Current location
You are here: help with health > help with health conditions > mental health > help for people with epression and anxiety > help for people with depression and anxietyHelp with health
Help for people with depression and anxiety
Treating depression and anxiety
If you suffer from depression, the treatment you receive will be the same as for any other age group. Treatment depends on your symptoms, but will take one or more of the following forms:
- Psychological interventions help you understand your thoughts, behaviour and interpersonal relationships.
- General supportive counselling assists you to sort out practical problems and conflicts and helps you understand the reasons for your depression.
- Anti-depressant medications relieve depressed feelings, restore normal sleep patterns and appetite and reduce anxiety. Unlike tranquillisers, antidepressant medications are not addictive. They generally take 1–4 weeks to achieve their positive effects.
Psychological interventions
Talking with a health professional in a structured way can help relieve depression. This therapy involves a choice of one or more psychological therapies. The therapist aims to work with you on the way you react to circumstances and relationships.
The most effective types of therapy are cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) (more information) and interpersonal therapy (IPT) (more information). You can get help you with these therapies from clinical psychologists, doctors who have had training in psychological therapies, psychiatrists, social workers or other specialist mental health professionals.
Anti-depressant medications (taking a medicine)
Some types of depression involve changes in brain chemistry and can change the way you respond to your world. Antidepressant medications can correct the imbalance of chemicals in the brain until the natural balance is restored. There are many effective options and your doctor will select a particular medicine that best meets your needs. If you’re prescribed antidepressants, your doctor will need to know what other medication you’re on to make certain that you can take the drugs together. Antidepressants generally start at a low dose and may take longer to get to work in older people, as well as having more side effects.
Other treatment
Whatever the severity of a person’s depression, treatment should include learning new skills like problem solving and changes to lifestyle, cutting down on stress, increasing physical fitness and not using alcohol or non prescribed drugs.
Where to get help:
- your doctor
- a counsellor or a psychologist
- a community mental health service
- Lifeline on 13 1114
- Mental Health Foundation on 03 9427 0407
- beyondblue
Do I need to get professional help?
Some people feel embarrassed about getting help for depression. In some cases, people might not even know they are experiencing it, but may be worried about bodily symptoms, such as headaches or chest pain. These are often how our body expresses tension and anxiety as part of a depressive illness.
Getting help for depression is not a sign of weakness. It is important to find ways of getting help to treat it as soon as possible. A doctor, nurse or mental health professional will be able to advise on the choices you can make about which treatment will suit you best.
If you find it easier, you could always ask a friend or someone from your family or cultural or community group to go with you to your appointment.
What can I do to help my own treatment?
The greatest contribution to a positive outcome from treatment comes from:
- developing a trusting relationship with your health professional and working together to find a suitable treatment
- identifying and working on factors which appear to have contributed to your depression, and
- continuing with treatment for as long as is necessary to deal with the issues causing the depression.
Other support during recovery from depression
Maintaining and making good friendships is also very important in recovery from depression. Make the most of family, friends and local community groups. Try not to get isolated.
There are also groups run by people who have experienced a mental illness and who have had successful treatment. These include self-help and mutual support groups or associations, and mental health consumer organisations. Such organisations may run mutual support by phone or in groups that meet face to face. Some offer website chat rooms. Others provide formal information and referral services for personal support, postal or telephone information for you or for your family or partner, and some may suggest clinics, after-hours crisis lines and information about the treatments available.
Although they are not direct treatment services, these organisations may be helpful when you are trying to find the right treatment for you, and may make it easier to remain in treatment to get the best results.
The following links provide information that you may find helpful: