Depression

Depression gradually takes all the pleasure from life, leaving you endlessly sad and despairing. Mental health nurse practitioners Scott Lane, FNP-C, Sean Leonard, PMHNP-BC, and their team at NuGen Wellness Center in Boise, Idaho, have the utmost compassion for anyone living with depression. They offer specialized treatment, including cutting-edge transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for those with treatment-resistant depression. To discover how their exceptional care could lift the weight of depression from you, call the NuGen Wellness Center office or book an appointment online today.

What is depression?

The common mental health condition depression affects your feelings, thoughts, and behavior. When you have depression, everything seems gray and gloomy. You can only see what’s wrong in your life, and you stop enjoying activities you usually find pleasurable.

Positive emotions are infrequent or completely absent with depression. Instead, you have a constant flow of various negative feelings, such as:

• Hopelessness
• Worthlessness
• Guilt
• Despair
• Shame
• Self-loathing
• Deep sadness

You might also be irritable or short-tempered when you have depression.

Other common problems people with depression experience include chronic fatigue, vague aches and pains, headaches, sleeplessness, and loss of appetite. However, depression’s effects can vary, so some people might sleep or eat far more than usual.

Why might I develop depression?

Depression doesn’t have a single cause — it’s usually a combination of factors that trigger the condition.

Research indicates that most people with depression have lower-than-normal levels of certain chemicals in their brains. These chemicals, called neurotransmitters, include dopamine and serotonin. They’re responsible for mood regulation. Low neurotransmitter levels could trigger depression or may result from having depression.

You’re more likely to develop depression if other family members have mental health problems, so there’s likely a genetic component. Trauma is often a starting point for depression, such as dealing with a loss, a relationship breakdown, chronic health problems, or experiencing abuse. In some cases, there’s no apparent trigger for depression.

How is depression treated?

NuGen Wellness Center offers several depression treatments, including:

Talk therapy

Talking about traumas and bad memories can often help you process events that influence your mental health. Bottling them up, on the other hand, increases your risk of developing depression and finding it hard to recover.

Antidepressant medication

Many kinds of antidepressants are available for depression. They help correct brain chemistry imbalances in the areas regulating mood and thinking. However, it can take time to find the proper medication and dose.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation

The NuGen Wellness Center team uses personalized repetitive TMS, a cutting-edge technology that offers even better results. TMS uses magnetic pulses that penetrate the mood-regulation areas of your brain. It’s a painless, noninvasive treatment that alters your brain chemicals and activates dormant parts of the brain. 

If depression makes your life feel so miserable that you’re wondering how to carry on, call NuGen Wellness Center or book an appointment using the online tool today.