25 Sep What Does Depression Look Like?

Exploring the Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment of Depression

What is Depression?

Depression is a common mental health condition characterised by persistent sadness and a lack of interest or pleasure in previously rewarding or enjoyable activities. It can also disturb appetite, sleep, feeling fatigued, and poor concentration are all common symptoms. The effects of depression can be long-lasting or recurrent and can dramatically affect a person’s ability to function and live a rewarding life.

What are the Causes of Depression?

One thing that we know based on research is that depression is not caused by one single factor. There is a multitude of factors that can play a part in the onset and maintenance of depressive episodes. Therefore, the highly skilled psychologists at Positive Wellbeing Psychology adopt a biopsychosocial approach to understanding the onset of depressive symptoms and discussing an individualised treatment plan to assist with depression treatment in Melbourne.

So far, we know that the diagnosis of clinical depression results from a complex interaction of social, psychological and biological factors (i.e., the Biopsychosocial model). That means that individuals that have experienced adverse life events such as unemployment, bereavement, and psychological trauma are more likely to develop symptoms of depression.

What Changes with Depression?

The symptoms and severity of depression can vary from individual to individual. Depression is different from usual mood fluctuations and short-lived emotional responses to identifiable stressors or challenges in everyday life. Depression can cause the affected individual to suffer greatly and function poorly at work, at school and in the family. Living with a family member experiencing depression can often feel like walking on eggshells; however, in turn, the depression can often increase due to interpersonal difficulties within a family home. At its worst, depression can lead to suicide. Research has indicated that close to 800,000 people die due to suicide every year. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in 15-29-year-olds. Due to the impact that depression can have on an individual’s life, we recommend reaching out to explore options for treatment of depression with a GP or please feel free to send an online enquiry to our practice.

What are Common Symptoms of Depression?

In terms of specific symptoms and changes that individuals may notice with an episode of depression are the significant disruption to daily life and usual responsibilities. Depression can increase the individual’s feeling of loneliness and significantly reduce the sense of feeling connected to loved ones. Often you find yourself becoming short-fused and more irritable with certain behaviours that did not bother you so much before. Individuals have described finding a complete lack of motivation in doing usual daily interests and often find it challenging to get themselves up and out of bed in the morning. It is evident that when depression is longer-lasting and with moderate or severe intensity, the individual benefits from being under the support of a psychologist and GP to review/manage pharmacological treatment. One of our warm and compassionate psychologists at Positive Wellbeing Psychology will be able to explore the best possible treatment plan for you should you be under where your treatment for depression may start.

What are the Causes of Depression?

The causes of depression include complex interactions between social, psychological, and biological factors. Life events such as childhood adversity, loss and unemployment contribute to and may catalyse the development of depression. As the causes and maintenance of depression are different for everyone, it is sometimes really challenging to understand what behaviours or factors are maintaining your low mood. Our highly skilled psychologists at Positive Wellbeing Psychology are well-trained to explore these in session and devise an individualised treatment plan to based on evidence-based treatment for depression.

What are the Evidence-Based Treatment for Depression?

There are effective psychological and pharmacological treatments for moderate and severe depression. At Positive Wellbeing Psychology, our highly skilled psychologist has a special interest in the treatment of depression. Our practice provides psychological treatments such as behavioural activation, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT). Our team all have experience in supporting individuals with symptoms of depression or low mood, should this be chronic depression or more recently due to identifiable stressors, you can read our psychologist’s bio’s here.

How Positive Wellbeing Psychology can Help?

Our warm and compassionate psychologists adopt a holistic approach to the assessment of depression by assessing biopsychological factors and the severity of the depression. When depression is more severe, our psychologists will explore a combination of depression treatment options in a safe and supportive therapy setting. When beneficial our psychologists will write a letter to your referring GP to request a medication review for a combination of psychotherapy and antidepressant medication such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs).

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A few other useful posts that you may like to read:

• We Explore Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) and ADHD
• How can a Psychologist help with sleep issues or anxiety around sleep?
• Autism or ASD and Anxiety in Girls (including non-binary and transgender individuals)