Many people believe the only way to deal with depression is to pop a pill.
It's a one-dimensional approach.
A better approach is to combine the use of anti-depressants with therapy, especially forms of therapy which have strong empirical support behind them, such as cognitive behavioral therapy.
Yet this too may leave something lacking, and not all practitioners of therapy are equally skilled at helping depressed clients get out of their depression.
This article will take a look at an alternative approach to handling mild to moderate depression, one that is as simple as taking a look at your relationships.
A Balanced Approach People are very interested in learning about a more comprehensive and multi-dimensional view of depression.
In such a view, individual and social psychology come into play.
In other words, depression is more than a lack or surplus of hormones in the brain, or more than a so-called hereditary predisposition .
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it's a reflection of many factors in a person's life, such as the company he keeps and the thoughts he thinks.
Changes that are taking place in one's personal or professional life can cause or contribute to depression.
Illness or disease, or any other life-altering problem may worsen depressive symptoms.
A sudden change, good or bad, or a tragic event, such as a divorce, can add to or cause a person's depressive feelings in short order! If you are dissatisfied with the conventional approach to treating depression, you may want to investigate a relational way to lessen your depressive symptoms.
Social Factors: The Missing Ingredient In many of the cases I've treated over the past twenty-five plus years, there has been a social component involved.
Often the depressed person has had to deal with another member of the family who is giving him fits.
Or an overly negative personality was exerting an adverse impact on the person.
Some families are depressed, and their depression is a systems issue, which affects all family members, including the children.
There certainly is a social transmission process at work in some instances of depression.
Pessimistic people can certainly ill affect us all.
What You Can Do Right Now Take a look at your relationships and ask if any are troubling you or creating undue stress.
I have found relationships are contagious -- good ones bring us up and problematic relationships bring us down and fill us with negative energy.
Yes, to lessen depression, it is often wise to consider professional counseling and/or medication.
But in some cases, these efforts can be avoided or reduced if people will examine their relationships and social lives, fix any problems that lie therein and surround themselves with healthy, upbeat people.
Or if they learn how to deal with troubled people in their lives in a more constructive way.
The cure may be simple and free.
As simple as taking a look at your relationships .
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and taking proactive steps to improve them! So often in life, when we work with our relationships in a proactive fashion, good things begin to happen.
When we are positive with people they tend to act positively toward us, in return.
Good relationships are the building blocks of happiness and success! And, for many people, fixing a problematic relationship is often the first step toward curbing depression.