what is the best cure for depression? medications or therapy?

Answer 1

Please don't listen to all these people.

For some, medication works better than therapy.
For others, therapy is more appropriate.
For others still, a combination is the most effective.

Based on research, SSRI antidepressants combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy is the absolute best method of treatment.

The ultimate answer is that it depends on 1) the type of depressive disorder you have, 2) the severity of the disorder, 3) the number of times you've had depression, 4) your neurochemistry, 5) your life circumstances, 6) the specific symptoms presented in your depressive disorder.

It takes a professional to help you sort all that out and figure out the best individual treatment plan for you.

Answer 2

I would say the best cure would be to change at least one thing in your life.

Keep yourself as busy as possible and your life structured and full.

Do not be too introspective about your life.

Focus on something that gets you away from feeling or thinking to much about why you are depressed.

Therapy and medication will help in different ways. Both have side effects that can be unpleasant.

Changing the negative patterns of your life (these are often the ones that lead us into depression) these are sometimes hard to recognize but once you see them it will be clear. Therapy does help with this.

Medication helps to get past the difficult periods and allows your brain to re-establish normal emotional patterns. No extreme highs or lows. This can be frustrating but it does work.

Answer 3

It depends on the kind of depression. There are more kinds. For example if it's situational depression (caused by circumstances). Medication is probably not the best fix. Fix the cause, which is sometimes very hard to do because for some of us life just really sucks... but in cases like that therapy is probably better. There are cases where medications help, but they usually have a gazilion side effects. I don't like some of the new "wonder" drugs. Some of the side effects are worse than the problem being treated.

Answer 4

Depending on the person, one approach may be better than the other, but in general I would say that therapy and medications work best together. Here's why:

Taking the appropriately prescribed anti-depressant medication will help the brain create or utilize more of the "feel good" neurotransmitters that improve mood for most folks. However years of negative or distorted thinking patterns may have created or magnified the initial depression. Medication often enables one to feel well enough to embark on the journey of psychotherapy (or the process of exploring thoughts and feelings and changing those negative patterns which have kept one feeling depressed or anxious). Medication will change your brain chemistry in the short term, which will allow you to feel better and change your thinking in the long run if you choose to. And changing your thinking, in turn, will also help maintain that change your brain chemistry. Therapy takes longer, and requires more effort than taking a pill, but in the end, it's what seals the deal on the effectiveness of medication.

If you're feeling depressed, go see your Doctor or walk in to a Community Mental Health Center. Ask for a referral to a Psychiatrist, Psychologist, or Clinical Social Worker who specializes in treating depression. Help is out there!

Answer 5

It depends how depressed you are. Therapy is great if you believe in it, which I do. Also, doing something nice for someone else can help. It's basically trying to look outward instead of inward. Praying helps to. I would try everything else I could before I would take medication.

Answer 6

Both, depends on the situation. Medication will only help the chemical inbalances in your brain. Therapy will help with things like trauma and day to day life. Meds can help during therapy.

Answer 7

Studies have shown that a combination of medication and psychotherapy work better in general for depression than either medication or therapy alone.

Answer 8

I had a nervous breakdown a few years ago and I tried the medication as well as I was sent to a therapist. In my opinion , and from my own experience medication covers up the problem. Myself talking to my therapist and working though my problems help a lot. Learning how to cope everyday and find a reason to get out of bed was the hardest ,but she worked with me , cried with me and eventually helped me get my life back . Very good luck to you, Its a long lonely road and no one completely understands what it is like for the person walking it.

Answer 9

Therapy...if you can work through what is brothering you then it will truly go away. Medication will only put it on the back burner for a while.

Answer 10

Both. And the kicker is, you need to work with a doctor and therapist both who are willing to try new things and work *with* a client until a combination is found that *works*, because the modern anti-depressants, those SSRIs like Prozac or Zoloft, don't even *work* for some folks. And neither does the most common behavioral therapy that those HMOs try to shove down your throat...One Size Fits All is NOT how you get someone with depression, especially of a chronic or complicated sort, better.

I am living proof of that last statement. -_- I've been at it for some 15 years here as an adult in Champaign, struggling with depression, dissociation and post-traumatic stress issues. My points are: 1) my problems are hardly simple enough to be adressed with just pills and a rubber-band around the wrist, and 2) even so, this stuff took *years* to get to where it is now, and it isn't going to somehow magically "go away" with a six-week course of workbooks and third-grade caliber busy work. That is just being mean and cheap to people who really do not deserve it, not just me but lots of folks like me locally. HMOs and *political* pressure to deny the *poor*--as in economically destitute, not pitied--mentally ill even a *shot* at competent treatment is rampant where I live and it borders on criminal negligence.

Sorry for the rantlet there, but it *really* irritates me how *stupefyingly HUGE* the gap is between the science we know about depression and what people are actually doing on the ground at mental health centers and in social services. Really, I'd say some 80% of the time the local "professionals" are actually doing harm *on purpose*, deilberately doing the exact opposite of what the science recommends, all in the name of "cost control" or "results-based approaches." Why? Because it keeps "the mopes" dumb, docile and dependent on the system. And it keeps them *out* of the local workforce where they might maybe could compete for jobs.

But I digress, sorry. ^_^ There's just been a lot of pent-up frustration and hopelessness at my end as I deal with one so-called "social service" agency after another who either *refuses* to help anyone like me, or ends up having a mandatory 3-6 month waiting list unless you want to be *locked up* in the Psych Ward at the ER, denied of your civil rights and utterly at their mercy.

The thing is really simple: if you want people with depression to get better, you need to attack it from *all* sides. Find meds that work. Find therapy that works. Get as far out of the bad situation as is possible (given that a lot of folks like me with the mood disorder are dirt poor to destitute). Eat better, exercise more. Re-establish social ties. Create better habits and life skills and coping skills.

Problem with that is, this demands that in order to do it right you *have to* spend money on poor people, for the most part, which makes it a political hot-potato for the Ignorant Imbecile CEO Greedheads who want to just *ruin* every damned thing anyway.

It takes money, time and expertise to cure depression because it IS a legitimate medical issue on a par with cancer or diabetes. And people in America, especially the nitwit humanoids who have a habit of being *put* in charge by Big Oil or Big Banking/Debts, they don't want to spend one red cent on poor people. They'd rather a hurricane wipe out the whole mess and butcher people and drive us into the gutter for free. Well, free *for them*, not the rest of us.

And they cover that policy of Class Hatred by using the political cover of calling depression a "character flaw", and "all their own fault"....

Gah, sorry...this is a raw-nerve issue for me, as you can see, I am still too deep in the struggle to stay calm and objective. I had best stop now.

But thanks for your time. -_- I hope I was at least a bit helpful about the "big picture" issues here....