First Steps
- Know that you are not alone in this battle. Millions of American men deal with depression. With a solid plan to treat and manage your depression, you can feel relief. It’s hard to feel hopeful when you’re deeply depressed. But you can feel better.
- Understand that depression is a serious and complex condition. You can’t just “get over it,” any more than you can just get over having cancer or diabetes or heart disease. Being depressed doesn’t make you a failure, or less of a man. In fact, it takes a strong man to face a tough problem like depression, and that’s exactly what you’re doing.
- Take an online depression screening. To get an idea if you are dealing with depression , take a quick online depression screening. This online test only takes a few minutes, and it’s free and anonymous. Be truthful in your responses, so your results will be accurate.
- Reach out to friends and family. Confide in a few trusted people about your depression, and start building a support system as soon as possible. No need to send out a mass email or post a Facebook status update about your depression. Just choose a few people with whom you feel comfortable discussing your depression, so they can start providing support.Your support system might consist of a spouse, friends, colleagues, a pastor, siblings or parents. In the beginning, your support system might be just one person. But even one person can be enough to make you feel like you’re not fighting your depression alone.
- If you need to, contact the pros. Not everyone needs to go on antidepressant medication or see a therapist. But if feels like either might be helpful in your battle against depression, make an appointment with a professional. Don’t have the energy to call for an appointment? That’s okay. Someone from your support system can make the call for you, and even go with you to the first appointment.
In the pages that follow, you’ll learn more about treatment and the types of professionals that treat depression.
Next: Types of Treatment