Self Help Therapy Should Never Include Depression

depression self help therapy
Creative Commons License photo credit: breahn

Self Help Therapy

With millions of people turning to self help therapy in the form of books, audio programs and even attending seminars, it’s great to see the interest in folks wanting to improve themselves.  People are eagerly learning about communication, nutrition, fitness, motivation and a host of many other topics to improve their health, relationships and careers.

However, one area that self help therapy should never include is depression.  Too often, this condition is either left untreated or people opt to find answers in a book to try and manage it by themselves.  Sometimes people try to let time past and hope that their depression would magically disappear.

A bad slump is blamed for the depression and when things get better, the hope is that the depression will go away on its own.  Although it would be really nice if this happens and people could successfully just use self help therapy of some kind to manage this condition, things actually get worse in time.

Limit To Self Help Therapy

We have to realize that depression is a beast that requires help from others, especially in the form of professional healthcare providers.  Many people with depression get into denial and hesitate to see professionals.  They think that it would be too shameful to reach out to their doctors and instead, try to enlist the help of friends or even online communities.  Or even worse, they keep this to themselves.

The sad fact is that neither friends or strangers online are qualified to help those with depression.  Depression is a bad animal that is tough to tame and quite often, a variety of management tools are required all at the same time.  A professional healthcare provider would be the best person to coordinate such an action plan for people with depression.

If You Have Depression

If you have any feelings of depression, don’t prolong your condition thinking that it would go away on its own.  It can seldom be beat solo and with just self help therapy.  Self help is great for many things like motivation and general health.  Many self help book readers have benefited from my book, The Life Champion In You for example but there is a limit with such resources and it stops at conditions like depression.

There’s no shame in seeking help but it must be help from qualified professionals.  Do the right thing for yourself and your family by contacting your health provider immediately.  If you are currently seeing a professional and feel that things can be stepped up, don’t hesitate to ask for this as there are many additional tools available for you such as local support groups.

I talk a little about this issue of depression in my free 3-part Personal Development Video Series.  See how you can access it in the introduction video up at the top sidebar on the left.

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