Depression grabs people. It's stubborn, persistent, and relentless. Most people who experience depression attempt to "snap out of it" , ignore it, or at least endure it. The nature of depression, however, is that it invades your life and can rob you of vitality and hope. No one has ever defeated depression simply by gritting their teeth or engaging in a "cheer yourself up" version of denial. One way or another, people move through depression, but there clearly are ways to go about this that can reduce suffering and promote recovery.

Clinical depression lasts a long time. Clinical depression differs from normal sadness in five basic ways (click here to learn more). Most people who are depressed have done their best to "snap out of it", only to quickly notice that they are pulled back again into depression. Fortunately, with appropriate treatment, most depressions can be very successfully treated. Left untreated, people suffer tremendously and needlessly. Lives are ruined, marriages fall apart, school performance plummets, jobs are lost, health can become compromised, many turn to increased alcohol use / abuse, and some people become suicidal.

This need not happen!

The keys to avoiding these results are:

• Developing an attitude of compassion for yourself to stop the harsh self-criticism.

• Adopt an action-oriented strategy, using a number of self-help approaches that have been shown to be powerful in reducing depression.

I teach these strategies as a powerful supplement to psychotherapy to help speed up the process of recovery.