What are the Common Misconceptions about Anxiety and Depression disorders?
Anxiety
Depression
- Medication is the only treatment for anxiety. - Medication can be effective in the prevention of anxiety, however, scientific research shows that CBT (cognitive-behavioral therapy) can be just as effective.
- If an anxiety attack is too bad you can faint or pass out. - It is unlikely you will faint or pass out during an attack because your blood pressure does not fall, it rises.
- The causes of anxiety disorders usually stem from your childhood, so effective therapy should focus on that time period. - Anxiety comes from a combination of hereditary and personal experiences. Effective treatment should focus on the here and now, including skills to manage your anxiety.
- If you have an anxiety disorder is is important to avoid stress and situations that make you feel stress. - Avoiding low stress or anxiety situations can actually cause you to be more anxious.
- One way to get rid of bad thoughts is to snap rubber bands every time you have a thought. - Being a popular behavioral intervention, studies have shown that suppressing your thoughts can cover them up and make them stronger and also more frequent.
Depression
- Depression is just a case of the "blues" or feeling a little down. - The difference between the blues and depression is that depression lasts longer. Also, the blues can be helped with sympathetic people, however, depression doesn't go away that easy.
- Depression is no big deal. - Depression is a very serious illness that can effect all parts of a persons life. If the person does not get help it can effect the rest of their life.
- Only girls get depressed. - Boys can get depression too, however, it is most common that girls admit to feeling depressed.
- The best treatment for depression is antidepressant medication. - Antidepressants can be effective for the treatment of depression, but talking and therapy can also be effective. Specific therapy treatments to help depression is CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and interpersonal therapy (IPT) both of which can improve the symptoms of depression but can also prevent it from returning.
- Depressed people are just lazy or weak. The need to stop feeling sorry for themselves. - When people have depression they can not easily snap out of it. Even though it is unknown the exact cause of clinical depression it is known to be a medical illness. It is also known that genetics and certain brain chemicals can play a roll in depression. therefore enough is known to treat it effectively.