Depression is the scourge of modern society. However, people still do not fully understand how this disease differs from a bad mood. That is why very dubious methods of treating depression are so popular on the Internet. Which one definitely can't be trusted? Here is a list of the most ridiculous ways that Word and Deed put together with clinical psychologists and psychotherapists.
"Stretching helps with depression"
Nowadays there are more and more advertisements on the web that stretching helps with depression. Clinical psychologist and forensic psychologist Oleg Dolgitsky noted that any physical activity helps to improve the mental state and well-being of a person - and stretching exercises are among them.
“However, you need to immediately understand that depression is a serious mental illness, the treatment of which should take place under the supervision of a psychiatrist and medical psychologist who use medication and non-medication methods of psychotherapy.”
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Exercise in this case is an additional, but not the main, recommendation for the treatment of depression. Exercise alone does not cure depression. In addition, stretching exercises for untrained people who already have muscle spasms due to their hypertonicity, shortening and high anxiety will not have a therapeutic effect.
“Before doing stretching exercises, it is more logical to remove anxiety and only then begin to perform them. Because the stretch reflex will occur much earlier than if it were with low anxiety. In this regard, it can be argued that stretching alone does not cure depression."
"Alcohol will save you from depression"
Another popular form of depression relief. This method was named by clinical psychologist Elena Kuznetsova. “People are trying to drown out depression with alcoholic beverages. But this is not a working scheme. Perhaps it will distract a little, but it will not cure this disease."
"Diet practices"
And this is not the whole list, continues Oleg Dolgitsky. In his practice, he meets people who are trying to get rid of the disease by changing their diet. "People came to me to treat depression, from vegetarianism to various forms of fasting."
"Change country or city"
Depression is a biological disease. If a person tries to escape from him to some other city or country, then it is useless.
“Various acts of flight with subdepressive symptoms. Most often they just change the city. They leave for St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Moscow. Less often - abroad, to Thailand or Vietnam,”says Dolgitsky.
"Esoterics and Fortune Tellers"
Among Russians, various spiritual practices related to self-help are very popular, the psychologist continues. “There are often esoteric parties in cities. Some go there for yoga, while others are sincerely looking for a cure there. Well, the classics, of course, are trips to fortune-tellers to remove damage."
"Drugs for the rescue"
According to the speaker, this is especially popular among residents of St. Petersburg. “In St. Petersburg they like to fight with the lack of motivation, drowsiness and bad mood with certain types of drugs”.
"Sexual Practices"
In the expert's practice, there were also people who tried to get rid of the disease by changing their sex life.
“People are starting to experiment with different forms of sex because libido decreases with depression. In men, in this respect, from the point of view of psychoanalysis, beauty simply unfolds."
And this is an incomplete list of dubious and ineffective methods, the expert adds. Unfortunately, people very rarely reach specialists with depression. More often they just don't go to the doctor. But there is another problem - the difficulty of identifying symptoms, which are usually blurred.
“For example, a person sleeps 8 hours a day, but wakes up often. Or it seems like there was no change in body weight, but the body mass index is out of the norm for ten years against the background of mass obesity. In general, the problem is with the mood: people do not understand what they are talking about. If it is possible to find this case through testing, then I tell the person about it. Referral to a psychiatrist is quite authoritarian. Otherwise they don't walk, or they walk, but then they don't take pills,”the speaker explained.
Are there any preventive measures? This is a very important issue, noted clinical psychologist Elena Kuznetsova. The speaker recommends that readers be in contact with other people, find support in society and respond to people in the same way.
Earlier, "Word and Deed" said that the products were named to reduce stress
