Introduction
Living with Depression
Understanding depression
Possibilities for Change
Therapy for Depression
Teenagers and Depression
Couples and Depression
If your partner is depressed...
Questions to ask yourself and others about depression
Some Ideas For Addressing Depression
A Case Study - A Mother's Story
[part 2]
Do's and Dont's around Depression
Audio Workshops

Depression

Possibilities for Change

There is good news: depression is treatable. However, the person who is suffering must be wary of quick fixes. The levels of depression are incredibly high in number, as are the numbers of individuals and companies who peddle instant cures. As one well-known depression expert recently stated "Because of the nature of the problem, there can be no sure-fire cure for depression, but the corporations are smart enough to realize that peddling 'hope-inside-a-pill' is like a license to print money."

Depression has provided the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry with a billion-dollar industry. Recently, the media has gotten into the act and focused its attention on pharmaceuticals as 'the latest miracle cure.' Drugs such as Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil and Luvox are basking in the limelight.

These anti-depressant medications belong to a family of pills called selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and have gained so much notoriety they've been featured on the covers of both Time and Newsweek; books on the subject have also become bestsellers. These pills are also convenient for the people who take them because they require only one daily dose.

However, side effects are common and they may include:

  • nausea

  • headaches

  • diarrhea

  • insomnia

  • sexual difficulties.

In one study, about 20 percent of the people who tried Prozac stopped taking it as a result of its side effects.

The NIMH compared the success rates of psychotherapy versus antidepressant drug therapy in the treatment of major depression and concluded the following: "It takes weeks before antidepressant drug therapy starts to work, thus these patients desperately need a caring professional who will emotionally support them and their family until their body recovers."