If you feel like you can relate to the above depression symptoms and experience significant suffering, it can be useful to look into treating depression. Even though you might not experience the symptoms needed for a diagnosis depression, treating depression can help you to deal with depression symptoms so that you suffer less.

If you are actively looking for a depression diagnosis, we want to let you know that you cannot diagnose yourself on the basis of the information regarding a depression diagnosis. The information which you find in our main article or other sub-articles might give you guidance in your journey. Only a psychiatrist can give an official diagnosis.

Is it important to have a diagnosis before looking into treating depression?

No. In the past, a diagnosis of depression was often needed to have access to treating depression. Nowadays this only goes for very specialized help or eventual reimbursement of certain medication. Instead, there nowadays are certain types of therapy which do not even focus on a diagnosis when treating depression, but rather on your symptoms and what your goal is.

Furthermore, some people also experience that it is a burden to get a diagnosis. They feel like they are labeled. Some people even have the feeling that their treatment of depression will be more intensive after having received a diagnosis. In short, a diagnosis can help you move forward, but in some situations it can also demotivate you.

Treating depression: the first steps?

What exactly can we do to treat a depression? Where do we start treating depression? What are the first steps? In practise we notice that many people do not know where to start at first, or how to look for ways of treating depression. For many people it is difficult to take this first step, because many believe that one only should go to a psychologist with serious issues.

Also, depression symptoms often have an influence when you are looking for manners of treating depression. If you are depressed, you namely do not feel motivated to do much at all. You feel like it does not matter anyway. In many cases, a depression advances way too much before it is treated. In that case, the symptoms have often developed to such an extent that treating depression will take much longer. A golden rule which is thus often applicable is the following:

The longer you wait with looking to treat depression, the longer you will need to treat depression and suffering!

Motivation to take the first step?

In short, for many people it is difficult to take the first step when it comes to treating depression. Looking for treatment of depression, however, is very useful. Not only because treating depression takes longer if you wait longer, but also because of other reasons.

1. Relapse risks are great after a depression

If you have or have had a depression, chances of you getting another depression increase. People who never looked at treating depression and somehow find a way to get out of their depression anyway, thus have a large vulnerability to relapse. Even people treating depression are vulnerable to relapse. Treating depression, however, means that you receive tools which can help to prevent relapse. Here are some numbers regarding relapse:

  • After a first depression there is a 30% chance of relapsing.
  • After a second depression there is a 75% chance of relapsing.
  • After a third depression there is a 90% chance of relapsing.

Treating depression is thus useful, as it helps reduce the chance of relapse. There also are specialised ways of treating depression which focus on dealing with relapse. In the online self-help program "15Minutes4Me.com", this can be done by following the program for a few weeks, until your scores end up and remain in the green zone.

2. Treating helps curing

While the numbers regarding depression increase and the chances of relapse increase, there are only few people who find their way into treating depression. Research from the KULeuven shows that only 14% of people with depression without procrastinating behavior end up in healthcare in the same year in which the problem manifested itself (Bruffaerts, Bonnewyn & Demyttenaere, 2008). The other 86% of people with depression did not look for help or only started treating depression years after its start. In short, you might find it difficult to take the step to treating depression, but you are not the only one who finds this.

We give you these numbers to motivate you, not to scare you. These numbers have the goal of making you become aware of the influence of treating depression and how you can effectively deal with your own suffering.

Treating depression: the first steps are not taken alone?

Sometimes you can feel alone when taking the first steps toward treating depression. You do not really know where to start, or which are the best ways of treating depression, ...

We want to guide you in this. With the help of the free information and test found in this website, we want to help you find your way toward a suitable way of treating depression. Furthermore, you can also buy the program, which will help you even more in believing in your own capacities, if you want to move into a more intensive way of treating depression.

Together we find a solution for depression.

Treating depression: psychiatrist?

You can ask for help from a psychiatrist if you think you might have a depression. They actually are the only person who can help you in your search for a diagnosis. Furthermore, a psychiatrist often has had a type of medical education. That is why many psychiatrists who have done an intake for treating depression usually look for a method which mainly consists of medication. Eventual psychotherapy is something which most psychiatrist do not consider.

Certain forms of depression can be treated at the hand of medication use, without opting for the combination thereof with psychotherapy. The effectivity of this method will depend on the form of depression which you have, being effective and quick for some. If the cause of depression is mainly found in genetic and physical causes, medication for your depression is likely to be very useful. A treatment without medication is much less effective for these forms of depression.

Antidepressants or medication in treating depression?

To give a clearer overview of eventual antidepressants which a psychiatrist can prescribe, we give a list below of the different names of different antidepressants and in which dosages these medications may generally be prescribed.

Specific serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)

Name                                  Max dosage per day
Citalopram 40 mg
Escitalopram 20 mg
Fluoxetine 60 mg
Fluvoxamine 300 mg
Paroxetine 50 mg
Sertraline 200 mg

Selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)

Name                                  Max dosage per day
Reboxetine 10 mg

Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs)

Name                                   Max dosage per day
Amitriptyline 150 mg
Clomipramine 150 mg
Dosulepine 150 mg
Doxepine 150 mg
Imipramine 200 mg
Maprotiline 150 mg
Nortriptyline 150 mg

Non-selective serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)

Name                                  Max dosage per day
Duloxetine 60 mg
Venlafaxine 225 mg

 Non-selective dopamine and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)

Name                                Max dosage per day
Bupropion 300 mg

Treating depression: psychologist or psychotherapist?

A psychologist or psychotherapist can help you in treating depression with the help of a therapeutic treatment. A psychologist is someone who has followed a 5-year education and has finished their master's degree in psychology. A psychotherapist, on the other hand, is someone who has followed a therapeutic education of generally 3 to 4 years.

Neither a psychologist nor a psychotherapist is allowed to set a diagnosis. However, they are allowed to raise their suspicions. Based on these suspicions and eventually a diagnosis, these people can then pick a therapeutic way of treating depression. Commonly used forms of therapy for depression can be found in cognitive behavioral therapy.

A treatment at a psychologist or psychotherapist can prove its effectiveness in both psychological causes and even in some physical causes of depression. From research it has been shown that psychotherapy is a very effective way of treating depression in both minor and major depressions, and it is also a very good complement to use in genetic depressions..

Treating depression: online self-help program?

People generally believe that a face-to-face empathetic conversation with a caretaker is the only way to treat a depression. This was supported within scientific circles, too, for a long time, as many studies were done on the importance of empathy. Recent research, including research by the American researcher Scot Miller however shows that empathy mainly exists to get the commitment of a client. With this we mean the motivation to work on their problem. This way, the client themselves can then clarify that they want to actively change something about their situation.

As soon as the decision has been taken to ask for help, it is then useful for the client to be guided with the correct questions. In this regard it is then less important whether the guidance is given by a computer or a human being. Computers are very useful here as research shows that online self-help programs can also be very effective. Research has namely found that stress can decrease by up to 77% in the first month of usage of the online self-help program "15Minutes4Me.com".

Doctors and psychologists based the online self-help program "15Minutes4Me.com" on existing therapeutic techniques. This program uses cognitive and solution focused techniques to treat the following problems:

  • Depression
  • Stress
  • Burnout
  • Anxiety

Like a psychologist or psychotherapist, this program cannot diagnose you, nor can the free self-test. The program is easier to get into than most types of psychotherapy, so that people with mild forms of depression also have a chance of treatment, where they otherwise would have found it difficult to get help.

This program does not aim to replace existing types of psychotherapy, but instead it has the goal to play the role of an alternative or complement to current types of psychotherapy. You can namely also combine the online program with psychotherapy or a treatment at a psychiatrist, so that you can work toward your goals every day. The program can namely be followed on a daily basis for fifteen minutes per day so that you can visibly improve on a daily basis.

If you follow more than one type of depression treatment at once, it is useful to let your treating psychiatrist, doctor, psychologist or psychotherapist know, so that your caretakers have a complete image of the way in which you are treating depression.

Except for daily guidance, this program also offers the possibility of inviting family members. We then teach them what treating depression means and how they can support you. We help them and you to understand depression in a better way. Pay attention: you are not required to invite anyone. The program only offers the option to eventually work on treating depression together with your loved ones.

Treating depression: the depression test?

Would you like more information about your depression symptoms and which treatment for depression is best for you? Then you can always do our free depression test here. This test can help motivate you to take the first steps toward treating depression.