How IPT Helps Rebuild Self-Worth and Empower Depression Recovery
Sometimes you may experience feelings of grief or sadness, but that should not worry you because it is a normal part of life. However, if that feeling of sadness becomes too much for you to bear and begins to affect your day-to-day functions or how you relate with other people, it becomes depression.
In research done by some medical scientists, at least one out of every 10 Americans was found to be suffering from depression. And everyone who experienced depression was too weak, both mentally and physically; therefore, they isolated themselves from the world.
Luckily, there is no need to deal with this mental health problem all by yourself. You can find trained therapists who will use treatment options such as IPT, ketamine-assisted therapy, biotherapies, etc., to help you manage your symptoms until you start to feel better.
This article will pay particular attention to IPT, a treatment that many therapists swear by and use to help people deal with depression and other mental issues. We shall look at how this therapy form works and how it can help to rebuild self-worth and speed up recovery from depression.
What Is IPT?
Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) is a form of one-on-one talking therapy for people who experience moderate or severe depressive episodes.
This type of treatment recognizes that the mental health of every human being is largely dependent on the emotional bonds and connections that people form with each other. And, depression always creeps in when the bonds break or conflict brings a little bit of strain in the relationships. Therefore, the approach of IPT is to help a patient who’s dealing with depression feel better by improving their relationships.
Since relationships are important to mental health, the West Springfield depression therapist must pinpoint the problems that may have caused a patient to go into depression, before beginning the treatment. A few of the problems that warrant treatment using IPT include,
Grief
When you lose a loved one, feelings of grief can become so overwhelming that they cause severe depression. Sometimes the depression hits instantly and does not go away even after months or years have passed. In other cases, instead of feeling the normal emotions that come with grief, you will experience physical symptoms such as fatigue or insomnia – symptoms that are usually related to depression.
Role Disputes in Relationships
Sometimes, the dynamics in a relationship can become compromised when the people involved have completely different expectations from each other. A good example is when a couple cannot come to an agreement on the best ways to show each other affection or the amount of space they need to give each other without straining the relationship. If you cannot come to an amicable agreement about these issues, one or even both of you may experience feelings of depression.
Significant Life Transitions
We experience a lot of changes throughout our lives and that is absolutely normal; however, it may be hard to cope with some of these changes and that’s what usually causes depression. For example, a couple can decide to get a divorce if they feel like they are no longer on the same page when it comes to their relationship. But if one of them still feels an emotional connection to the other person, they may not be able to bear it and descend into depression. Other than divorce, big changes such as getting married, retiring from a long-term job, or having your first child can also cause depression in some people.
Interpersonal Deficits
Interpersonal deficits usually make it difficult for some people to form or maintain healthy relationships with other people. These can include difficulty in expressing emotions or feelings of inadequacy that make it hard to communicate effectively.
How Does IPT Help Depression Patients
IPT Improves the Patient’s Current Relationships
During IPT, the therapist helps a patient to explore all their relationships and figure out how those relationships have contributed to their depression. As a result, the patient is able to improve their relationship by making necessary changes or simply addressing the issues that are straining the relationship in the first place.
IPT Improves Communication Skills
A lack of good communication skills is one of the main things that strains interpersonal relationships. Without telling people how you really feel or how their actions affect you, they will continue doing all the things that bring up feelings of sadness which may eventually lead to depression.
During IPT, your therapist will take you through the best ways to express how you are feeling, so that you don’t get overwhelmed. And as a result, you will become less stressed and your relationships will become stronger.
IPT Helps You Identify and Resolve Conflicts
Conflict is quite common in every relationship; however, many people fail to recognize conflicts when they come up and fail to resolve them. After some time, the unresolved conflicts cause too much strain in the relationship and anyone who isn’t strong mentally can end up getting depressed. By identifying and resolving conflicts during IPT, you can reduce all feelings of helplessness or hopelessness in your relationships. And, this is especially useful whenever you are dealing with difficult people.
IPT Increases the Feeling of Social Support
Since the main focus of ITP is to improve personal relationships, it can assist you in bringing people closer to you and help build a strong support system. If you feel a strong sense of emotional and physical support from the people around you, you will be able to manage the symptoms of your depression more easily. Therefore, by addressing the issues you face in current relationships or building new relationships, you will be able to create a network that will stand by you through all difficult times.
IPT Helps You Deal With Loss
A lot of people experience immense grief after losing a loved one or an important part of their livelihood such as a job. If that grief isn’t processed in a healthy manner, the feelings could become too overwhelming, and eventually lead to depression.
A therapist can use IPT to teach you the skills you’ll need to process your emotions about loss and come to terms with the entire experience. Once you possess the tools for processing your feelings, you will never feel sad or isolated again.
IPT Improves Self-Esteem
As humans, the relationships that we have with other people greatly affect our sense of self. Therefore, IPT will help you understand and improve your relationships which will in turn have a positive impact on your confidence and self-esteem.
IPT Works Well With Other Therapies
Sometimes a patient’s depression can be too severe that it doesn’t respond well enough to the traditional forms of therapy or medication. If that is the case, you can use IPT alongside treatments such as biological therapies, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, etc., to create a more comprehensive treatment plan for depression.
Final Thoughts
Depression has become quite rampant in recent years, and many people who are affected keep isolating themselves because they feel weak and don’t know how to ask for help. However, as we’ve seen in this article, depression is quite easy to manage as long as you get the right kind of help instead of dealing with it on your own. In fact, therapists use a treatment called Interpersonal psychotherapy to try and help depression patients to figure out how their relationships with other people have brought them down to a depressive state.
By using IPT, any patient with depression or any other mental health problem can find ways to fix their relationships so that they may lead healthier emotional lives.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the limitation of IPT?
IPT may not be suitable for people who have been through a traumatic experience because the treatment sometimes involves talking about such experiences, which can be difficult for some people.
Which technique is used in IPT?
Therapists use many techniques during interpersonal therapy, but the most common one is role-playing. By role-playing, the therapist can help the patient adjust how they relate to their world and figure out how to solve the most pressing problems in their relationships.
What are the goals of IPT treatment?
The main objective of IPT is to help a patient to enhance how they function in society and improve their interpersonal relationships to reduce emotional stress.
