When does normal sadness after a breakup turn into clinical depression? I know it would be easy if there were
a set number of days or weeks after which it was “abnormal” to be very sad after a breakup. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. How long we feel depressed after a breakup often depends on [Read more…]
Is It Me or Is It the Job?
Is It Me or Is It the Job?
Amy is a 42 year-old school teacher who finds herself struggling to get work every morning. When she comes to meet with me for career counseling, she says she is wondering if she should change jobs due to her serious job-related unhappiness that [Read more…]
Do Something Different: Behavioral activation for depression
Behavioral activation is a treatment for depression that helps people focus on re-engagement with their lives and on doing things that are likely to improve their mood (Jacobson, Martell, & Dimidjian, 2001). In treatment using behavioral activation, the activities in a depressed person’s life are altered to lessen depression. The client is helped to structure their lives differently.
[Read more…]
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Depression
Jeff is a middle-aged man who was recently laid off. Although he has had multiple job interviews, he has been unemployed for the past six months. His confidence is wearing away and he finds it more and more difficult to get out of bed each morning. When friends ask him to go out to dinner, he declines, preferring to stay home watching TV.
Be an Informed Consumer!
Much attention has been cast on the relationships between clinical medicine and the pharmaceutical industries. How much has the pharmaceutical industry been influencing the treatment of depression and anxiety? The rate of use of prescription medication in the United States is higher than in other industrialized nations. The use of 
prescription antidepressant medication has drastically increased in the past 20 years. In fact, a 2007 study by the CDC found that in the United States, antidepressants were prescribed more often than medications for high blood pressure or high cholesterol! [Read more…]