Getting out of depression

Depression recovery begins with an accurate diagnosis of a specific type of depression. There are two main types of depression – psychogenic, stress-induced and endogenous, which develops regardless of external causes due to subtle biochemical disorders in the brain.

Types of depression

A characteristic clinical picture helps doctors determine the type of depression. So, endogenous depression is characterized by daily and seasonal mood swings. Bad mood is especially characteristic in the morning, with relative improvement in the evening. Endogenous depression is more characterized by sleep and appetite disturbances, a painful feeling of melancholy, manifested by unpleasant sensations in the body. 

In addition, pathopsychological examination plays an important role in diagnosing the type of depression – a set of specific tests that most patients in our clinic undergo.

Accurate diagnosis is essential for choosing the right treatment strategy. In psychogenic depression, the emphasis is on psychotherapy, in endogenous depression, on medications.

Varieties of psychotherapy

Psychotherapy can be presented in 3 types: individual, group and family.

Individual psychotherapy begins after the relief of an acute condition (pronounced melancholy, fear, apathy) and can be continued after discharge from the hospital.

Group psychotherapy is performed daily. The format of work can be different depending on the needs of the patients. Sometimes it is, in fact, a “lecture” by a psychotherapist about the peculiarities of depression, methods of dealing with it, sometimes it is a discussion on some urgent problem in which all patients take part, sometimes art therapy, psychodrama, analysis of specific life situations of patients (of course , only at their request). 

Family psychotherapy is sometimes also called systemic. It differs from other types of psychotherapy not only in that not one person, but a family is present at the psychotherapeutic session, but rather in the very approach to the problem. The family (systemic) psychotherapist sees the problem not in a specific person, but in the system of human interactions (hence the name systemic). From the point of view of family psychotherapy, depression of one of the family members is a way of survival of the entire system. The task of the family psychotherapist is thus to rebuild the system of family relationships so that the depression of his client goes away.