This Unexpected Treatment Will Help You Deal with Depression

Depression is a common but serious mood disorder. It’s more than feeling unhappy and sad. In fact, depression has a big impact on person’s physical health as well. For example, af-fected person’s sleep pattern is disturbed, they don’t eat properly, they experience fatigue frequently etc. Although severe, depression can be successfully treated which is why it’s highly important to seek professional help. There are various treatments aimed to help pa-tients recover successfully. In this article, we’re going to introduce one unusual treatment for depression – art therapy. Yes, the treatment involves tackling depression by expressing your artistic side and creativity. Keep reading to find out more.

What is art Therapy?

Similarly to talk therapy, art therapy is a way of connecting with emotions but instead of words, the creative expression becomes the primary outlet. Therapists usually use the fol-lowing art forms:

•      Drawing
•      Painting
•      Sculpting
•      Dancing
•      Music
•      Drama/storytelling.

For example, you can choose drawing and draw a scene which depicts some traumatic event or paint it. Choosing music can also represent one way of expressing traumas, insecurities etc. It’s important to bear in mind that during art therapy sessions, therapist doesn’t critique someone’s artistic expression. Instead, therapist works together with patient to understand and interpret the meaning of some work and root feelings that led to its creation.

See Also: Success Stories That Will Change Your Mind On Depression

These art therapy sessions are quite flexible and a patient can either do them in one-on-one format with their therapist or in a family or group setting. Here, the therapist estimates pa-tient’s condition and recommends adequate setting. For example, each setting has different purpose.

Individual art therapy is beneficial for improving confidence and building trust in oneself or between the patient and his or her therapist. Lack of confidence and self-esteem is one of major aspects of depression and ability to create something that other people won’t judge in individual setting is empowering to patients.

Family and group art therapy sessions aim to promote positive connections with other people. Depressed individuals tend to isolate themselves and family or group art sessions pose as unique ways of overcoming depression in patients who don’t want to talk about their feelings. Instead, they express themselves artistically.

Why is art Therapy Easier than Talk Therapy?

As it was already mentioned, depression is indicated by various symptoms that include feel-ings of guilt, irritability, anxiety, low self-esteem and confidence, social withdrawal etc. At first, an affected individual is reluctant to seek for professional help. In fact, most people with depression refuse to seek help at all. That’s why once they do schedule an appointment with a therapist they usually feel too vulnerable to verbalize their feelings and problems. With this depression treatment, patients don’t need to talk about their feelings; they choose art discipline to illustrate how they feel.

By creating work of art, a patient is given a teal to externalize powerful emotions that have been internalized by depression. In turn, the person is left with a strong evidence of what they didn’t speak about; their inner burden doesn’t stress them out anymore. Art therapy is a way of building positive feelings without expressing vulnerability in an obvious fashion.

Benefits of art Therapy

Art therapy provides sense of security and relief to a patient. Furthermore, creative expres-sion releases dopamine which is a chemical associated with reward and pleasure center in the brain. Basically, it’s a feel-good chemical. Writing, dancing, painting and other forms of creative expression trigger release of this chemical and thus make person feel better while reducing anxiety levels. This is exactly what antidepressants are formulated to do.

Does it Really work?

Western Journal Medicinepaper authored by Shirley Riley of the Philips Graduate Institute was focused on benefits of art therapy and depression in individuals. Findings from this pa-per revealed that clinical art therapy can be effective way of treating depression as it’s per-ceived like a non-threatening form of treatment. The art work can help therapists gain some idea of person’s concerns and life circumstances particularly in situations that are too risky to reveal verbally or personally embarrassing to relate.

Depression Statistics

• 1 in 10 Americans are affected by depression
• About 80% of people with symptoms of clinical depression aren’t receiving help for their condition
• The number of patients diagnosed with depression increase by 20% per year
• US states with the highest rates of depression are West Virginia, Arkansas, Tennes-see, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma
• People who are most likely to suffer from depression are unemployed and recently divorced
• Depression is most prevalent in people ages 46-64
• Women are more prone to depression than men.

Conclusion

Although depression is a severe condition it can still be successfully treated. It’s important to bear in mind that depression requires professional assistance and trying to do it on your own isn’t a right way to go. There are various treatments your therapist can suggest and art ther-apy poses as unique way of dealing with your problems without exposing your vulnerability.

References:
http://contributors.healthline.com/mind/does-depression-worsen-dementia
https://medium.com/@daisygrace/why-symptoms-of-depression-change-respective-to-your-sex-4438b78a13a8#.4svhuaxbj