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What to Do During the Last Two Weeks You’re Waiting for Your Antidepressant to Kick In

By Deborah Posted in Articles, Living with Depression, Treatment Tagged , 2 Replies
Image: Villa Falconieri by John Singer Sargent

Villa Falconieri by John Singer Sargent

If it can be said that there is anything good about depression, this is when you’ll see it. Assuming that you are feeling much better than you did a month ago (and if you’re not, please read A Note about Antidepressant Treatment), you may feel almost as if you’ve been reborn. After having been deprived of the ability to enjoy everything your life has to offer, you’ll notice that colors are brighter, sounds are sweeter, smells and tastes have more depth. Having had a lack of interest in things you normally enjoyed before being depressed, you may find, as I did, that you are all of a sudden interested in everything, even things you never thought about before. Continue reading →

What to Do During the First Two Weeks You’re Waiting for Your Antidepressants to Kick In

By Deborah Posted in Articles, Living with Depression, Treatment Tagged , , Leave a reply
Image: My Room at Beau Rivage by Henri Matisse

My Room at Beau Rivage by Henri Matisse

The key words here are indulge yourself. Listen, you’re having enough trouble getting out of bed every day and going to work or school. You don’t need to push yourself. Think of yourself as an invalid recuperating from a very debilitating illness. You have to pamper yourself, body and spirit. This page is therefore all about “cocooning”, that is, wrapping yourself up in layers of comfort to protect yourself. Continue reading →

10 Tips For Overturning Denied Health Insurance Claims

By Deborah Posted in Articles, Treatment

Knowing how to handle your health insurer is one way to be a smart patient. Knowing how to handle denials is obviously a big part of that, since it’s the one time most of us have a problem with our health insurance.

You probably will see denials more often for courses of talk therapy than anything else. Therapy is the most expensive form of treatment. But your insurer may also deny your doctor’s request for brand name as opposed to generic medication.

Don’t be discouraged if you receive a denial for a type of treatment, and don’t assume the decision is set in stone. Sometimes all your insurer needs to approve the request is a little more information. Sometimes you and your doctor need to explain why your situation is an exception to their policy. Continue reading →

Roadblocks to Effective Psychotherapy Treatment

By Deborah Posted in Articles, Treatment Tagged ,

As I’ve mentioned before, I am a big fan of psychotherapy. Although medication has had a greater role in my successful depression treatment, psychotherapy helped me to recognize my inner demons and banish or deal with them, thereby leading to my becoming a much happier person overall, which I would assume is helpful in fighting depression.

Treatment with psychotherapy is a tad more complicated than treatment with medication, however. With antidepressant therapy, once you’ve found the right medication (admittedly, sometimes a lengthy process) you basically take your medicine and deal with side effects. Psychotherapy demands more in terms of the right conditions and a commitment from the individual. It’s fairly common for roadblocks to come up that hinder the process. I’ve experienced two of these roadblocks in the course of my therapy, so I thought I’d pass on what I’ve learned about getting past them. Continue reading →

Five Excuses that Might Prevent You from Getting Help for Depression

By Deborah Posted in Articles, Diagnosis, Treatment Leave a reply
The Day Dream by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The Day Dream by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

So you know you have depression, or you’re pretty sure you do, but you’re putting off doing anything about it. Procrastinating is a fairly common state of affairs for people with depression. I once put off renewing the registration for my car (before I was diagnosed with depression) and of course it expired, as they do. I ended up getting a huge ticket, about one week’s pay, because I was unlucky enough to be in front of a state cop in stop-and-go traffic. It seems really stupid now that I didn’t get it done, but I do remember the complete lack of motivation that came with my depression.

Lack of motivation is one of the ways in which depression can screw up your life, especially when it is keeping you from getting professional help for your depression. You may think you have good reasons for not getting help, but are they reasons or excuses? I don’t know if these could be considered the top five excuses, but they’re definitely the ones that I’ve heard most frequently. Continue reading →

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