While moderate stress and long-term stress might seem common and, in regards to your job, marriage, and lifestyle, normal, it can have seriously negative affects on your mental, emotional, and physical health.

In moderation, bouts of stress can lead to episodes of anxiety. In its long-term continuation, stress can lead to major depressive episodes. It is worth knowing the difference between the two, and what you can do to help ease your stress.

While some people consider them to be interchangeable, anxiety and depression are two different things. The mental, emotional, and physical responses to levels of stress, dependent upon how extreme they are, will lead to two separate outcomes, signifying whether or not an individual is suffering from an episode of anxiety or a state of being depressed:

• Perspective on the Future: Anxiety might lead someone to be weary of what is to come; depression will cause a person to feel hopeless, that nothing positive is to come from the future
• States of Worry: Anxiety will cause someone to become worried over upcoming events and obligations; depression leads someone to have negative thoughts towards most all aspects of life
• Physical State: Anxiety will bring about bouts of uneasiness — shaking, sweating, the feeling for a need to escape a situation; depression will cause someone to become fatigued and uninterested, nullifying a person’s ambition and drive

If you believe that you are experiencing episodes of depression, than it is worth seeking out therapy services. Half of Americans that are dealing with major depression are currently seeking out no form of counseling to abet their health issues. In 2012, 16 million American adults experiencing at least one major depressive; currently, over 350 million people worldwide being affected by one form of depression or another. By these numbers, a significant portion of the population, both American and worldwide, deal with bouts of major depression. For that reason, you should feel no sort of stigma in receiving counseling in psychotherapy.

Psychotherapy, the treatment of mental disorders through psychology rather than the means of medicine, is a sound way for depressed people to manage their symptoms without the requirement of drugs. There are a number of types of psychotherapy available, dependent upon the needs of the depressed individual, so it is worthwhile knowing which form is right for you:

• Individual: If you are seeking one-on-one treatment, this type of therapy involves just the therapist and the patient
• Group:/ For those who would like to work alongside a community of individuals, this treatment involves two or more patients in discussion with the therapist,
  allowing for experiences to be shared among them
• Marital: If marital issues are contributing to depression, or simply complicating the matter even further, it is worth seeking out this form of therapy, wherein a married couple can meet with a therapist to discuss issues of the relationship, love, communication, and more.
• Family: Similar to group therapy but with family members, this form of therapy involves the therapist as a mediator, allowing the patient to discuss their mental illness while involving family members and how they might help the patient through the healing process