When drugs for depression fail, talking therapies help

Cognitive approaches are NOT new, they have been around for years and really drugs that repress symptons are just additional symptoms of themselves and only prolong and delay real recovery. The only effective way to cure depression and other psychological problems is to work on personal development that is usually incomplete in modern people due to the pressures of life and other problems. Only by examining one's past and own character can that development be completed and then a person has a full ability and mature strength to deal with adversity and weather the inevitable challenges of life. Unfortunately a wrong path was taken over 100 years ago by allowing the professions of Psychology and psychiatry to become overly admired and greatly over charged for...and by allowing a pejorative demeaning system of judgemental diagnoises which are themselves just creations of the imagination not really factual to be used to label clients and weaken them and make them dependent on the therapists. Fortunately many are seeing thru the scam of the entire mess and true healing is happening more and more. Don't rely on the professionals in this case, do your own research and work on your self in your own way and you will succeed far faster and far more effectively.

CBT is great. Research has shown that it is pretty much the only successful treatment for otherwise untreatable disorders like anorexia, bulemia, pedophilia, etc. If isn't a magic wand though, and isn't effective against all disorders, for example for schizophrenia it has little or not effect.

... I do have one quibble with this article though. The sequence should be:

See a doctor to check for physical causes of depression (hormone imbalance, thyroid problems, etc). If there are none, then, See a psychotherapist to probe for underlying psychological causes. If none, then, See a neurologist for medication to mask the symptoms.

Unfortunately the order is usually 1, 3, 2 (or even 3, 1, 2) with the psychologist being the last resort. The problem with this is that where there is an underlying psychological cause it is masked not dealt with while the person is medicated, then when they go off the medication the full symptoms reassert themselves all at once, often with catastrophic consequences.

What child, upset and crying for some unknown reason, hasn't heard his/her Mom say, "...do you want to talk about it?' Of course "it' works, not all the drugs being sold/administered. Its being able to talk to someone...with love in their heart; this is the sole source of true relief. Dump all the harmful mood altering drugs.

@Frungy I just read the headline and was shocked...

It is really embarrassing what one has to read in some newspapers...

If you are depressed seek therapy. It is not caused by a virus, it is simply and plainly caused by your own behaviour. Learn how to face your reality, and then change it. If you do not want to see, which is the usual, or if reality is too painful and you are too weak to face it, THEN get pills to take away the symptons. If that will do for you, then you deserve your life....

I recommend reading "Anatomy of an Epidemic", it argues that drugs suppress mental/psychotic behaviors on a day to day basis, but in the long term it cause the users to be more prone to psychotic episode and worse.

Well it really depends what kind of disorder there is, certain types of depression are indeed caused by specific chemical imbalance but those are usually not treated with directly antidepressants such as prozac. Talking therapy is probably best for most though and really should be the first point of help only supplemented with meds in case of actual extreme cases.