The treatment plan your doctor recommends for your depression will depend on the type and severity you suffer from. Some people might be prescribed antidepressants, others might get psychotherapy. Exercise can also help. Here’s a quick look at a few treatments for this condition.

Psychotherapy

This is usually the first step in treating depression without medication. It’s also called talk therapy. With this type of treatment, you’ll meet with a social worker, psychologist, psychiatrist, or other type of trained mental health professional. You’ll discuss what’s making you feel this way and learn new methods of dealing with the mindset and challenges that can be brought on by depression. If other treatment methods are required, these professionals can point you in the right direction.

Pulse TMS

When speaking of depression treatment options, what is TMS? Is a question medical professionals are hearing more and more. This is a non-invasive treatment that uses electrical pulses to stimulate the neurons in the brain that control your moods. It offers fewer side effects than medications and treatment sessions only take a short amount of time while the results can last for quite a while. It’s typically used for adult patients who’ve already been on a minimum of one antidepressant medication and who suffer from major depression.

Antidepressants

This type of medication works to lift your mood and alleviate some of the hopelessness and sadness you may be feeling. There are a few different types, so you’ll need to work closely with your doctor to find the one that offers the least side effects and works the best for you.

With antidepressants, it’s all about the circuitry in the brain that assists with the management of your moods. There are three main chemicals involved – dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. With depression, the circuits in the brain that utilize these specific chemicals don’t function properly. Antidepressant drugs work to tweak those chemicals so that those specific circuits work better. This can assist with the improvement of your mood.

ECT

ECT is short for electroconvulsive therapy, but people also call it shock therapy. It can work for more severe depression that hasn’t shown improvement with other treatments. With this one, the doctor will give you medication that will put you to sleep while he sends a painless and brief electrical current through the scalp to the brain. The current will bring on a seizure. This is safe though. At times, a doctor will use this treatment option when someone is a threat to themselves or someone else and it’s a bit too dangerous to wait for other medications to kick in.

Vagus Nerve Stimulation

This is an actual surgery that is for those who’ve had other treatments that haven’t worked. During the surgery, the doctor will implant a device sort of like a pacemaker, and about the size of a pocket watch into your chest. The wires of this device will lead to the vagus nerve located in your neck. It will regularly send electrical impulses to that nerve, which then leads information to and from the brain.

Some of these treatment options are more extreme than others and not all of them will either be used or work for you. Work alongside your doctor to find the right one for your depression.