The rate of depression is accelerating. In 2021, The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that 280 million people globally suffer from depression.
The number of reported cases of depression worldwide increased from 172 million in 1990 to 258 million in 2017.
One study reports that an estimated 35 to 50% of individuals with severe depressive symptoms in high-income countries do not seek treatment. Moreover, only about 20% of the patients that do receive care for depression get effective treatment.
Mental health experts say that a combination of psychotherapy and medication is the best treatment for depression. This is backed up by the National Mental Health Association that confirm 80% of people who get treatment say they “feel better.”
However, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) say at least 50% of people that experience severe symptoms of depression will have a second episode even if they feel better after treatment.
And about 80% of people who experience a second episode will have a third.
We should be asking a question here.
Mental health experts claim that anti-depressants “take 3 to 6 months for symptoms to improve to the point that you are no longer depressed.”
But mental health professionals also acknowledge patients can “experience a constellation of withdrawal symptoms” when they stop taking their medication.
The statistics mentioned above in relation to relapses support this observation.
In other words, anti-depressants are not curing depression they are masking it.
Another issue is that the body develops tolerance to drugs to the point that medications become ineffective. That will account for second and third relapses.
I’ve documented the ineffectiveness of anti-depressants in a previous article so won’t go over it again here.
So what about the other aspect of mainstream treatments? I would expect psychotherapy to work, wouldn’t you?
The APA claims that 50% of patients coping with depression recover after 15-20 sessions. This is based on a self-reported measurement.
The self-judgement may also be based on “feeling better”.
Therapists prefer to continue sessions for a little longer. This way they can provide a professional assessment to determine whether the techniques improve depression for each patient.
It should be noted there is no single treatment to cure depression. Appropriate treatment should be given in relation to the root cause of depression and how well patients respond to suggested treatments.
On average, therapists recommend 20-30 sessions over a period of six months.
Research from the Netherlands also found the average treatment period is around six months. Only 12% of patients had not recovered after 36 months.
The diagnostics for psychotherapy look more promising. Pills are nothing more than a copy mechanism to get you through your treatment, but could also be falsifying how you really feel.
When that’s the case, patients that self-assess whether they have recovered from depression cannot confidently say their depression is cured.
Let’s take a look at the symptoms of depression.
If you have three or more of the symptoms above and you’re working with a therapist, I recommend you continue working with them – but if the tools they provide are not making a lot of difference, try the two below.
If you’re not receiving treatment for your anxiety and depression, get in touch today. I do not recommend ignoring the issue because it will get worse. I struggled with anxiety and depression for almost 30 years and it was debilitating.
But then, I discovered a cure – which I am sharing with you in this article.
Purpose and meaning drive fulfilment and emotional well-being. Yet many of us do not feel fulfilled in our jobs, careers, relationships and even our social lives.
For people that are depressed, life can feel like an endless cycle of mundane tasks and superficial interaction with people we know.
If this sounds familiar, your outlook on life will be contributing to your depression.
If you can identify YOUR purpose in life, even better!
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Small steps.
If you think about it, there is a purpose for everything you do in life. You eat and drink to survive. But also for pleasure.
You shower to cleanse yourself, smell nice and feel fresh. Showering serves a positive purpose so show gratitude for your soap and water.
No matter how depressing your job is, you are there for a reason, right? Jobs serve a purpose no matter how mundane they are. Imagine how much worse your life would be without an income.
Even the jobs we have around the home serve a purpose. Whether you’re cleaning the bathroom or repairing the bathroom door, there is a reason for that.
Attaching a positive meaning to your actions gives the things you do every day a purpose. In doing so, you start to establish core values and standards of living.
Furthermore, when you attach purpose and meaning to mundane tasks, you start seeing your life through a positive lens. You will then be able to nurture your emotional well-being and genuinely start to feel better.
Lastly, purpose gives you a sense of control over your life and helps to develop self-worth.
It’s well established that low self-esteem is a cause of depression. People with low self-esteem are six times more likely to develop depression.
What you have to determine is why you experienced a loss of self-esteem that led to depression in the first place.
It could be as simple as feeling like a failure or being a mediocre student in your teens that caused you to develop depression in adulthood.
In many cases, it’s a lack of fulfilment and emotional well-being. Perhaps your relationships don’t work out the way you would like and you often feel rejected and/or abandoned.
When feelings of dissatisfaction, weakness, doubt, paranoia and unrest creep into your thoughts, these are clues that can be used to identify the root cause of your depression.
Once you do that, you can start applying an effective course of treatment that will lead you to a full recovery.
All you need is an easy-to-use self-development tool that enables you to identify your patterns of behaviours, motivations, thoughts and drives.
That’s where the Master Mind Content Archetypes Tool comes in useful. Archetypal patterns of behaviour are relevant to everyone so you will recognise yourself.
Our archetypal tool also ties in the gods of Greek mythology to help you remember which attributes are related to which archetypes. The myths help you to identify your own archetypal patterns easier.
As I mentioned in the opening paragraph of this article, I carried depression for about 15 years. When things got really bad and I decided to do something about it, I tried mainstream treatments.
They didn’t work. But then I found purpose and meaning in my life and noticed an improvement in the way that I felt and experienced life. That was just the start. When I discovered esoteric symbolism, it transformed my life.
I want to share these tools with you. The key to overcoming depression is to identify archetypal energies and determine which aspects of your nature you are ignoring. These tools enable you to successfully emerge on the other side feeling stronger, positive and at peace with yourself.
