To those suffering from depression, How often do you meet with your Psychiatrist/Psychologist?

Question

Is your depression mild or severe? How long are your sessions usually with both doctors? How do you deal with the sleep-inducing effect of anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications? What helped you the most besides your medication?

Answer 1

after a while if you are on meds and doing okay you can just see the doctor every 3 months or so for refills. If you are undergoing active counseling it probably needs to be weekly to do any good.
Any longer than that and you lose momentum in the process.

Answer 2

I have bipolar disorder, which mainly manifested as severe depression over the years, although I also have had hypomania and mania. To help with the drowsiness the meds can cause, you can take them at night (if possible) and sleep most of the effects off. I see my psychiatrist about every 3 months for about 15 minutes and a pyschotherapist about every 6 weeks for about an hour.

The meds help me a lot, but I also have learned cognitive behavior. I can recognize when a depressive episode is coming on, and I have a little "bag of tricks" that I use to help me. First, I take an extra Klonopin (which I use as a mood stabilizer and for anxiety; I also take Lexapro) and then I think about when I'm feeling good and try to draw on that feeling. I tell myself that it's not always this bad and that the darkness will subside. I distract myself by working on hobbies or messing around on the computer, or throw myself into my work. It also helps for me to be helpful to other people when I'm depressed. That way I dwell less on myself and my feelings.

Hope this helps some.

Answer 3

G'day :)
I am currently recovering from a four and a half year bout of severe post-natal depression, bordering on psychosis, with an acute anxiety disorder with a tendancy to apocolyptic panic attacks.
I no longer take anti-depressants, as they had no lasting effect and caused other health problems that I'm still trying to sort out now, two years after stopping taking them. Not all anti-depressants make you drowsy, so if this is a problem for you, maybe you should talk to your doctor about changing meds.
I see my fantastic psychologist once a week for an hour, and I love her to pieces. She's very supportive of my use of natural medicine to help myself recover, very open to things she's not heard of, etc, and just a great woman. I really lucked out with her.
At the beginning of my depression they sent me to a psychiatrist, but she was a real waste of space. After giving her about a thousand dollars of my money and receiving no counselling whatsoever (all she did was adjust the dosage of my meds, week after week), I stopped going. She was supposedly one of the best in the business. I beg to differ.

What has helped me most in treating my depression is my kinesiologist. If you don't know what kinesiology is, I don't know how to explain it to you, but it is bloody fantastic! My lady practices the N.I.C.E. technique (neural integration something something). I've been treated using other kinesiology techniques with little effect, but this N.I.C.E. thing has been mind-blowingly successful. Honestly. I went from nearly out of my head insane to pretty much normal in 12 weeks. I still have some residual psychological stuff (mostly childhood things) that I have to work on (hence the psychologist), but the kinesiology has just been brilliant.
Besides the depression, it has completely fixed up my period (which was catastrophic - partly due to hormones, partly a severe iron deficiency, and partly a side-effect of one of the anti-depressants I'd taken), I don't have PMS anymore (used to be homicidal), my digestive system actually works (was completely up the sh*t), she fixed an eye problem I'd not even been aware of but can now tell the difference since the treatment, she realigned my entire skeletal system (stress twists your body), man, the list just goes on and on. She has truly done brilliant work. After every treatment, you just feel so fantastic. Unfortunately she now says I don't need any more work done!!!

There's one other thing I'm doing now, to deal with my own weaknesses, bad habits..... my mental processes. Not sure really how to describe this bit!
Anyway, if you can find the two books I'm about to mention, if you really read them properly (don't worry, they're quite short), they should change your whole life.
They're called: Heal Thyself, and The 12 Healers. Both by a guy called Edward Bach. I cannot recommend them highly enough. They'll change the way you look at yourself, other people, society, health and happiness. Everything. Powerful stuff.

Okay, that's enough, lol. Best of luck to you!

Answer 4

I actually have bipolar and anxiety, but i meet with my psychiatrist about once a month for about 15 mins. when i first started, though, it was once a week and an hour. i also have a therapist who i see about once every two weeks for an hour session. i HATE taking meds and all of the side effects- especially when going off or on one. i have several coping skills which include talking to people, listening to music, and journaling. these usually help me cope. i was actually admitted into a psych ward twice, so i was in pretty bad shape. that was about a year ago, and i am perfectly fine, now!! hope this helped!

Answer 5

Nothing rlly, my therapist appoinments was an hr at the most.. it didnt rlly help me that much, and then started with the meds, it helped a little, but when i suddenly stopped it, it had a very bad side effect on me afterwards....... Ive been suffering from depression over 4yrs now, or maybe 5........ i tried to commit suicide once, was taken to the hospital...... so u could say its pretty severe, i am still goin thru it, i do think of suicide , but not as b4, i wont try to hurt myself again...... i dont know if i helped , hope i did

Answer 6

Typically, people will start with 1 therapy session a week. Coming in less than every 2 weeks isn't really conducive to getting better. (Of course, if someone is well on their way to recovery, sessions may be as infrequent as every 1-3 months - but this is really just to make sure that someone is maintaining their progress - someone who is actively depressed should try to go every week.) I've worked with people who come in anywhere between 1x every month to 5x a week during really awful periods.

Answer 7

medical help does nothing, unless your so messed up and thats the only person you love, go to other routes: i used to suffer from very severe depression, i was 13 my parents divorced and my dad became an alcoholic, they got me counseling and everything, nothing helped, i turned to drugs, did LSD thought it saved me, in some ways it did but brought more drugs on to me, got pretty crazy into that ****, did LSD again around the age of 17 and 3 months, sat in my room by myself and thought for hours, read articles on how to be happy, how to be social, how to love, and how to forgive, the next day snapped me right the hell out of depression, i was a new man