Therapy Videos
The first video titled “choosing a psychotherapist” was unable to play due to the video being on a private YouTube account.
The second video titled “depression Theories and treatments” was an eye opening video due to the personal life story by the woman named Ed. She had struggled with depression her whole life, including childhood. As a child she did not enjoy activities and other things that kids her age enjoyed. She was overall unhappy all of the time which led her to believe that something might be wrong with her. The biggest reasons for depression include Genetics/ family history, Chemical imbalances in the brain and traumatic life experiences as in abuse or loss of a loved one. Ed had lost her Job and her father passes away. These hard times made her feel as if her life was going downhill and she did not want to live. Chemical imbalances changes how a depressed person thinks. The cells in the brain communicate to each other through electric impulses. Normally these impulses are easily transferred through a small gap called the synapse by a chemical messenger called neurotransmitters. Depressed people have diminished amounts of the neurotransmitter called serotonin. The lack of these neurotransmitters leads to mood control failing to be communicated. The messages are sent but never received. Eds depression led to a suicide attempt, so antidepressant drugs were prescribed to her. For years no drug seamed to help her until the drug called Prozac became available. Prozac is an SSRI which means that it increases serotonin, not to be confused with a “happy pill”. The drug dramatically changed Ed’s life in a positive way. Stories like Ed’s are the reason Medication has become the most common way to treat depression.
The video “shock Electroconvulsive Therapy” was very shocking to me, no pun intended. Depression affects Over 20 million Americans and 1 in 5 Depressed Americans say they find no relief in antidepressant drugs. That works out to be over 4 million Americans suffer without the help of the commonly used drugs. This raises the question of electroconvulsive Therapy which is exactly what it sounds like,