Depression is so common that it is called the cold of psychiatry, but its treatment is easy if a person follows the steps of psychotherapy. In this video, you will watch symptoms of depression and the treatment through Cognitive Behavioural Therapy practices.
Let’s have a look at the symptoms of depression first.
Symptom No. 1: Depressed mood, nearly every day.
Depressed person experiences depressed mood most of the time during the day and almost every day generally in all situations, especially at work, at home or in a social group.
No. 2: Loss of interest in activities.
Owing to depression, depressed person’s active and happy participate decreases in activities. In depression, excitement reduces, and the person may not initiate activities. Generally, a depressed person does not experience any pleasure from interactions with friends, family or accomplishing any tasks at work or at school. Thus, depressed person wants to detach himself from activities because of loss of interest or pleasure in activities.
No. 3: Significant changes in weight or appetite
Weight either is gained or lost in depression and the changes occur in appetite. These changes are felt after the attack of depression. Such changes in weight are not the result of any diet but because of the changes in mood and behaviour which affect weight of the person.
No. 4: Insomnia or Hypersomnia:
Depressed person experiences problems in initiating and maintaining sleep which is called insomnia, or the sleep can go for excessive periods of time which is called hypersomnia. The depressed person in hypersomnia approximately sleeps 9 hours or more daily and feels the need for sleep in day times even getting enough sleep in the past night.
No. 5: fatigue or loss of energy:
Decreased energy, fatigue, being tired are common in depressed person. It is so prevalent that the depressed person’s efficiency of the work may reduce to an extent that the person feels tired of even washing and dressing in the morning and this symptoms alone sometimes considered clinical depression as procrastination.
No. 6: Feelings of worthlessness
The reason for worthlessness feelings is the unrealistic negative evaluations of the person’s own value or worth. On the other hand, guilty is felt because of a minor, uncountable mistake over the previous failed performance.
No. 7: Reduced ability to concentrate
Depressed person reports impaired ability to concentrate, make decision or think. Their attention is easily distracted, and their performance is affected especially when they are engaged in cognitive tasks. Thus, due to concentration difficulties their memory is seriously affected which can be mistakenly diagnosed as Pseudodementia, a problem of memory.
Automatic Negative Thoughts: automatic negative thoughts are the reasons which result in depressed mood, loss of interest, change in weight, sleep disturbances, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness and concentration. But when automatic negative thoughts are changed into functional thoughts, so the following psychotherapeutic treatment can really help in recovery from depression.
Psychotherapeutic treatment
The first step in starting the psychotherapeutic techniques is to recognize the negative thoughts and when they start in your mind. Then the next step is that you would like to stop the practice of these thoughts that are resulting for you in a great worry. As you recognize automatic negative thoughts then you can stop their practice by the techniques such as
Technique no. 1: Sensational alertness/Abstraction:
In this technique, the depressed person should try to experience present situation by listening to all the voices in the environment coming to him. It’s a practice to make yourself mindful so that you can prevent yourself from automatic negative thoughts which makes you depressed. These thoughts further increase the symptoms so if you would like to decrease the symptoms you have to stop the practice of such thoughts of your mind.
Technique no. 2: Backward counting
If you are depressed and you experience hopelessness and automatic negative thoughts which automatically come to your mind, you can use backward counting. In order to change the practice of absent mindedness and negative thoughts, you can use this technique to relieve yourself from the worry coming from your thoughts.
Technique no. 3: Object Description
If you are depressed, you can use this technique whenever you recognize that you are thinking negatively so just focus on an object in your environment in front of you at the moment. This description should include the information about the object, all its uses, its manufacturing, its colour, its price, its availability place, its benefits etc. the reason is that you will change your dysfunctional thought into a functional and mindful thought so that you can prevent automatic negative thoughts that result in depression.
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