Depression Treatment
Depression is very common, but most people never get proper treatment. This is a real tragedy because with proper treatment anyone with depression can make significant improvement. Therapy and medication are the two mainstays of treatment. Taking medication for depression is like taking cholesterol meds that prevent heart attack; diet and exercise habits also need to change. Antidepressants simply compensate for chemical malfunctions in the brain. Moreover, medication can make therapy more effective because if someone is too depressed to talk, he or she won’t benefit from psychotherapy or counseling. At Morningside Recovery, treatment for depression is comprehensive, with the correct medication combined with exercise, nutrition and therapy.
There are huge differences in therapeutic approaches, but anyone would agree that a therapy should “work.” In other words, it is a therapist’s job to assess whether a particular person can benefit from a particular approach. Morningside Recovery’s therapists are highly trained and come from diverse backgrounds so that the client is placed in the best possible situation. Therapists at Morningside will steer clients toward the right treatment for their unique issues. If a therapist and client decide that a certain approach isn’t helping, other forms of therapy are considered. In both group and individual therapy, the client’s progress is constantly monitored and reviewed. Treatment at Morningside recognizes that clients’ beliefs reflect the traditions of their culture and society, religious background, and family upbringing. Therefore, one size does not fit all.
Many clients say they have picked up beliefs and attitudes over the course of their lives that are hard to change. Many clients, for example, report that they didn’t know why they slept too much, ate too much and overreacted to minor changes in their lives. Morningside Recovery empowers clients to change the behaviors which are not helpful to daily living. According to Primary Therapist Veronica Parker, LMFT, clients learn that they can choose how they feel through workshops and exercises. Whenever people are faced with a problem or difficult situation, their thoughts and beliefs will come into play, to determine their feelings and responses. Parker says that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can provide valuable skills and techniques for a client to observe his or her own thought patterns and begin the process of retraining them. The goal is to enable clients to drop the negative thinking or misinterpretations that make their depression worse.
Another approach for depression is Interpersonal Therapy (IPT). Like CBT, Interpersonal Therapy doesn’t claim to cure depression or solve every problem in a person’s life. And unlike some mindsets, IPT doesn’t ask an individual to change everything about his or her life and personality. IPT actively aims to solve problems by being focused rather than open-ended. IPT usually sets a time-frame or goal with identifiable results. More importantly, IPT is based in the present rather than the past. IPT focuses on interpersonal relationships with the idea that emotional problems and behavioral issues are explored in terms of interpersonal relations.
As clients move through treatment, they work on developing an ability to maintain active involvement in daily life activities, and the ability to continue functioning as spouse, parent, employee, or other normal roles. With this in mind, Morningside Recovery encourages clients to enjoy the beautiful community of Newport Beach while fostering good communication with the family back home. Just as clients learn about living happy and sober throughout their treatment, so does the family learn about the disease afflicting their loved one. Morningside Recovery takes a comprehensive approach to treating the unique features of each client’s depressive illness.
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