Selected Podcast
Depression is Not a Normal Part of Aging
Dr. Dave Miers discusses signs of depression, treatment options available, ways to promote positive mental health, and if it's considered a normal part of aging.
Featured Speaker:
Dave Miers, PhD, Bryan Mental Health Services
Dr. Dave Miers is the counseling and program development manager for mental health services at Bryan Medical Center. Transcription:
Depression is Not a Normal Part of Aging
Melanie Cole (Host): If you’re anything like me, your emotions run up and down and sometimes you feel really sad and sometimes you feel really happy, but if the symptoms of sadness persist, then it’s time to seek professional help to see if you might be clinically depressed. It’s a pretty common problem in the country today and my guest is Dr. Dave Miers. He’s the counseling and program development manager for Mental Health Services at Bryan Medical Center. Dr. Miers, as I just said in my intro, it’s pretty common to feel depressed or to have actual depression, tell us about the prevalence of it and is this a treatable condition?
Dr. Dave Miers (Guest): Yeah, as you mentioned I mean everybody does get the blues now and then, but depression is where your mood – I mean it’s something where your mood gets into a situation that sticks around without letting up, where you just can’t shake it, and when you feel depression and you have that hopelessness, and you just have that serious feeling that you just can’t shake, and it does impact about one in four individuals at any given time throughout life. So it is fairly prevalent, so that’s about 25%, but the good news is, I mean my gosh we’re talking about depression, but there is good news in this in that there is hope, there is help, there is healing, and that what we do know is that research that’s been done on depression shows that about 80% of those who have reached out for help right away generally 80% of those start feeling better – report feeling better right away based off the type of treatment that they started.
Host: Tell us if it’s a normal part of aging, and what are the symptoms? So you said we all feel blue and such, but Dr. Miers, when it goes on for a certain amount of time and it can be devastating, it can keep people from enjoying a quality of life that others of us take for granted. So tell us how this sort of happens and what we should really be looking out for in ourselves or in our loved ones as far as big red flags?
Dr. Miers: Well there is a myth – it is a myth, I often times hear folks say that, this is just a normal part of how I should be feeling because I’m getting older, maybe I lost my spouse or a loved one to death or I have an illness or different things that are happening in life and I should just be feeling down and that’s just the way it is. That’s absolutely false. That’s not a normal part of aging. However, I want folks to understand that as we do get older, the risk for depression does go up. So we do know that when somebody has a chronic health condition, the risk for depression does go up, and we do know that about 80% of older adults have at least one chronic health condition, and about 50% of older adults have two or more chronic health conditions, so this puts older adults at a higher risk, but that doesn’t mean that okay I have depression, I need to live with it. That’s absolutely false. Depression is very, very treatable. So if I am feeling down and the symptoms are impacting my daily life, I should do something about it just as if I were having diabetes or if I don’t feel well, have the flu – I go to the doctor and I get treatment for it, same thing with depression. I should be doing something about it and I should be seeing a healthcare provider.
Host: Then what? What happens when someone does come to a healthcare provider, Dr. Miers, what does treatment look like these days? Because now that we hear so much more about depression and in the media, what are some of the tools that you have at your disposal to help people with depression?
Dr. Miers: Well some of the tools that I want – that we want folks to realize that are out there – I mean some of the tools are right there at the individual’s fingertips. The first is to identify if they are dealing with depression, and we have an online screening at bryanhealth.org on our website that folks can go and answer some questions in the comfort of their home. It’s free. It’s confidential and there’s no way that we can track who’s taking the screening, and it tells you whether or not the signs and symptoms are there of depression. It’s not a diagnosis but it tells you whether or not you should take steps to see a professional. You can print that off, take that with you to the doctor, take that with you to the Bryan Counseling Center to a professional and say okay I’ve taken the screening, what do I do next? Now treatment can take many different approaches to depression. Sometimes individuals will see their primary care doctor, go see a psychiatrist, or a nurse practitioner and they may be prescribed an antidepressant, a medication to treat that depression. Others may see a therapist for talk therapy, a counselor. Cognitive behavioral therapy, oftentimes called CBT, is a very effective approach to treating depression. So research shows a combination of both talk therapy and medication together are really the folks get better much quicker having both of those things happen at the same time, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you need both of those things. Sometimes folks feel better doing one or the other, but again, research shows that a lot of times folks trying both of those things find quicker results, but then there’s a small percentage of the population who sometimes have what we call treatment resistant depression, in that they have maybe the medication and the therapy is not real effective for them, and they may have to try some other alternatives to treating depression like electroconvulsive therapy, which we provide here, ECT treatment and some other different types of depression that are out there and there’s other treatments for that as well that we won’t go into today, but for the majority of folks, it’s therapy and/or medication.
Host: Are these things – when you talk about therapy and/or medication, are these things that people have to adhere to or be on for the rest of their lives? Is this something that changes as we grow older or is it something that really is going to be involved or in a person’s life for their whole life?
Dr. Miers: It’s different. It’s based on each individual. So it’s on a case by case situation. Some individuals have an episode of depression to where they receive treatment and the depression gets better, the symptoms get better and they no longer need medication and stop – they reach their treatment goals and they no longer go to therapy and they stop and they don’t need that anymore. Whereas others may have more serious symptoms, and mores serious type of depression where they may need to continue with medication or they may have recurring bouts of depression, so they might need to go back on medication. So it’s really on a case by case basis, and so it’s why it’s really important to know the symptoms and to work closely with your healthcare provider, and the other piece to that too is I talk about therapy and medications, but support group and we offer what’s called Wellness Recovery Action Plan where we have pure specialists here at the hospital where we offer the wellness groups where individuals can develop wellness plans, and that’s where they can come and attend a support group once a week and support groups are also a very helpful part of wellness and treatment as well.
Host: Well that’s kind of where I was going to go next, Dr. Miers, is you know there’s medications and therapy, and where do things like lifestyle modifications and support groups, yoga, relaxation, exercise, even nutrition, where do any of these other things fit in? Can they help with someone suffering from depression to maybe not have to be on so many meds or to just be a great adjuvant therapy to whatever therapy that they are using that seems to be working?
Dr. Miers: Absolutely, exercise is very, very important. Exercise, maintaining that healthy diet, really watching what you eat, becoming involved in activities that you really enjoy, and then staying connected with your family and friends, are all really good ways to promote good mental health and how you can improve your depression along with other treatment options is very important. All those things are important no matter what we’re dealing with, especially with depression, and then I also really kind of look at the body, mind, and spirit in terms of what are some self care things that I can do for my mind? What are some care things I can do for my body? What are some self-care things I can do for the spirit? So looking at just some basic things like taking care of – scratching off your to do list – if I keep myself a to do list, keeping myself a compliments file, when people say compliments to me, keep a little book. Those are things that you can do for self-care for the mind, where you can pull that out and say what are some nice things that people have said to me? Or unplugging for an hour, turning your cell phone off, or staying away from the computer for an hour. Then for the body, the exercising, but even just taking some deep breaths. Folks are maybe busy at work or if you have a lot of hobbies. We’re talking about aging and if you’re really busy and doing a lot of volunteering, just taking a few minutes and just sitting out in the garden or in the sunroom and just taking 5 or 10 minutes and just closing your eyes and just think about a nice quiet place that you really enjoy being at or even just self care ideas for the spirit. In terms of writing out your thoughts, keeping a journal, spending some time with a pet, all those things are just little things you can do for yourself are very, very, very important to take care of yourself.
Host: I agree with you completely and thank you so much, what great information and so important for people to hear that they can try all of these other things and that there is help available if they are suffering from depression. If you’d like to take a free and confidential online mental health screening, you can go to bryanhealth.org/mentalhealth, that’s bryanhealth.org/mentalhealth. This is Bryan Health podcast, I’m Melanie Cole. Thanks for tuning in.
Depression is Not a Normal Part of Aging
Melanie Cole (Host): If you’re anything like me, your emotions run up and down and sometimes you feel really sad and sometimes you feel really happy, but if the symptoms of sadness persist, then it’s time to seek professional help to see if you might be clinically depressed. It’s a pretty common problem in the country today and my guest is Dr. Dave Miers. He’s the counseling and program development manager for Mental Health Services at Bryan Medical Center. Dr. Miers, as I just said in my intro, it’s pretty common to feel depressed or to have actual depression, tell us about the prevalence of it and is this a treatable condition?
Dr. Dave Miers (Guest): Yeah, as you mentioned I mean everybody does get the blues now and then, but depression is where your mood – I mean it’s something where your mood gets into a situation that sticks around without letting up, where you just can’t shake it, and when you feel depression and you have that hopelessness, and you just have that serious feeling that you just can’t shake, and it does impact about one in four individuals at any given time throughout life. So it is fairly prevalent, so that’s about 25%, but the good news is, I mean my gosh we’re talking about depression, but there is good news in this in that there is hope, there is help, there is healing, and that what we do know is that research that’s been done on depression shows that about 80% of those who have reached out for help right away generally 80% of those start feeling better – report feeling better right away based off the type of treatment that they started.
Host: Tell us if it’s a normal part of aging, and what are the symptoms? So you said we all feel blue and such, but Dr. Miers, when it goes on for a certain amount of time and it can be devastating, it can keep people from enjoying a quality of life that others of us take for granted. So tell us how this sort of happens and what we should really be looking out for in ourselves or in our loved ones as far as big red flags?
Dr. Miers: Well there is a myth – it is a myth, I often times hear folks say that, this is just a normal part of how I should be feeling because I’m getting older, maybe I lost my spouse or a loved one to death or I have an illness or different things that are happening in life and I should just be feeling down and that’s just the way it is. That’s absolutely false. That’s not a normal part of aging. However, I want folks to understand that as we do get older, the risk for depression does go up. So we do know that when somebody has a chronic health condition, the risk for depression does go up, and we do know that about 80% of older adults have at least one chronic health condition, and about 50% of older adults have two or more chronic health conditions, so this puts older adults at a higher risk, but that doesn’t mean that okay I have depression, I need to live with it. That’s absolutely false. Depression is very, very treatable. So if I am feeling down and the symptoms are impacting my daily life, I should do something about it just as if I were having diabetes or if I don’t feel well, have the flu – I go to the doctor and I get treatment for it, same thing with depression. I should be doing something about it and I should be seeing a healthcare provider.
Host: Then what? What happens when someone does come to a healthcare provider, Dr. Miers, what does treatment look like these days? Because now that we hear so much more about depression and in the media, what are some of the tools that you have at your disposal to help people with depression?
Dr. Miers: Well some of the tools that I want – that we want folks to realize that are out there – I mean some of the tools are right there at the individual’s fingertips. The first is to identify if they are dealing with depression, and we have an online screening at bryanhealth.org on our website that folks can go and answer some questions in the comfort of their home. It’s free. It’s confidential and there’s no way that we can track who’s taking the screening, and it tells you whether or not the signs and symptoms are there of depression. It’s not a diagnosis but it tells you whether or not you should take steps to see a professional. You can print that off, take that with you to the doctor, take that with you to the Bryan Counseling Center to a professional and say okay I’ve taken the screening, what do I do next? Now treatment can take many different approaches to depression. Sometimes individuals will see their primary care doctor, go see a psychiatrist, or a nurse practitioner and they may be prescribed an antidepressant, a medication to treat that depression. Others may see a therapist for talk therapy, a counselor. Cognitive behavioral therapy, oftentimes called CBT, is a very effective approach to treating depression. So research shows a combination of both talk therapy and medication together are really the folks get better much quicker having both of those things happen at the same time, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you need both of those things. Sometimes folks feel better doing one or the other, but again, research shows that a lot of times folks trying both of those things find quicker results, but then there’s a small percentage of the population who sometimes have what we call treatment resistant depression, in that they have maybe the medication and the therapy is not real effective for them, and they may have to try some other alternatives to treating depression like electroconvulsive therapy, which we provide here, ECT treatment and some other different types of depression that are out there and there’s other treatments for that as well that we won’t go into today, but for the majority of folks, it’s therapy and/or medication.
Host: Are these things – when you talk about therapy and/or medication, are these things that people have to adhere to or be on for the rest of their lives? Is this something that changes as we grow older or is it something that really is going to be involved or in a person’s life for their whole life?
Dr. Miers: It’s different. It’s based on each individual. So it’s on a case by case situation. Some individuals have an episode of depression to where they receive treatment and the depression gets better, the symptoms get better and they no longer need medication and stop – they reach their treatment goals and they no longer go to therapy and they stop and they don’t need that anymore. Whereas others may have more serious symptoms, and mores serious type of depression where they may need to continue with medication or they may have recurring bouts of depression, so they might need to go back on medication. So it’s really on a case by case basis, and so it’s why it’s really important to know the symptoms and to work closely with your healthcare provider, and the other piece to that too is I talk about therapy and medications, but support group and we offer what’s called Wellness Recovery Action Plan where we have pure specialists here at the hospital where we offer the wellness groups where individuals can develop wellness plans, and that’s where they can come and attend a support group once a week and support groups are also a very helpful part of wellness and treatment as well.
Host: Well that’s kind of where I was going to go next, Dr. Miers, is you know there’s medications and therapy, and where do things like lifestyle modifications and support groups, yoga, relaxation, exercise, even nutrition, where do any of these other things fit in? Can they help with someone suffering from depression to maybe not have to be on so many meds or to just be a great adjuvant therapy to whatever therapy that they are using that seems to be working?
Dr. Miers: Absolutely, exercise is very, very important. Exercise, maintaining that healthy diet, really watching what you eat, becoming involved in activities that you really enjoy, and then staying connected with your family and friends, are all really good ways to promote good mental health and how you can improve your depression along with other treatment options is very important. All those things are important no matter what we’re dealing with, especially with depression, and then I also really kind of look at the body, mind, and spirit in terms of what are some self care things that I can do for my mind? What are some care things I can do for my body? What are some self-care things I can do for the spirit? So looking at just some basic things like taking care of – scratching off your to do list – if I keep myself a to do list, keeping myself a compliments file, when people say compliments to me, keep a little book. Those are things that you can do for self-care for the mind, where you can pull that out and say what are some nice things that people have said to me? Or unplugging for an hour, turning your cell phone off, or staying away from the computer for an hour. Then for the body, the exercising, but even just taking some deep breaths. Folks are maybe busy at work or if you have a lot of hobbies. We’re talking about aging and if you’re really busy and doing a lot of volunteering, just taking a few minutes and just sitting out in the garden or in the sunroom and just taking 5 or 10 minutes and just closing your eyes and just think about a nice quiet place that you really enjoy being at or even just self care ideas for the spirit. In terms of writing out your thoughts, keeping a journal, spending some time with a pet, all those things are just little things you can do for yourself are very, very, very important to take care of yourself.
Host: I agree with you completely and thank you so much, what great information and so important for people to hear that they can try all of these other things and that there is help available if they are suffering from depression. If you’d like to take a free and confidential online mental health screening, you can go to bryanhealth.org/mentalhealth, that’s bryanhealth.org/mentalhealth. This is Bryan Health podcast, I’m Melanie Cole. Thanks for tuning in.