What’s the Way Forward After a Depression Diagnosis
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Depression Diagnosis
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It’s still one day at a time, but at least towards the light at the end of tunnel.
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✨POV✨: You've taken the first step, you've been diagnosed with a type of clinical depression. There is relief in knowing that it wasn't just in your head. But instead of feeling the progress, you feel stuck, if not like you've regressed.
The universe of depression (and mental illness, in general)and the journey from diagnosis to healing, both include massive paradoxes.
Isn't increased awareness supposed to make understanding simpler?
The universe of depression, as we dive in deeper and try to educate ourselves about it, may feel like a black hole. Every piece of new information we read or every new interview we watch may all feel overwhelming, like this knowledge is weighing down on us.
Doesn't walking in the right direction make the journey shorter or easier?
Beginning the journey of healing with the step of diagnosis pushes us to look deep within ourselves - at the pretty parts, the ugly ones, the ones we've never let out of the shadows, and the parts that make no sense to who we are.
These paradoxes exist but like yin-yang, mental health is not straightforward. These paradoxes are best explained by proverbs like:
🐢 Slow and steady wins the race.
🚶🏼♀️ Slow is the fastest way to reach our destination.
Sigh. The journey of healing from depression is a great teacher, just not the kindest one.
Clinical Depression Diagnosis 📃
Once the diagnosis has been made, we may feel fear or stigma about it. And that is the unfortunate legacy of our society - to be so inanimate in our perception of strength. As though being affected by a mental illness is a sign of weakness - which it is absolutely not.
💟 Step #1: Acceptance
The first and most important step we must take once we know our diagnosis is to wholeheartedly accept and embrace our reality. Not ez, but quite helpful for our journey forward. Whether we have very many severe symptoms of depression (+ physical symptoms) or are in a gnawing depressed mood - no matter what our depression symptoms are - it is alright. That is the stage of life we're at and depression is apparently the challenge of the season. We're not going to walk away, are we?
And whenever we are tempted to walk away, we can choose to say, ‘I want to give myself some love today’ and let the mini-therapy guide us to our next step.
The reality of our mental health is like tough love - it's hard to accept that we were dealt the wrong cards, but if we don't, we'll never be able to create a nicer reality for ourselves.
🫂 Step #2: Therapy
Based on our diagnosis (according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, written by the American Psychiatric Association), our psychiatrist or psychologist will recommend a treatment option. They may recommend any one of the following to treat depression:
1️⃣ Only therapy (to know more about the different types of therapy, click here), or
2️⃣ Only medication, or
3️⃣ Therapy + medication, or
4️⃣ An unconventional form of therapy like electroconvulsive therapy (if our diagnosis is unconventional like the Treatment-Resistant Disorder)
🌱 Step #3: Building Healthy Coping Mechanisms
Along with the treatment led by our mental health professional, we can also spearhead our healing journey by building healthy coping mechanisms.
We can practice positive self-talk to combat negative thinking, journal when we feel overwhelmed, practice breathing techniques when we feel anxious, or do a mini-therapy for our discomfort when we're feeling it.
Healthy coping mechanisms are those that keep us from spiraling when we encounter a slippery slope (a symptom of depression or an external trigger) and instead, help us climb to safety when the winds get rough.
To know more about healthy coping mechanisms, click here.
Last Word on Mental Health 🤍
Tl;dr: The way forward after a depression diagnosis is a challenging yet fulfilling road of healing. It’ll be a walk to remember.
We take the help we need and in the same breath, help ourselves as much as we can.
And with all heads, hearts, and hands put together the very unwelcome guest that is depression can be shunned out of our safe spaces.
Note on Mental Disorders 🚩
Clinical Depression is never clear cut, making it harder to diagnose and treat. It is not unheard of for people with depression to self-harm or have suicidal thoughts. If you have such depressive symptoms, please use the national suicide prevention lifeline or contact a mental health professional to seek treatment options.
Some of the clinical depression diagnoses are major depressive disorder (aka severe depression or major depression), persistent depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder and seasonal affective disorder (aka seasonal depression).