How Do I Know If I am Experiencing Depression?
We all experience times when our mood is low and we do not feel motivated to engage in tasks and activities. Might that mean that we are experiencing depression? Does this mean that you should seek online therapy for depression? There are many reasons why you might consider seeking treatment with an online therapist for depression.
Let’s start by understanding the symptoms that you are experiencing. It is important to consider whether these symptoms of low mood are impacting your daily functioning and quality of life. When our mood is low and we are experiencing depression, it can impact our ability to experience pleasure in activities, enjoyment within our relationships or at work (or school) and we can find that we have a very low amount of motivation to do most things we usually do.
In order for a proper diagnosis to be made, it is essential to make an appointment with a healthcare professional with training in assessment and diagnosis. Psychological diagnoses are provided by physicians and psychologists. This can be very helpful before you begin any type of depression treatment online.
If you begin depression treatment online, you will begin to learn more about your symptoms and important information about depression and the role of avoidance. You will learn about why this might have occurred and how your behaviours and low mood are being maintained. It is important to better understand the impact of low mood so you can start to use evidence-based tools and strategies to help navigate your mood and change in functioning. You will find that learning these techniques with a professional clinician during online therapy for depression is often very impactful.
Depression, or, Major Depressive Disorder, is important to be able to recognize and understand. You want to be able to understand how this might be different from having a day during which you might feel “blah” or unmotivated.
According to The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR), there are many different types of what we call depressive disorders. These include major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder, premenstrual dysphoric disorder and several others. The feature that is common to all of them is how the individual will report feeling sad, empty or irritable. Furthermore, individuals will experience changes as a result of this low mood that will impact how well the person is able to function on a daily basis. Differences between the depressive disorder presentations are mostly regarding the duration of low mood, timing or possible causes.
Major Depressive Disorder is considered to be a classic presentation within this category of mental health disorders in the DSM-5-TR. Common symptoms seen, over at least a two-week period, when experiencing this may include:
Note: When an individual is experiencing recurrent thoughts of death that may be accompanied by thoughts or plans of suicidality it is best to proceed to the nearest emergency room to ensure that the individual is fully assessed and kept safe by a healthcare professional.
At Forward Thinking Psychological Services® we have many well-trained healthcare professionals who are skilled in working with individuals with depression and conducting online therapy for depression. We encourage you to reach out so we can better understand your symptoms and work together to ensure you are on the path to recovery.
Should I get Online Therapy for Depression?
If you are experiencing symptoms of depression that are interfering in your life and impacting your relationships, it might be time to start looking into online treatment for depression. Online depression therapy is important to consider for many reasons.
We know that online therapy sessions are effective and can provide us with many benefits as opposed to attending therapy in person. These may include:
Online therapy for depression and anxiety using CBT strategies has been found to be effective for individuals, and this allows us to feel confident when providing this service to you. At Forward Thinking Psychological Services® we provide CBT strategies during online treatment for depression and anxiety; contact us to learn more!
Overall, online therapy for depression does allow you many options in terms of being able to work with different therapists. Individuals within more rural communities often appreciate the fact that they are not bound by a limited number of therapists who might live within their region. Although you might think that depression treatment online should be possible anywhere in Canada, it does depend on where clinicians are licensed to deliver services.
At Forward Thinking Psychological Services®, our clinicians are able to provide services throughout different parts of Canada, including Ontario, Nova Scotia, British Columbia and New Brunswick.
At Forward Thinking Psychological Services®, we have an experienced team of mental health clinicians who are able to work with you on your symptoms of depression. We also have clinicians who work directly with adolescents and teens and can engage in online treatment for depression with them.
What Happens During Online Treatment for Depression?
You might be wondering what you would be doing should you engage in depression therapy online. What will I be doing with my therapist?
There are a variety of therapies for symptoms of depression. When looking for an online therapist for depression, you want to ensure that the assessment they conduct and interventions they use are evidence-based. This means that research has been done to support this treatment. You should feel comfortable asking about this as well as what their training and experience have been. At FTPS, we only provide online therapy for depression that has been found to be effective. Many of our clinicians will use CBT as part of their online depression therapy offerings. In addition, they will incorporate other evidence-based interventions such as acceptance and commitment therapy and DBT-informed approaches.
Let’s focus on behavioural activation and CBT strategies that are often used during online treatment for depression. By engaging in depression treatment online, you will learn a lot of skills that you can use on your own, in between sessions.
These skills will help you to better understand your symptoms of depression, avoidance that might occur and what you can do to try and gain perspective and unhook from difficult thoughts and feelings.
Here are the types of skills you will learn:
During online depression therapy, you will also have the opportunity to do cognitive strategies with your therapist. This can take the form of thought record work. During thought record work you will learn many skills, including:
Online cognitive behavioural therapy for depression has been found to be effective for youth, teens and adults. If you engage in this type of therapy, you can be confident that you will be receiving an intervention that has been shown to help individuals with depression.
Following your initial assessment with your online therapist for depression, you will be able to discuss the best way to begin your work together. You might want to start with cognitive therapy work, such as thought record interventions, or behavioural activation. These are essential discussions to have with your therapist during depression therapy online.
How Can I Find Depression Treatment Online?
Does FTPS provide online therapy for depression near me? Yes, we do! We provide it throughout Canada, with an ability to help people who live within Ontario, Nova Scotia, British Columbia and New Brunswick.
We provide depression therapy online for adults, teens, parents, families and couples.
Please contact us to learn more and get started!