Treatment for Depression can range from mild to very severe, and some people can feel low or down with some impairment of their enjoyment of life while others can experience such severe symptoms that they don’t even want to get out of bed in the morning. Sometimes people don’t necessarily feel depressed, sad or irritable but have lost their interest in other people or have lost their ability to get pleasure and joy from the activities they used to enjoy. When people suffer from depression they often don’t feel like interacting with other people and can even withdraw from many social occasions or activities because they either don’t feel like participating in them or worry that their depression will negatively impact on other people. This makes the experience of depression even more isolating and can delay treatment because the sufferer does not talk about how they are feeling. Even though severe depression is often treated with medication it may not always be recommended or necessary when a person is depressed and this is assessed by the psychologist, General Practitioner or other mental health professional.
There are a number of evidence based and highly effective psychological interventions that are used to treat depression. Sometimes psychologists might employ a single intervention or use 2 or 3 different types of psychological treatments. One of the advantages of having several treatment options to choose from is that treatment for depression is not a one size fits all phenomenon.