Transcription:
What Is Depression And How Can Symptoms Be Treated?

Disclaimer: The medical health information provided during this program is for general information and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. None of the given information is for the purpose of diagnosis or treatment, neither does this program serve as approval for any health product or brand.

This program aims to enhance your personal health and wellness through the adoption of healthy lifestyles and your prompt presentation to the health professional whenever you suspect that you are ill. For treatment and professional advice, ensure you consult your physician.

Melanie Cole (Host): Welcome to Say Yes to Good Health with Memorial Hospital. I'm Melanie Cole. And joining me today is Tammy Teel. She's a licensed clinical professional counselor at Memorial Hospital and we're discussing depression and anxiety disorders today, because there really is something that we can all feel. There's something going on in the country today that none of us can quite put our finger on, but hopefully Tammy is here to help us with that.

So, Tammy, I'm so glad to have you with us. It seems, today, and you and I were talking about this off the air a little bit, that more people are suffering from depression, anxiety disorders. What have you been seeing as far as these things and even eating disorders over the course of the last year, the prevalence? What have you been seeing as far as these type of depressive mood disorders in the trends? What are you seeing?

Tammy Teel: Well, first of all, thanks for having me here today. I really appreciate the time to have this opportunity to speak about depression and anxiety and eating disorders as you refer to. And I think the first thing that comes to my mind is that people don't always want to be readily admitting that they're struggling with sad moments in their life, of worry, which is, you know, basically anxiety at its basic terms, worrying about this and that. I think that's the biggest thing I've seen, is overcoming the stigma that is already out there about mental health.

Melanie Cole (Host): I agree with you. And I do a lot of these and I can tell you, most of the professionals around the country are saying the same thing. And this stigma, we've been trying to move past it for years. But even now, it's still pretty prevalent. I'd like you to define for us depression, worry, anxiety, you mentioned that. How do these differ? Depression and clinical depression is really a clinical diagnoses. I mean, they all are in a way. So can you speak about why you would differentiate between these.

Tammy Teel: Sure. Well, with mental health using the DSM-5, we are looking at mental health out on a spectrum. So when we look at depression, if we're looking on a scale from zero to a hundred, zero being problematic and a hundred being dangerous, like you referred to just a little bit ago about clinical significance. Seriously mentally ill would be a major depressive disorder, is what is considered seriously mentally ill. On the problematic side is where maybe you've experienced some people in your life that totally disengage, that don't learn from the mistakes. They're just kind of aloof to say, you know, you're not quite sure what's going on, they're shallow, indifferent. And then on the dangerous side, you have deep despair, hopelessness, suicidal planning, suicidal attempts. And in the middle is where most of us lie, we do have sad moments in our life, but we're able to get through it with minimal care without having medication to help us out or having therapy to help us out to talk through it, process it. Does that help a little bit with the depression and how I'm looking at it?

Melanie Cole (Host): It definitely does kind of set the stage for us. So what we've seen, and certainly since the pandemic, is an increase in alcohol and drugs being used to self-medicate these symptoms of depression and mental health issues. So I think one of the big questions, especially for parents that are worried that they have kids that are suffering from some measure of depression, is red flags. Can you tell us some of the warning signs that would signal that we maybe need to call our pediatrician or call our primary care provider or get someone we love the help that they may need. Can you give us some of those red flags that would signal somebody has really got this going on?

Tammy Teel: Sure. I would love to. I think, for parents, an increase in irritability from kids is a sign of depression perhaps. Their sleeping pattern, are they sleeping 10 to 12 hours a day? Are they isolating in their room, gaming for hours at a time? Are they not engaged with the family at all? Like they won't come to meals or they won't go anywhere with you as a parent. Their appetite changes in some way. They eat less or they eat more. They just walk around mumbling sometimes, like you can't even hardly hear them. It's hard for them to engage. And when you ask them, typically with a teenager, they're either going to say nothing or I don't know or get irritated, even more irritated when you ask what's happening. Vaping is a big deal right now, that's with vaping marijuana or vaping nicotine. Getting Monster drinks, those high sugary drinks, that's a big popular thing. I think that's kind of an addictive behavior as well. And you can stop me anytime if I keep just going on and on. I'm sorry.

Melanie Cole (Host): No, these are good. These are good. And I think that they're important that people take notice of some of these things. While you're telling us that though, does what you're telling us differ from adults and kids? I mean, is it pretty much the same across the board as far as red flags, what we notice in a spouse or a partner, the similar things that we might notice in children or teens?

Tammy Teel: Absolutely, the same thing. It's about the time span in which the symptoms are occurring. Like for a child or in adolescents, it's a year. For adults, it's two years. But the symptoms look the same, it's irritability, disengagement, loss of interest in things that you enjoyed at one time, suicidal thinking. Yeah, it's the same for adults and kids for sure.

Melanie Cole (Host): So then, we mentioned a little bit earlier about the stigma of mental health issues in general. If you were to point out some barriers in the community that keep people from getting help, what would you signal those to be? Would it be healthcare or, I mean, lack of access? And the fact is right now, Tammy, that there is a very, very huge epidemic of these mental health issues with fewer than we need of people like you and mental health professional counselors. I mean, they are harder to find. Could you point to some of the barriers in the community that you might identify that, you know, we need to really look to?

Tammy Teel: As far as shortage area, you're absolutely right. We are a rural health. We are living in a shortage area and. It is sad to think that we don't have enough of mental health professionals to go around to provide the individual care or the group setting care that is definitely needed in this time period of our lives.

Some of the stigma that I try to set straight in any opportunity that is provided to me and that's whether during a session or in private conversations, is that mental health issues is a weakness and you're dangerous if you have a mental health issue, and that is totally untrue. Like I said earlier, this is on a spectrum. There are many ways that depression can be addressed and telling someone that, "Oh, just get over it.". Or there's people that's got it worse off than you "Oh, you're making a big deal out of this," that is stigma. You're devaluing that person's experience, so that's where stigma in my mind is.

Does that answer some of your questions?

Melanie Cole (Host): It does. And I agree with you. And I think that, you know, it needs to be addressed and people need not to be afraid. I mean, I'll say it. I have a counselor, but I do televisit and this counselor lives in Arizona. So I mean, there are ways if people are not afraid. But you know, it's certainly is such an important thing. Before we get into treatments, which we'll do after the break, if you were to give your best advice about how we can manage our emotional challenges so that we can best help our loved ones and self-care, what do you feel are some of the most important aspects of self-care as we get into some of the adjuvant things that people can do, if they suffer from depression or that their loved ones can do?

Tammy Teel: Okay. Wow. That's a loaded question, Melanie. That's a loaded question. I will share with you a couple things that I've been doing myself to address my own self-care and mental health needs. I learned that stop expecting me out of other people. Let me say that again, stop expecting me out of other people. It's very freeing and it takes a hassle out of a lot of things for me personally. Because not everybody's got the same kind of brain I got and I had to therapize myself to understand that, right? Instead of getting mad about it or frustrated or anything negative about it.

The other thing is you can't set yourself on fire to keep other people warm. You can't set yourself on fire to keep other people warm. People, you can't force someone to take your care when they don't want it, or can't identify that they need it. You can't want their life worse than they do. That's what I mean by that. Takes the hassle out of stuff for you really.

And the last thing is lower your expectations a little bit. If you know someone, you deal with someone, like a loved one, use your knowledge to help them identify what's going on. Lower the expectation. You know this person's going to act this way, because you've been living with them for years, then preface something with, "I know you're going to... But I'm going to tell you this anyway." "Oh, I knew you were going to say that because that's kind of the way you always go, because you're always kind of a negative. I know always is a big word," but something like that, along those lines, pointing out the obvious

Melanie Cole (Host): Well, it's so interesting because people do look to their loved ones to be their counselors. And that's not always the best way to go about it. And someone like you that's had so much training and has ways that people can deal with these things. That's really great advice, Tammy.

And so we're going to take a break now. But if you have mental health issues and you need help with depression, there is no stigma. Please call 217-357-6888 or you can visit our website at mhtlc.org and search health services behavioral health. So important.

So Tammy, I think that as we get into treatments that are available for these types of mood disorders, there's a lot of medicational information on the internet, on social media, but people are sometimes a little bit afraid to start that line. Can you tell us what kind of medicational help is out there? What is it intended to do? We don't have to get into, you know, the SSRIs or any of those things. I just want you to tell us what these medications are intended to do to help with these mood disorders.

Tammy Teel: Medication is often used to help get the person to a point where they can recognize that the mental health issue that they are experiencing is impacting their ability to do daily functioning things, like taking a shower, eating properly, socializing, those things. And they just can't do it on their own. Therapy, talk therapy is not going to do it and they need help balancing out and focusing. So the neurotransmitter, the medication that they're been given will help balance them out so they can make better choices about their own mental health, which is very important, because you want their involvement and to help them feel better, to help them feel like, "Oh, okay. There is that light at the end of the tunnel. I don't have to feel like this all the time." So there's many values to have a medication help you figure out what's going on. It doesn't mean you're on it for a lifetime. It's just, right now, we need a little help, and that's what we do. You know, it's a little help.

Melanie Cole (Host): Well, it certainly is. And people that I know some of them have had to try two, three, four different kinds until they find the one that really works for them. But that's the same with therapy and therapists. So now, I'd like you to speak as the professional that you are, what treatments have been shown to be most effective? Can you please speak a little bit about outpatient therapy, inpatient therapy, when it really needs to be intensive, cognitive behavioral therapy, psychotherapy? Give us a little rundown on those.

Tammy Teel: All right. I am a cognitive behavioral therapist and that's what I tell everyone who comes and sees me, I'm a cognitive behavioral therapist. That means I believe thoughts, feelings and behavior are all connected. And when you change one of those, the other two are going to change. I also have lots of other things in my tool belt, depending on how you want to get there, what you want to do and how you want to be. But basically, thoughts, feelings and behavior are connected is my approach to therapy. And that means also addressing some faulty thinking that one might have about one's self that contributes to the depression they're experiencing or the anxiety or the worry that they may be experiencing as well.

We work on emotional identifications because sometimes when I first had my experience with depression back when I was in my 20s, I think maybe, I didn't even know what it was. My primary doctor asked me, "How long you been depressed?" And I just burst into tears. So sometimes we don't even know what's going on, because we've never been able to talk about it, going back to stigma. We never talked about emotions or what impact they have on us.

Melanie Cole (Host): But what is cognitive behavioral therapy?

Tammy Teel: Cognitive behavioral therapy is how we think and how we behave. Addressing maybe some distorted thinking that we have, that means like if someone gives us a criticism or something like that, and we put in our head, "Well, they must be right. And everything I do is dumb." You know, someone says, "Oh, you shouldn't have done that. And then, you tell yourself, "Oh, I must be dumb." That's personalizing it. The way we think about ourselves, other people in the world based on everything we've seen and heard in our lifetime can mess us up sometimes, because we weren't really given the right messages about what living was about or, you know, that comes in from many different areas of experiences that we have. I hope I'm not going all over the place for you.

Melanie Cole (Host): No, I just would really like you to tell listeners that are thinking about signing up and finding a therapist, what they can expect from a session, because you know, back in the olden days, when we saw TV and stuff, people would see a therapist. And they wouldn't talk, they would only ask questions, they wouldn't offer insights or advice. But people nowadays are really looking for somebody to give them some insight and advice. Can you speak about how you work with patients? What does a session look like with you?

Tammy Teel: Okay. Thank you for that question. And it's very important that we get this information out there. My office has low light setting. It's comfortable. It is safe and inviting. I present people who come in for the first time. We go through consent for treatment to provide them with what I'm about, just exactly what you said. And I assure them that they have the right to tell me that I'm wrong. I think that's one of the most important things I do is I tell them they have the right to tell me that I'm wrong, that I don't understand them, that I'm not getting them. I'm not looking at the same page they're looking at, because if I'm not on the same page, I can't help them. I empower them, I hope, to tell me what they need. I empower them to know that they can say whatever they want in any way they want. And they're not going to be judged by me. They're not going to get judgey eyes. They might get some tears. I might cry with them. I might laugh with them. I want them to have the best therapeutic experience so we can get rid of the stigma.

Melanie Cole (Host): That's lovely. And I can hear that you are so compassionate with your patients. And when does depression become something that's scary? When does it become life-threatening? We haven't really gotten to the part where, you know, if you are truly worried about yourself or a loved one. When does that happen? What does that look like?

Tammy Teel: That could be so different for each individual. I mean, talking about suicide, talking about death. If they can't get out of bed, they can't take care of themselves, they can't take care of their daily needs. If they stink and I don't mean that derogatory, I mean, they just can't function. They can't go to work. They can't take care of their family. They don't involve themselves. They've isolated. And when you live with someone, hopefully the awareness of this change in behavior will become like in the forefront of everyone living with that person and start questioning it. Hopefully, their provider, their medical provider will identify some of the signs. Like I shared earlier with my own provider identifying it for me. And that's so important and our caregiving role is to have our colleagues identify that for others and make that referral too. I think that's really important.

Melanie Cole (Host): Before we're done here, what about self-care? I'd like you to wrap this segment up with your best advice when people are telling you they're not sleeping because they're depressed and sleep, we know has a direct link to, and there's things out there, yoga, meditation, acupuncture, relaxation techniques, massage, exercise. I'm an exercise physiologist. So of course, you know, I like that as a way to help to level out some of those serotonin levels. But can you speak to what you recommend when people come to you with these issues?

Tammy Teel: In the very beginning, I suggest to them that they start identifying what it is that they want to change in themselves because we can't change it until we identify it. So now we got to catch ourselves doing the thing we don't want to do so we can intervene on our own behalf. So the words sound easy coming out of my mouth, but it's very hard to do, catching yourself doing it, taking care of capturing a moment where you can be calm, be quiet, is also another way to approach the symptoms. It's very individualistic. It depends on how deeply depressed a person is. Challenging the thinking that one does when you're depressed. Is it realistic? Is it true what you're thinking? And what evidence do you have to make it true or not true? Doing kind of steps like that. Admitting that you're depressed is a good place to start as well, because sometimes certain people certain, I will say and this is not a sexism kind of statement, but men have been socialized not to talk about their mental health issues. So that's difficult to get through to them and have them take care of themselves and to identify that. So that's a big hurdle I've been addressing along the way as well.

I'm going to wrap this up with some comments about the importance of if you are feeling like you need just to talk to somebody or have someone outside your family to speak to, have questions about, you're just feeling unsure about yourself, you feel like the worry is too much, reach out to us at Memorial for Behavioral Health to address any kind of concerns. We're open to answering any kind of questions you have. Don't be afraid to be genuine and to say what's really going on with you. If you're struggling, it's okay to be not okay.

Melanie Cole (Host): What a great place for us to wrap up. It's okay to be not okay. Tammy, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your expertise in something that is really going on around the country with every age group, with every gender, just across the spectrum. So thank you so much for coming on today and offering such great advice.

And if you or a loved one is suffering depression, or you just really need someone to talk to, you can call 217-357 6888 or visit mhtlc.org and search health services/behavioral health, because there is plenty of help out there, it's just sometimes a little difficult to get started. But once you do, then it can help so much to change your quality of life.

And that concludes this episode of Say Yes to Good Health with Memorial Hospital. We'd like to thank our audience and invite you to download subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. Please feel free to share these shows with your friends and your loved ones, because we're all learning from the experts at Memorial Hospital together. I'm Melanie Cole

Disclaimer: The medical health information provided during this program is for general information and educational purposes only, and is not a substitute for professional advice. None of the given information is for the purpose of diagnosis or treatment, neither does this program serve as approval for any health product or brand.

This program aims to enhance your personal health and wellness through the adoption of healthy lifestyles and your prompt presentation to the health professional whenever you suspect that you are ill. For treatment and professional advice, ensure you consult your physician.