When you’re feeling down, talking about your thoughts and emotions with another person can ease some of the weight off your shoulders. Venting to a family member, close friend or significant other about your feelings can be beneficial. But they may not be the best source for insight about a mental disorder like depression.
When it comes to thoughts and emotions that stem from major depressive disorder, talking to a healthcare professional about the effects of your mental disorder can have a large impact on your mental health journey. Talk therapy is one of the pillars of mental healthcare for disorders like depression. We’re here to tell you why.
We’ll talk about signs that you need talk therapy for depression and the benefits you can gain. Then, we’ll talk about the type of talk therapy that Active Path Mental Health offers for patients with depression.
How to know that it’s time to seek talk therapy for depression
Depression, or major depressive disorder, is a mood disorder. It can interfere with every facet of your life. Overwhelming negative emotions can make it difficult to carry out your daily responsibilities and form healthy interpersonal relationships. It can also be difficult to build a strong sense of self.
It’s not always easy to determine when it’s time to explore the option of psychotherapy, or talk therapy, for your depression symptoms. It takes an abundant amount of self-awareness. But it’s important to acknowledge the signs that you struggle to handle persistent or worsening symptoms.
Here are some signs that it’s time for you to explore talk therapy for your depression:
- Your relationships are strained due to consistent isolation and withdrawal.
- You’ve experienced a situation that caused a depressive episode, such as a breakup.
- Your symptoms have interfered with your work and/or family responsibilities.
- You don’t feel comfortable talking to a family member or friend about your depression.
5 benefits you can gain from talk therapy for your depression
Talk therapy is an effective mental disorder treatment. It’s one of the main courses of action for people with depression. The goal of psychotherapy for major depressive disorder is to help you understand your negative cognitive and emotional patterns. That way, you can learn how to adjust them in the future.
There are a variety of depression treatments available, such as antidepressants. But here are some benefits that you can gain when you seek talk therapy for depression:
- Understanding your disorder — Depression is a chronic disorder that affects your brain chemistry. Having depression doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with you. Through talk therapy, you can gain a deeper understanding about how depression can affect your physical, mental and emotional health by looking at it from every angle.
- Navigating challenges — People with a depression diagnosis often experience symptoms for periods of time. These are known as episodes. If you’re dealing with a difficult situation in your life, such as the end of a relationship or loss of a loved one, it can trigger an episode. Talk therapy can help you work through the thoughts and emotions of difficult situations.
- Sharing without any stakes — One of the reasons why talk therapy is effective is because it gives you the opportunity to share your thoughts and feelings with someone who doesn’t have stakes in your life. A therapist is an impartial third party, so you can be completely open and honest without the person having a self-serving bias.
- Gaining coping skills — Managing your depression symptoms means having strategies that help you handle situations that cause negative thoughts and emotions. Through talk therapy sessions for depression, your therapist can help you develop the healthy coping skills you need to reduce your sadness, guilt or frustration.
- Setting goals — The lack of energy and feelings of hopelessness that come from depression can make you pessimistic for the future. It can also make you feel like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to your disorder. A therapist can help you set attainable goals for both your mental health journey as well as your personal and/or professional endeavors.
Cognitive behavioral therapy through talk therapy for depression
There are several approaches that a therapist can take to help your depression symptoms, but one of the most common and most effective is CBT, or cognitive behavioral therapy, which focuses on how your cognitive and behavioral patterns contribute to your depression.
During your talk therapy sessions for depression, your therapist can use CBT to help you adjust the way that your thoughts and behaviors influence one another so that you can reduce your negative emotions.
At Active Path Mental Health, we offer short-term cognitive behavioral therapy to provide you with effective talk therapy services for depression. As opposed to focusing on your past, CBT allows us to help you focus on your current struggles so that you can improve your perception of your thought patterns now and in the future.
Active Path Mental Health can show you the benefits of talk therapy for depression
It’s not always easy to ask for help or admit when you’re struggling. But talking to a licensed professional can help you navigate the negative thoughts and emotions that are interfering with your current quality of life as well as your goals for the future. At Active Path Mental Health, our talk therapy services for depression can help you become the best version of yourself.
Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.
