Depression is a consuming illness, causing grief for people across the country – not just patients, but affected families and friends as well. More than just a mindset, depression can become a debilitating condition. However, there are ways to tackle depression, through various therapies, medications, and alternative treatments. But there’s more to managing a depression…
Most mental health disorders are not quite like they’re depicted in television, and they’re nowhere near as obvious as the many physical disorders that can render a person equally debilitated. Conditions like anxiety and depression come with many different symptoms and faces, and they’re subtle. One day your husband, wife, friend, or relative might be…
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) therapy was first introduced in 1985 and was based on principles established over a century prior by the Faraday experiment, when Michael Faraday discovered electricity could generate a magnetic field in 1881. While the effects of an external electric current on the brain have been extensively researched in the past –…
If you have been recently diagnosed with depression it is easy to think that this might feel like the end of any real hope for a happy and normal life. Yet contrary to that thought, a diagnosis of depression does not exclude you from joy, happiness, and success. It does, however, mean that you will…
In the treatment of major depressive disorder, medication is often considered the first line of offense. While there are different ways to address depressive symptoms, antidepressant medication affects most depressed patients and can lead to good results, especially in conjunction with other therapies. However, medication isn’t always the best answer for depression, even when it’s…
There is more to dealing with depression than the sadness. Depression is a disorder that promotes isolation, one that often drives people to further despair by preventing them from getting the help they need. When a person is depressed, their thoughts change. More than just sorrow or negativity, depression affects your thought process and changes…
“I’m sure I’ll feel better once the warm weather comes.” As a psychiatrist, I hear this a lot from my patients who struggle with depression during the winter. And, often, they’re right. Anyone who lives here know winters in New England can be cold, dark and long! The warm days of summer not only bring…
Depression is not ostentatious – it’s a silent killer, and many who struggle with it do so silently, and often not through fault of their own. One look at the information available on the stigmatization of depression and the ill-conceived perception of procrastination and concentration problems as matters of ‘laziness’ and ‘willpower’ should tell you…
Major depressive disorder is a condition that affects roughly 6.7 percent of American adults, with an estimated 16.2 million individuals who annually experience an episode of depressive symptoms. Yet despite its widespread nature, depression is often not completely understood by the public, and treatment remains a mystery to many. While we’re urged to help others…
There is a famous idiom which rings true not only in philosophy, but even in science: life is a journey, not a destination. Happiness is only achievable insofar that we always have something to strive for. In other words, a person can only be happy in strife, rather than contentment, but to achieve that happiness…