Self-Management of Depression

If you are receiving mental health care, the treatment plan is a key document that you will develop in collaboration with your treatment provider. The treatment plan lists your treatment goals, the types of interventions that will be used, and how outcomes will be measured. In addition to these generic elements of a treatment plan, a personalized treatment plan also incorporates your strengths, needs, vision of your own recovery, and desired quality of life.  6 key elements of a treatment plan A successful personalized treatment plan has the following six attributes (Adams & Grieder, 2005): Is centered on your goals and values Respects your experience in dealing with your mental health issues Addresses not only managing symptoms but also learning to successfully cope with life’s challenges and building resilience Empowers you to move toward self-management of your mental illness Focuses on positive functioning in a variety of roles and building positive relationships Is oriente...

Much has been written about how work-related stress is associated with burnout and depression. Burnout has become a buzzword that has spawned a modern-day cottage industry of one-size-fits-all wellness programs. Before we discuss the remedies for burnout, let's examine what causes it in the first place. From a psychological perspective, the hazardous effects of the work environment on health, aka burnout, have been explained by the effort-reward model . According to this model, the imbalance created by high “costs” (spending high effort at work or over-commitment) and low “benefits” (in terms of monetary gratification, career opportunities, esteem, respect, and job security) produces emotional distress affecting both mental and physical health (Siegrist & Li, 2016). In fact, research shows that this effort-reward imbalance is associated with a 1.5-fold increased risk of depressive disorders (Rugulies et al., 2017). In this context, the concept of “job crafting” is a ...

When one is feeling low, it doesn’t necessarily mean that one is going through the throes of clinical depression, i.e., major depressive disorder. There are several conditions that may mimic clinical depression but don’t reach the severity or pervasiveness of the former condition or are symptomatically distinct. It is important to recognize these so that one may not unnecessarily get prescribed medications or started on psychotherapy as some of these conditions are time limited or may remit on their own. At the same time, some of these conditions such as complicated grief may need specialized therapy. Conditions that resemble depression but are not depression include the following: Sadness: Depression is more than the normal pangs of sadness one gets when experiencing a stressful situation. Depression is a more pervasive and persistent change in your mood along with changes in your physiological functions such as sleep, appetite, and energy level. Although stress can trig...

We live in a society where it is impossible to escape comparisons. Growing up, your parents probably compared you with other siblings and in school you compared yourself with other students. As an adult, you continue to compare yourself with your peers at work, your neighbors, your friends and relatives, and people you come across on social network sites or other media outlets. There are two kinds of social comparisons (Taylor & Lobel, 1989): 1. Upward social comparison: You compare yourself with others whose performance and abilities are better than yours. 2. Downward social comparison: You compare yourself with others who are less fortunate than you are in the attributes you are comparing. People compare themselves to others when they need an external standard against which to judge their abilities or opinions (Festinger, 1954). Comparison helps you manage your negative mood, especially with downward comparison, which makes you feel better realizing that there are people who...