When Amy drove from her home in Gainesville, Georgia to to the town of Dillsboro North Carolina, she was excited to spend her vacation hiking in the beautiful Smoky Mountains. But she was prepared to spend the trip alone.
“As a depressed person for a very long time, I was used to not having friends,” Amy says. “I pushed them all away, except for one or two.”
But while she was hiking solo on the trail, Amy kept running into the same friendly group of hikers. They struck up a conversation, and to her surprise, the group invited Amy to join them for dinner and a concert. For Amy, this was a big deal. She had stopped going out for dinner since the onset of her depression, and she hadn’t been to a concert for ten or fifteen years. That weekend, Amy laughed, made memories, and enjoyed the company of her new friends without the familiar, crushing weight of depression that had dominated her life for so long. It was the start of several lasting friendships for Amy, but even more so it was the start of a brighter chapter in her life.
“That’s when I knew that the real Amy was here,” she says.
Sadly, Amy’s struggle with social isolation is a common experience for people with depression. We all need relationships with other people, the same way we need food and water. But people with depression often avoid contact with others–even though isolation is the opposite of what they need. Like negative thinking or self-medicating with alcohol, pushing people away becomes a vicious cycle for those with depression. Their depression makes them want to isolate themselves, and the isolation deepens their depression by causing loneliness. This self-imposed isolation can lead to a whole host of other health problems, too. It increases stress hormone levels and raises blood pressure, putting strain on the heart and blood vessels. Loneliness also interferes with sleep–bolstering anxiety–and can increase the risk of suicide.
It can be difficult for non-depressed people to understand why someone with depression would want to isolate themselves from friends and family, but there are a number of reasons. A person with depression may feel uncomfortable showing their emotions around others-especially because these feelings can be difficult to explain. They may also be afraid of lashing out at the people they care about, since depression can make emotions harder to control. Plus, depression zaps your energy. They may simply feel too exhausted to go out and participate in activities or make conversation like they would have enjoyed doing in the past.
Fortunately, there are many treatment options that can help people with depression feel more like themselves, so they can restore their relationships and return to enjoying life. Many people with depression are prescribed antidepressant medications–often a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) such as Zoloft, Prozac, or Celexa. However, antidepressants don’t work for everyone. In fact, about 30{2997f8544d703ffd995cbf0748d9148f9150b33c2eb54c93a5197645ffc3f066} of people who try them still experience depression symptoms.
Amy belonged to this group. Despite taking the antidepressants, her doctor prescribed, she just wasn’t feeling any better. As her depression continued, she remained isolated from friends she was once close with. Everyone around her seemed to stand on solid ground, but even though she was trying desperately to overcome her depression, Amy still felt like she was drowning.
Then she began TMS therapy and Amy’s life finally changed. “I’m elated,” she says. “I have more friends than I even want right now. I never thought that to be possible.”
Now that Amy’s depression has lifted, she knows just how effective TMS therapy can be for people with treatment-resistant depression like hers- and she is determined to spread the word to anyone else who has lost hope that they can regain the meaning in their life.
“If you’re drowning, if you can’t get out of bed, if you feel hopeless, if you feel like someone has put you in a dark hole and you can’t get out, I would like for you to know that TMS can help you,” Amy says. “All you have to do is show up. They will treat you, and it will get better. If you have just a little bit of faith, your life can be completely different.”
TMS Neuro Institute is one of the earliest adopters in using transcranial magnetic stimulation to treat depression in Los Angeles. To schedule a consultation, call 888.823.4867 or book an appointment online here.