Clinical depression is a medical condition that goes beyond what you might describe as “feeling blue” or “feeling down.” We all face difficult times when circumstances impact our mood, but clinical depression is different.
Depression is one of the most common mental health conditions in the United States. An estimated 21 million people (8.3% of all U.S. Adults) experienced at least one depressive episode in 2021.
Clinical depression is usually defined as:
“A period of at least two weeks when a person experiences a depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities, and has a majority of specified symptoms, such as problems with sleep, eating, energy, concentration, or self-worth.”
Those experiencing a bout of depression also have intense and persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness. These feelings aren’t temporary —depression isn’t something you can just snap out of. Clinical depression requires professional intervention.
At Evanston Counseling, we understand where you are and what you are going through. Our compassionate therapists are trained to identify and provide therapy for your clinical depression.
All of us may experience some symptoms of depression at some point in our lives. The key factor in determining whether they indicate clinical depression is the number of symptoms, the intensity of your feelings, and how long they have persisted.
While this symptom list can help you identify signs that point toward clinical depression, self-diagnosis may lead you down the wrong path. It’s crucial to seek and receive the proper treatment for depression.
Get the help you need from the professionals at Evanston Counseling. Our team of compassionate depression therapists can identify clinical depression and provide genuine relief from your symptoms.
Depression can go unrecognized when you dismiss what you’re experiencing as “expected” stress and anxiety levels.
Below are a few common situations where your emotional response may seem appropriate, and you may miss the symptoms of clinical depression.
From high school exams, demanding college coursework, and struggling to fit in, the pressure can be intense. It can be easy to discount the persistent symptoms of depression as merely stress and anxiety that will pass.
Major life changes (like heading to college, changing jobs, or getting married) can cause emotional and physical symptoms associated with stress and anxiety. You might not recognize these symptoms as part of a depressive episode and may think your mood will improve when you get a handle on everything.
Parenting can bring about stressors like insomnia, exhaustion, guilt, or low self-esteem. These can make it easy to ignore underlying feelings of depression that are more persistent.
Conflicts in friendships, romantic relationships, and marriages naturally bring about intense emotions. These are trying situations, and persistent sadness or despair can often be overlooked or mistaken for an appropriate emotional response.
Job loss, workplace pressures, or financial worries are real-world challenges many face. But beneath the anxiety of these external pressures, feelings of worthlessness or hopelessness may go unnoticed or be chalked up to just having a “bad day.”
At Evanston Counseling, we approach therapy through the lens of your experiences and challenges. Our highly trained Evanston depression therapists are skilled at distinguishing between typical stress, anxiety, and more enduring depressive feelings. By understanding your unique situation, we can support you on your journey toward a more fulfilling and joyful life.
Perhaps the road back to mental and emotional well-being seems too long and too hard. If you suffer from clinical depression, even starting that journey can feel pointless. But you can start to see improvement in your symptoms from the first few therapy sessions.
Here are a few ways therapy for depression can start helping you immediately.
Depression is complex, and its roots can vary from person to person. At Evanston Counseling, our approach revolves around understanding the unique origins of your feelings and crafting a therapy plan tailored to your individual needs.
Our therapists are deeply committed to your well-being and trained in evidence-based therapy for depression, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Psychodynamic Therapy, and Hypnotherapy. We may recommend a psychiatrist who works closely with us at Evanston Counseling. A psychiatrist or your primary care physician can prescribe medications, ensuring a holistic approach where every avenue of care is considered.
The connection you share with your therapist is foundational to the therapeutic process. Through this nurturing relationship, we can guide you toward a renewed sense of inner peace, contentment, and purpose in life.
What’s the difference between feeling sad and clinical depression?
Sadness is a normal response to a loss or a hard event. Clinical depression goes further than this and starts interfering with your daily life.
When sadness begins to affect your appetite, your sleep, or your motivation for life, that’s often a sign of something more than ordinary sadness. Feeling hopeless that things won’t get better is another marker that you may be dealing with clinical depression rather than a passing low mood.
The biggest difference comes down to time and intensity. Sadness is transitory and tends to lift on its own. Clinical depression lingers longer and tends to hit harder.
At Evanston Counseling, our therapists can help you understand which one you’re experiencing and what kind of support will help the most.
What are the symptoms of depression?
Symptoms of depression include changes in sleep, changes in appetite, low mood, hopelessness, irritability, loss of interest in things you used to enjoy, and a lack of energy or motivation.
Sleep changes can go in either direction, sleeping far more than usual or struggling with insomnia. The same is true for appetite, eating too much or not enough. Your mood may also dip if you are depressed. It feels like nothing matters.
Hopelessness is a common symptom, a sense that things will never change, no matter what you do. You may notice you feel more isolated, irritable, or angry than usual. You just don’t have the energy or motivation for life that you normally do.
You will know you are depressed if you stop enjoying the things you used to love doing. Even daily routines or self-care can start to feel like too much.
If you are having thoughts of not wanting to live, this is a serious symptom of depression and one that deserves immediate attention. At Evanston Counseling, our therapists are here to help you work through these feelings and find your way back to feeling like yourself again.
What types of therapy are most effective for depression?
The most effective therapies for depression include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), interpersonal therapy (IPT), and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). At Evanston Counseling, we draw from all three depending on what you need.
CBT is the most studied approach and focuses on the thinking patterns and behaviors that keep depression going. For some people, depression has more to do with relationships and life changes, and that’s where IPT comes in. Research has actually found it works about as well as medication for mild to moderate depression. ACT takes a different angle. Rather than trying to get rid of difficult feelings, it helps you build the flexibility to hold them while still moving toward what matters to you.
Our therapists use a mix of these therapies and others to get you back into activities and routines you have been avoiding or struggling to complete.
Every person experiences depression differently, so we tailor which of these approaches fits best for you.
Does therapy work for depression, or do I also need medication?
Yes, therapy does work for depression. Whether you also need medication depends on how long the depression has been going on and how severe it is.
Medication can help take the edge off, but it has side effects. The work that gives you the longest-lasting gains is therapy, since this is where you actually change how you think about things and how you react to feelings and situations.
At Evanston Counseling, our therapists can help you decide if therapy is enough or whether you should consider taking medication in addition to therapy.
What should I expect in my first session for depression?
Your first session for depression at Evanston Counseling is about warmth and care. We want to understand how you feel and what is bringing you to seek therapy today. We do our best to create a comfortable and safe haven for you to untangle the thoughts and feelings that are driving the depression.
Before your session, you will fill out an online intake form, which provides your therapist with some background information ahead of time. Your therapist will also ask about your symptoms, when they started, and how much they are affecting your daily life. This helps your therapist understand what you are going through before discussing next steps, like which type of therapy might be the right fit.
Once your therapist has a sense of what you are dealing with, you will talk together about what has helped in the past and what has not, so they can get a better idea of what kind of therapy might work best for you.
Your therapist will also take time to get to know you as a person, not just your symptoms. The ultimate goal is to make sure you feel comfortable and supported from the start.
Between sessions, your therapist may also share resources or simple exercises to support the work you are doing together.
Each session lasts 50 minutes and is completely private. You will see the same therapist every week, so you do not have to repeat your story to someone new each time.
There is nothing you need to bring or prepare. Just show up as you are, and we will take it from there.
Can depression be cured, or just managed?
Depression is something you manage, not something that gets cured once and never comes back. This can feel discouraging to hear, especially when you already feel hopeless, like things are never going to get better. But managing depression well is, in fact, hopeful and doable: it stops controlling your life.
It is important to keep in mind that depression can return, even after you start feeling better, but this does not mean treatment failed or that you are back at square one. It often means you merely need to revisit your tools or check in with your therapist again.
There will still be hard days. That is part of life for everyone, not just people with depression. The goal of treatment is not to remove every hard day. The goal is to stop depression from getting in the way of what you want to do, and to stop it from pushing you toward things you do not want to do.
Our depression therapists in Evanston, Illinois, help you build the tools to manage depression so you are the one in control, not the depression.
What if I‘ve tried therapy before and it didn’t help my depression?
If you tried therapy in the past and it did not help your depression, it may have been simply because it wasn’t the right time to work on it. You may not have been ready yet, or the fit with that particular therapist may not have been the best match for your personality or style.
Coming back after a disappointing experience takes real courage, and we know that is not easy. When you come into our office, we will talk with you about what did not work before, why you feel it did not work, and why you are choosing to come back to therapy now. These answers will help guide us in making sure that, this time, your depression treatment works for you.
At Evanston Counseling, we take therapist fit seriously. If we match you with a therapist who is not quite right, you can request a different therapist on our team. The goal is to find someone you genuinely feel comfortable with, since that comfort is part of what makes therapy effective.
Is online therapy effective for depression?
Research shows online therapy works just as well as in-person therapy for depression. You don’t have to give up real help just because you can’t make it into our office.
Sometimes depression takes away the energy or ability to even leave the house, and online therapy removes that barrier entirely. Having a therapist who knows you and meets you in the space where you feel most comfortable can make a real difference when you are dealing with depression. The key is meeting regularly, since consistency is what makes online therapy work as well as it does.
Some people worry online therapy will feel impersonal because they are connecting with their therapist through a screen. But this is not always the case, especially when you are working through depression. In fact, you may feel even more connected, since your therapist gets to know you in your personal space, and that closeness can be surprising. They see your home, your life, your pets, and sometimes even the people who matter most to you popping into frame, even though they are not supposed to.
At Evanston Counseling, we offer online therapy throughout Illinois, so you are not alone in your home, even on the hardest days.
How do I find the right therapist for depression?
It’s important to find a therapist you really like and trust when you are looking for therapy for depression. This sometimes takes a few tries, and this can be especially challenging when you are already struggling. You want someone experienced in treating depression, but fit is also about personality and style.
Some people want a depression therapist who listens and reflects back what they are feeling, while others want someone more directive who gives them concrete steps to take. We work both ways, depending on what helps you manage your depression and your symptoms.
Treatment approach matters too. A therapist who uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help you examine and change the thoughts that are keeping you stuck in a depressive loop. A therapist who looks more closely at past relationships, including childhood, can help you understand how past experiences shape the way you think and respond to life today.
At Evanston Counseling, we want to find what works best for you so you can feel better as soon as possible.
Does my insurance company find out about my depression diagnosis?
Your insurance company will not find out about your depression diagnosis unless you choose to tell them. Evanston Counseling is a private pay practice. This means we do not bill your insurance directly or share your diagnosis with anyone.
For some people, this is actually a relief. A depression diagnosis can feel very personal, and not having it automatically reported to an insurance company means that information stays between you and your therapist, in a private record that belongs to you.
If you want to submit a claim for out-of-network reimbursement, we partner with a company that makes it easy to get reimbursed. Keep in mind, though, that once your insurance company has your diagnosis on record, it is difficult to undo. At Evanston Counseling, the choice of whether this happens stays entirely in your hands.
You have taken an important first step just by being here. Therapy for depression in Evanston, IL at Evanston Counseling is here to help you find your way back to feeling like yourself again. You don’t have to keep pushing through alone. Let us match you with a therapist who truly understands. Follow the steps below to get started:
At our counseling center in Evanston, IL, we are committed to providing comprehensive and personalized care to help you find relief from depression. In addition to our therapy for depression program, we offer other specialized therapy services for anxiety, chronic pain and GI distress. Our dedicated team of licensed therapists specializes in therapy for teens, young adults, college students, moms, and couples. We are here to assist you in finding the best treatment options tailored to your unique needs. To learn more about Evanston Counseling’s mental health services and therapy, check out our Blogs and FAQS.
