Health and Psychology

There are about five different types of evidence based treatment currently available for depression.  The treatment involves learning some skills to manage how the individual thinks, acts, and feels when events occur. There are several different types of skill sets that help people manage.  The skills set depends on the specific type of treatment.  

When I suspect someone has a medical condition that contributes to feelings of depression, I usually treat the depression first while the underlying medical condition is being evaluated.  I like people to have some idea of what symptoms they have and when those occur.  Sometimes there are triggering events that raise feelings of sadness, or fear, or thoughts of loss or self-doubt.  Helping someone keep track of those events can help them understand what events can trigger those thoughts or feelings.  In some cases the trigger is a biological event-blood sugar drops, there's too much or too little light in the environment, someone has pain or fatigue.  In some cases an underlying medical condition is the triggering event-an infection, changes in heart rhythm or blood pressure.  Even in those cases it helps to have a log of where the person is, the time of day and what the person thinks happened.  

A simple log can have five columns for possible triggers, thoughts, feelings, behaviors and possible plan.

Triggers

• Where you are
• What you're doing
• What happened just before you felt badly 
• Who were you with
• What time of day