“Does the treatment for depression have to be continuous?”

There are several different types of depression, and varying degrees of impact. Healing is a lifetime process of learning and growing healthy tools to deal with the challenging elements of life, that are a natural part of being human, but can feed symptoms of depression. Using your vacation to practice what you have been learning in your sessions can advance that learning, and build your own inner coach as a growing resource in your life.
James O. Henman, Ph.D.

Your treatment plan should include exercises that you do at home to improve your condition. If you are being successful with the tactics, than a short vacation where you apply what you learned should keep you from falling backward.

I assume you are talking about therapy, not medication, since you could take your medication with you. Your therapist can advise you as to whether a break is advisable- how long of a break? How long have you been seeing the therapist? How are you feeling at this point? Certainly, the person to ask is the therapist. Perhaps you are afraid she or he will recommend not going away just now. But still, it is the best idea.

Good luck! When you are stable and not depressed, then a vacation will be a real celebration.





Peace,
Marian
Marian Kaplun Shapiro
Licensed Psychologist

I think it depends on what you mean by “treatment” as that could mean psychotherapy or medication or both. Taking a short break from treatment while you’re in therapy is usually okay. I would encourage you to speak to your mental health provider to discuss his or her concerns as well as yours. You may be able to develop a plan to work on certain areas even on vacation and identify resources in the vacation area in case of a mental health emergency.

To me, if you wanted to go have fun, you probably would be escaping the lie for awhile. I'd say go for it.

There are so many ways therapists approach depression. It would somewhat depend upon their approach. Here's mine: Depression comes from a deeply imbedded lie you learned about life, people, or yourself that you adopted when you were very young, formulating your world view. It would be a lie that your parents probably accidentally transmitted to you, or it came from some circumstance from which you inferred your premise for life. That lie is now interrupting your life and running the show. It's up to you to stop buying the lie, but to identify it and dismantle it for what it is: untrue. (You could have turned it into truth by following the lie. You can undo that.)

Still, your job is to identify the lie and the sooner the better. Sample lies are: (1) You can't trust anyone (for which you must learn how to (a) assess people, to (b) accept that no one is in this world to meet your needs and think from your perspective, so all will and must eventually disappoint you, which is OK. You also need to (b) and stay away from situations or people who hurt you, rather than trying to change them). (2) I am not enough for someone to want me or to be in a relationship with me. (3) I am at risk for things going wrong no matter what I do.

So, find the lie. Meditate. Relax. Allow yourself to do some reverie and see if you can go back in time and find out where that lie came from. Maybe you won't remember precisely, but you have a hunch.

At some point, you have to redefine what you believe and begin practicing life based upon those new beliefs. You may have some undoing, repair, and catching up to do. It's all worth it.

Dr. Faye

Not necessarily and a family is good mental health treatment!

You will be fine. Take that vacation and try to have fun and know when you get back, you can be treated again.

No, a break, especially a short one, should be fine, but take some homework with you. Read Dr. Burns book, Feeling Good.

Dear Sir/Madam,
 
I think that your treatment providing therapist or psychiatrist knows you and your condition way more than I could from your question! So my suggestion is to ask them this same question and explore the issue with them.
 
Take care.
Dr. Sonpal