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Suggest Treatment For Symptoms Of Depression
Question: Hello doc, My name is XXXX. My girl friend is suffering from some fear or insecurity for the past 2 months. She is not working properly, not sleeping properly. She is normal most of the times but suddenly she thinks about something and feels very insecure. what she says is she has collected this feeling of insecurity over several years right from childhood and currently she is all surrounded by the negative thoughts and negative happenings in her life. This is not just mental sometimes she says she gets a burning sensation in her body and she is really afraid that something bad might happen to her. How do you define this in your medical terms and what do you think is the cause for this and what is the solution? She remembers everything from her childhood right from when it happened and how it happened like that.. e.g., a small thing like friend's betrayal during her young age is affecting her now. She is 28 years now. Please help us with your valuable suggestions. Thanks a lot in advance doc!
Brief Answer:
probable depression.
Detailed Answer:
Hello
Welcome to HCM.
Dear XXXX, I can understand your concerns for your friend.
Your friend is having symptoms like disturbed sleep, not taking interest in work, feeling of insecurity, negative thoughts and fear of mishap and physical symptoms like burning sensation in her body.
In my opinion, these complaints suggest that she is suffering from depression.
The Life stressors are a very important cause for depression. She has had feeling of insecurity since her childhood. She has had traumatic memories like a betrayal from friend. The major and minor stressors in her life have accumulated to hamper her self-esteem. Now she has negative feelings towards herself and her environment, and thus depression.
Regarding the treatment, there are drug treatment as well as psychological treatments.
Drugs like escitalopram, sertrailne or paroxetine (prescription drugs) are safe and very effective in such cases. The drugs will take care of mental as well as physical symptoms of her.
Psychological treatments like cognitive and behavior therapies work very well in conjunction with these drugs.
I would suggest you to take her to a psychiatrist for detailed evaluation and begin with these treatments.
I would also suggest to continue with yoga and meditation.
Hope this helps.
Feel free to ask if you have more queries.
Kindly close the discussion if you are satisfied with the responses and give your valuable feedback.
Thanks.
Dr. Shubham Mehta, MD (Psychiatry).
probable depression.
Detailed Answer:
Hello
Welcome to HCM.
Dear XXXX, I can understand your concerns for your friend.
Your friend is having symptoms like disturbed sleep, not taking interest in work, feeling of insecurity, negative thoughts and fear of mishap and physical symptoms like burning sensation in her body.
In my opinion, these complaints suggest that she is suffering from depression.
The Life stressors are a very important cause for depression. She has had feeling of insecurity since her childhood. She has had traumatic memories like a betrayal from friend. The major and minor stressors in her life have accumulated to hamper her self-esteem. Now she has negative feelings towards herself and her environment, and thus depression.
Regarding the treatment, there are drug treatment as well as psychological treatments.
Drugs like escitalopram, sertrailne or paroxetine (prescription drugs) are safe and very effective in such cases. The drugs will take care of mental as well as physical symptoms of her.
Psychological treatments like cognitive and behavior therapies work very well in conjunction with these drugs.
I would suggest you to take her to a psychiatrist for detailed evaluation and begin with these treatments.
I would also suggest to continue with yoga and meditation.
Hope this helps.
Feel free to ask if you have more queries.
Kindly close the discussion if you are satisfied with the responses and give your valuable feedback.
Thanks.
Dr. Shubham Mehta, MD (Psychiatry).
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Thanks a lot for a quick reply doc. It would be a great help if you can explain us in detail about "cognitive and behavior therapies".
This problem is there for a month, so what changes in everyday life do you suggest would help us here?
Also Doc, why does she have a physical problems like burning sensation / pain in hands and legs if it is just depression? Also, few days back there was some kinda internal blood clotting in her legs. This could have happened by hitting somewhere mistakenly. but her explanation to this was - she was sleeping suddenly some thought during the sleep gave a heavy jerk. She jerked from bed with legs up and then down for a second. Then next morning when she woke up she saw a clot near her calve muscle. Doc, does this have some relation to her depression, else do you think this is something to be treated differently.
Thanks & Regards,
XXXX
This problem is there for a month, so what changes in everyday life do you suggest would help us here?
Also Doc, why does she have a physical problems like burning sensation / pain in hands and legs if it is just depression? Also, few days back there was some kinda internal blood clotting in her legs. This could have happened by hitting somewhere mistakenly. but her explanation to this was - she was sleeping suddenly some thought during the sleep gave a heavy jerk. She jerked from bed with legs up and then down for a second. Then next morning when she woke up she saw a clot near her calve muscle. Doc, does this have some relation to her depression, else do you think this is something to be treated differently.
Thanks & Regards,
XXXX
Brief Answer:
neurochemical imbalance.
Detailed Answer:
Thanks for the follow-up.
Dear,
Cognitive behavior therapy in simple terms means changing the negative thoughts which leads to change in behaviour.
Say for example, in her case, she might exaggerate some instances of life which are indeed not that big for a normal person. This would lead her to adopt a negativistic attitude towards others.
In the therapy, a therapist would challenge her distorted thoughts and suggest ways to change thinking and attitude towards others.
In your daily life, you should help to adopt positive ways of coping in life:
Enjoying nature,
Reading books and novels,
Engage in cooking or gardening,
Giving time to herself,
Not judging and expecting from people,
Not isolating herself,
Sharing what she feels.
Similarly, you can find out the ways for her.
There are physical symptoms in depression because depression causes neurochemical imbalance in brain and body. This can cause physical symptoms.
The jerking event which happened in her sleep might be a part of depression or it could be a separate problem.
If this has occured more than once, investigation like sleep-EEG would help to find out the cause.
She might have hit her legs somewhere in sleep during that jerk and got an injury.
Teatment by a psychiatrist is what is appropriate for her.
Hope this helps.
Will be happy to answer further, if you have more queries.
Thanks.
neurochemical imbalance.
Detailed Answer:
Thanks for the follow-up.
Dear,
Cognitive behavior therapy in simple terms means changing the negative thoughts which leads to change in behaviour.
Say for example, in her case, she might exaggerate some instances of life which are indeed not that big for a normal person. This would lead her to adopt a negativistic attitude towards others.
In the therapy, a therapist would challenge her distorted thoughts and suggest ways to change thinking and attitude towards others.
In your daily life, you should help to adopt positive ways of coping in life:
Enjoying nature,
Reading books and novels,
Engage in cooking or gardening,
Giving time to herself,
Not judging and expecting from people,
Not isolating herself,
Sharing what she feels.
Similarly, you can find out the ways for her.
There are physical symptoms in depression because depression causes neurochemical imbalance in brain and body. This can cause physical symptoms.
The jerking event which happened in her sleep might be a part of depression or it could be a separate problem.
If this has occured more than once, investigation like sleep-EEG would help to find out the cause.
She might have hit her legs somewhere in sleep during that jerk and got an injury.
Teatment by a psychiatrist is what is appropriate for her.
Hope this helps.
Will be happy to answer further, if you have more queries.
Thanks.
Note: For further guidance on mental health, Click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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