When someone is diagnosed with major depressive disorder, they are struggling with a mental health issue that sets itself apart due to an abnormally protracted period of low mood. It’s important to make that distinction. We’re all allowed to be sad, and it’s important to fully express our emotions – be they positive or negative.…
Roughly 16 million American adults are estimated to have major depressive disorder, and far more are estimated to experience a form of depression at some point in their lifetime. It’s likely that you know someone who is depressed or are depressed yourself. And that is okay. While occasionally severe, and definitely very challenging, depression is…
The fear that you won’t be able to function while depressed is not unfounded. Loss of productivity is a common problem with depression, and some people struggle with a depressive disorder so severe that they are unable to seek and maintain steady work. While therapy and treatment are essential, there’s a whole host of factors…
An approximated 7.1 percent of American adults struggle with symptoms of depression, a mental health condition that can be physically and emotionally crippling. Yet over a third of people affected by this disorder don’t get any treatment whatsoever, and often don’t even seek it out. Many learn, over the years, to hide their thoughts and…
It’s quite tough to deal with depression. Regardless of when you first began feeling depressed, and regardless of how the depression developed to begin with, being depressed is universally difficult. Everything is harder – from performing adequately at work and dealing with the pressures and responsibilities of everyday living to getting up and out of…
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was first developed in 1985 when physicist Anthony Barker introduced TMS technology to the world of neuropsychology. Based on the premise established over a hundred years prior by Michael Faraday that magnetic fields have an impact on electricity and plasma, TMS technology has been researched for several decades, and has been…
Deep transcranial magnetic stimulation may invoke some scary thoughts and images, yet a name is just a name – and despite the words ‘deep transcranial’, dTMS is entirely non-invasive, pain-free, and requires no sedation or medication. Deep transcranial magnetic stimulation uses a head-worn device with an electromagnetic coil shaped a certain way. This coil sends…
Depression – It’s more than just being sad By, Jennifer Boisture, MD “I’m depressed.” Not surprisingly, as a psychiatrist, I hear this a lot from my patients. If I’m meeting a patient for the first time, almost invariably, I respond by asking, “What do you mean when you say ‘depressed’?” This partly because people so…
Pets and humans have spent several millennia together, and there’s plenty of evidence that we’ve domesticated animals long before we even began keeping a written history of the human race. Yet we tamed and bred animals for more than just hunting and livestock. Since time immemorial, we’ve considered plenty of animals as friends, partners, and…
First line treatment for depression involves talk therapy and antidepressant medication. Millions of Americans who struggle with depressive symptoms are prescribed antidepressant pills every year, and their effectiveness in part explains why they’re utilized so often in the treatment of depression. But antidepressants neither cure depression, nor do they affect everyone equally. Firstly, there is…