Depression Treatment

Supporting a depressed spouse is at times overwhelming and emotionally challenging. Try to be patient to realize that your partner is experiencing a medical health condition and not something they can just suddenly recover from. Listen without offering solutions-simply validate their feelings by your presence. Encourage them with patience to seek professional help if needed. Help them look for a psychiatrist and even accompany them to the appointments, or help book the appointments. Practical support like helping in the daily routine, and reminding about medication, support in smaller steps of tasks when broken into pieces, will be very supportive on a tough day.

Finding comfort in sadness can at times feel comforting. Someone who has had many years of repeated disappointments, losses, and chronic stress may eventually adapt to the emotional ‘tone’ of sadness as their ‘new normal’. Therefore, over time, sadness is often perceived as ‘predictable’ and ‘safe.’  Some people will continue to feel sad as a way to protect themselves from future heartbreak or emotional damage by using sadness and detachment as protection. 

When suffering from depression, the brain’s chemistry and thought patterns reinforce negative emotions, which makes it very difficult to break free from that cycle. Experiencing sadness can be comforting because it’s familiar, but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy to remain in that state. Sadness typically indicates that you are still dealing with an inner conflict or an event that caused you pain that has not been resolved, which could also be due to an untreated depressive disorder. 

At GABA Telepsychiatry, we work to identify these patterns by providing you with a safe space to receive compassionate, nonjudgmental support through therapy, empowerment, and education, as well as the ability to build trust in your capacity to experience any emotion other than sadness. You deserve to thrive; you deserve to experience a full emotional life.

Loving yourself when depressed seems like an impossible task, especially since the negative thoughts seem louder than anything else. Depression can make you your own worst critic at times, and it can be difficult to practice self-love under those circumstances. Instead of forcing that positivity into your life, you can make small gestures that show you care for yourself. Simple daily routines like getting enough rest, eating healthy, nourishing meals, or getting some fresh air can help you reconnect with yourself and your needs. Slowly but surely, start speaking to yourself with patience rather than criticism and see how much it can help you get out of a depressive phase. 

 Depression can often make you feel like you’re not doing enough, but these are just your thoughts, not reality. Learning to notice the negative self-talk and replacing it with positive, reassuring thoughts can help you build a kinder inner voice. Progress does not have to look big or dramatic; even small steps like these deserve recognition.

Self-love during depression doesn’t mean feeling happy all the time. It means choosing kindness to yourself on difficult days. Talking to someone you trust, journaling, or spending time with yourself doing something you enjoy can create small moments of relief. Our board-certified psychiatrists at GABA Telepsychiatry can help you get a proper diagnosis for depression and guide you through treatment and medication for a better tomorrow.

The first step is to understand your symptoms in detail. Our board-certified psychiatrists will ask about your sleep patterns,  appetite, energy levels, ability to think and concentrate, as well as your ability to function on a day-to-day basis. There is a wide variety of symptoms that can go hand in hand with depression. Understanding these symptoms is essential in determining what type and how severe the disorder is. Once our psychiatrist has all the information, a personalized treatment plan will be created. This can include therapy, medication, or both. They monitor and adjust medications like SSRIs, SNRIs, or atypical antidepressants. Our board-certified psychiatrists at GABA will make changes to the medication based on how you respond, as the main focus of treatment is not to temporarily reduce symptoms, but to eliminate them.

Adderall is not known to generally cause depression as prescribed by a doctor, but some individuals will experience depressive symptoms while taking this medication. This is because Adderall increases concentrations of two neurotransmitters, which may help improve energy levels and concentration, but has a side effect that affects the mood in some individuals.  

These individuals report a “comedown”, which is a term to describe the feelings and physical sensations felt once the effects of the medication have diminished. Symptoms of this include sadness, irritability, low energy, or even numbness. These will be magnified with higher doses, lack of sleep, and/or misuse. In rare cases, the effect of the medication on the individuals’ mood has exacerbated pre-existing depression. 

At GABA Telepsychiatry, our board-certified psychiatrists closely monitor reactions while prescribing stimulants and re-evaluate medications and dosages if depressive symptoms develop.