Treating depression without medication

[citalopram1]

Can someone who is suffering from depression be treated by counselling sessions alone or would they eventually have to take anti depressants?

[pinkdove]

Yes some people can be treated without meds, but you would be best to follow the advice of your gp, it just depends on how bad you feel, or how well you cope take care x

[cathycrumble]

Lots of people do it without drugs. I am and I am having CBT also there are lots of books out there to help you with anxiety.

I was on citalopram and I hated them.

Cathy xx

[debs71]

I would imagine it would be a huge struggle. I know I for one couldn't have done without meds. I take my hat off to anyone who tries.

When I was first diagnosed with depression several years ago my GP prescribed meds and counselling. I rejected the meds at first as I felt they would mess with my thinking/head. She refused to refer me for counselling unless I took the meds, and it was the right decision on her part. I was prescribed Cipralex and they were a Godsend.

Her theory was that the meds offer you that initial helping hand and the mental strength to just get out of bed in the morning (I wasn't even doing that) It lifts the mood enough to then confront the REASONS behind the depression and the root causes of it, which is where the counselling comes in.

If anyone is able to do that without meds then that is great. As pinkdove says, it is very subjective and depends how ill you are and what you can deal with/face.

No book was any good for me when I was depressed I have to say.

xxx

[mikewales]

It depends on the person, type of depression, reason for the depression, their personal situation etc....

There are so many variables and everyone is different so there isn't any real right answer to your question, nor is one way of treating it 'better' than the other.

[NoPoet]

Most people will recover from depression without any intervention at all, often without even realising they were actually depressed. I think the stats are like 80% of the time, depression resolves itself within about 8 weeks.

This is for various reasons. Some people just get caught up in life and either forget, deal with or compromise on the factors causing depression, while most people are simply not that ill with their depression and simply "bounce back" one way or another. Depression following major life events such as bereavement takes on average 2 years to recover from. (That statistic was given to me by a CBT-trained hypnotherapist.)

This is generalising of course but the evidence is out there for anyone to see. It also answers the question, "Do people recover from depression without medication".

I think if someone is deeply depressed and their life is falling apart because of it, they should certainly seek medical treatment alongside therapy. I have seen too many peoples' lives changed for the better by antidepressants and I am generally skeptical when people say medication didn't help (although there are a small number of people who genuinely don't seem to benefit from it).

In my experience, people who don't benefit from medication tend to be on the wrong dose or more often have only been on it for a week or two before giving up.

[william wallace]

I've had A&D for about 20 years. I've always worked, and maybe had about 9 months sick time, and couple of those years on meds. The last year it's been fairly constant so I've kind of resigned to the fact that I'll be on meds for a long time, maybe for the rest of my life.
WW