I worked with a highly qualified NLP practitioner. He was highly recommended and had done a lot of good in the community using NLP. He had helped a lot of people deal with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and not to mention a whole lot of other disorders and phobias very successfully.
We went through really extensive NLP sessions. He assured me that I did not need to remember specific events in order to deal with them with NLP. Interesting thing is that nothing worked. We went through a lot of issues, with many different NLP techniques, but not a single one of them went away. So, that was kind of disappointing.
Thus, I found both NLP and EFT to be very good at dissolving negative feelings if I could remember specific events. They’re both relatively easy to learn and use. They’re also very good at curing phobias as you know specifically what it is that’s causing you discomfort.
On the same note, I have found that unless you can get to the core issues, it’s very hard to totally resolve an issue with them.
With EFT, the set up phrases and phrases that are recommended to be used while tapping may not work for everyone either. Problem is similar to problems with using affirmations, as I mentioned in my previous article.
So, there you have it. Please keep in mind that every single one of these therapies has actually helped a lot of people. Just because I didn’t find help using them doesn’t mean they don’t work.
This is just my experience and they did not help me. Also, I could have tried going to different people with in the same field but I was fed up with it all.
Still, I actually learned a lot about myself, from each of these different forms of therapies, so these experiences were not totally wasted.
Related posts:
- What is the cause of depression?
- It’s tough to write while depressed
- Negative Feelings associated with debt
- Why do I feel tired all the time?
- Changing my emotional state
- 25 ways to feel good right now!
- How I got relief from severe back pain in 30 seconds
- How much time does your job take daily?
- Subliminal tapes and audio affirmations
- Debt: How do you feel about debt?
August 11th, 2009 at 7:43 am
An interesting blog. I was particularly interested in the ‘talking’ aspect.
I did some research a few years back with a view to becoming a counsellor. As part of this I was lucky enough to have a meeting with the head of counselling of Cambridge University. He had counselled all sorts of extreme cases – for example, he had persuaded psychopaths to open up (a very frightening experience by all accounts).
He told me that counselling works with many disorders, including depression. BUT there are good counsellors and bad counsellors. To be a good counsellor you have to study constantly to keep up with case studies and developments.
It is unfortunate but it is difficult to know how good the practioner is in many of these arts until you see them – and pay. So it is difficult to say if any of these work on the basis of one visit.
The answer? Well, it’s not easy but I guess, like with many things, recommendation from a former patient is hard to beat.
The sad thing is, therefore, it is a bit of a lottery whether the method works or not unless you talk to others in the same boat and who have recovered.
August 11th, 2009 at 9:07 am
That’s true. Just like any field, you have good and bad people. I went to a few different psychiatrists but only went to one therapist. But I was going to her for quite some time before I decided to stop it. I also know of others who’ve actually received great benefit from their counsellors. But those counsellors were not in my neighbourhood.
It’s very possible if I was to meet a different counsellor things might have been different.
August 11th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Hi, Ricky — you might want to pick up a copy of “Unstuck” by James Gordon — it’s a wonderful book about overcoming depression without the use of drugs. It helped me — much more than therapy ever did!
The most important thing, I think, in overcoming depression is to take 100% responsibility for feeling good. No one and no thing is going to *make* you feel better; you are in charge of your own state. It may feel really difficult to take that on when you’re feeling lousy, but making a commitment to moving to a perspective of being at cause in your own good feelings is the difference that makes the difference.
August 11th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Thanks Angela. I’ll check that out. It’s great to hear your views as seems like you’ve gone through depression as well and succeeded!
I’ve been having to do a lot of that lately. For no reason I’ve been feeling down. So, I’ve been finding ways to make myself feel better deliberately. You’re right. It’s about taking responsibility about my feelings and consciously finding ways to feel good.