Depression

Depression is a serious mental health condition affecting people of all ages, making it hard for them to get through their daily routine. Kingwood Psychiatry in Kingwood and The Woodlands, Texas, treats children, teenagers, and adults struggling with depression. They take a personalized approach to care, offering the latest treatments and therapies to ease symptoms. Call Kingwood Psychiatry today or schedule your in-office or telemedicine appointment online to get help for depression.

What is depression?

Depression affects how you feel and think, interfering with your normal behaviors. Depression and “the blues” aren’t the same thing. People feeling the blues improve on their own. People with depression don’t get better over time; their symptoms tend to worsen without treatment.

Depression affects people of all ages and backgrounds. You can develop depression after a significant life change or due to a severe medical condition. No matter what causes depression, changes in brain chemicals cause your symptoms to persist.

Though depression can make you feel hopeless, help is available. Kingwood Psychiatry treats depression in people of all ages, customizing each patient’s care to improve their symptoms and quality of life. The sooner you get help, the quicker you can expect to feel better.

What are the symptoms of depression?

Depression causes a low mood that affects your energy and behaviors. The common symptoms of depression include:

• Feeling hopeless or sad
• Withdrawing from friends, family, and social activities
• Sleeping more or less than normal
• Eating more or less than normal
• Lacking the energy to do things
• Having aches and pains from unknown causes
• Thinking about death or suicide

You don’t have to have all of these symptoms to have depression. But if your mood is low and it’s making it hard for you to function, and your symptoms occur daily for two or more weeks, it’s time to seek help at Kingwood Psychiatry.

How is depression treated?

Kingwood Psychiatry offers many treatments for depression. They personalize your plan based on your symptoms and how long you’ve been depressed. Kingwood Psychiatry also provides care for treatment-resistant depression, a type of depression that fails to improve with traditional methods.

Depression treatments include:

Medication management

Medication management is the use of antidepressants to help ease your symptoms. Your provider at Kingwood Psychiatry finds the medication dose that provides the best relief from your symptoms.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is also called talk therapy. Kingwood Psychiatry customizes your psychotherapy treatment plan to help you create strategies that improve how you think, feel, and behave.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

For patients with treatment-resistant depression, the team might recommend TMS. This therapy uses magnetic pulses of energy to stimulate areas of your brain affected by depression, relieving your symptoms either partially or entirely.

Ketamine

For patients with extreme depression symptoms or suicidal thoughts, Kingwood Psychiatry could try ketamine. This drug creates new neural pathways in the brain to ease depression.

Call Kingwood Psychiatry today or schedule an appointment online to learn more about depression treatment.