Depression descrimination

How will they decide who is depressed and who is not?

The difficulty with depression is that:

• The term is used loosely, even within medical professions, that it is meaningless;
• The medical profession, in particular GP’s, often have no training in mental health;
• Anti-depressants are prescribed too easily and will appear on medical records;
• There is an assumption ‘once depressed- always depressed’; and such individuals are a significant risk.

As such the approach being pursued by some insurers is unscientific and a knee-jerk reaction.

Consequences and response

Those who are clinically depressed find it hard to function effectively. The straw that breaks the camels back could be unrealistic workplace expectations. While anti-depressants can help with initial coping, the problem is they tackle the everyday symptoms and do not address the underlying causes.

People with significant depression can often feel:

• Hopeless: they are no good;
• Ineffective: whatever I do is not good enough;
• Pointless: I will never make anything of my life so what is the point;
• Valueless: there is nothing about me that is likeable so I will never have a successful relationship.

Talking therapies effective in tackling depression

The counsellor will work with the underlying causes of the symptoms that the pills seek to alleviate including:

• Beliefs about yourself that are ingrained and unhelpful;
• Assumptions that you make about others that leave you feeling worse about yourself;
• Unhelpful patterns in your life that for some reason seem to be repeated.

The natural instinct is to speak to a doctor who may diagnose a form of depression ; this will then be on your medical record. However for initial coping this is a good approach.

Alternatively a Counsellor will talk through your symptoms, feelings and thoughts. Only then are you able to address and understand the reasons and tackle the problems.