Our Premium Selection of Top Online Depression Counseling Companies

Suffering from depression is a very common occurrence these days. This debilitating mental health disorder affects around 10% of the population, and 41.5% of people report recent symptoms of a depressive disorder or anxiety. Luckily, depression is one of the mental health issues that are highly treatable. The best online therapy for depression, for example, has an excellent combination of affordability, availability, and convenience. Therapists utilize a variety of methods, depending on the patient’s unique situation, and patients can choose among several treatment modalities. But to find the best online mental health therapy solution, you need to understand what depression actually is and what therapy options are available to you.

What constitutes depression?

A major depressive disorder (depression in short), is a medical illness that heavily influences how one feels, acts, and thinks, in a negative way. According to the August 2020-February 2021 CDC report, the percentage of adults that suffered from recent symptoms of a depressive disorder or anxiety is around 41.5%! That means that almost half the population is dealing with depression in some shape or form. The report also mentions that depression is most common among adults 18-29 years of age. However, we have to account that many people simply choose not to report their issues. If they did, the number would undoubtedly be even higher.

Depression symptoms

To be diagnosed with depression, an individual must exhibit symptoms that are different than their previous level of functioning. Furthermore, these symptoms must last at least two weeks. Some medical conditions can also “mimic” common depression symptoms, meaning that the patient will usually need to undergo tests. Depression usually involves the following symptoms:

• Loss of interest in pleasurable activities
• Too much sleep or trouble sleeping
• Thoughts of suicide or death in general
• Difficulty making decisions
• Difficulty concentrating
• Feeling sad
• Feelings of guilt or worthlessness

While almost half of the population experiences depression at some point in their lives, medical research shows that clinical depression “only” affects around 5.6% of the total population. Depression can strike at any time but it usually first appears during the teenage years. Women have a higher chance of experiencing depression, with almost one-third of the female population going through a major depression period throughout their lives. Lastly, depression has a very high heritability factor. This means that if your closest (children, parents, siblings) are suffering from depression, you have a high chance of developing a depressive disorder at some point.

Risk factors

There are numerous factors that play a role in succumbing to depression. First, there’s biochemistry where some differences in chemicals in our brains can contribute to depressive symptoms. Then there’s the genetic factor. Depression has a tendency to “run” through family lines. The main example is identical twins. If one twin has depression, the other twin has around a 70% chance of developing depressive disorder of their own at some point in their life.

Of course, an individual’s personality plays a large role in developing depression. People that have low self-esteem, are pessimistic, or succumb easily to stress are much more likely to be diagnosed with depression. Lastly, there are environmental factors. If a person is continuously exposed to abuse, poverty, violence, or even neglect, they are significantly more vulnerable to developing clinical depression.

Depression treatment options

Here’s the good news. Depression is one of the most treatable mental disorders. Almost everyone who has a depressive disorder responds well to treatment. At the very least, the patients that undergo treatment get significant relief from the symptoms of depression.

However, before you opt for any of the treatment options (more on them shortly), you will need to consult a health professional. They will need to perform a diagnostic evaluation to verify that you are suffering from clinical depression. You may even need to do a blood test to discount the possibility of thyroid problems/vitamin deficiencies. After the diagnosis, you will be presented with the following three options:

• Medications
• Psychotherapy
• Self-help

Most patients usually start with self-help and medications. However, in most cases, these two options are simply not enough. To date, psychotherapy remains one of the best therapy options for people with depressive disorder.

Psychotherapy modalities

You have several options when it comes to psychotherapy. The modalities that show great success in treating depression are:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
• Behavioral Activation (BA)
• Problem-Solving Therapy (PST)
• Interpersonal Therapy for depression (IPT)

While all of the above modalities are great in helping overcome depression, you may want to learn about each one in turn. For example, CBT is amazing in helping some people while others will find most use in PST. Every person is unique and will benefit from a different psychotherapy approach. To find the best online therapy for depression, the best thing to do is to consult with a licensed therapist before you make the choice. But before you do so, you may want to know a bit more about each modality.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

CBT helps patients overcome depression by identifying and changing negative thought patterns and their associated behaviors. Negative thoughts influence our behavior and the behavior usually reinforces negative thoughts. It is a vicious cycle, one that can “fuel” depression. Therapists who practice the best online CBT therapy usually try to help patients identify their core beliefs, as they are a large part of our thought patterns. By doing so, the patients become capable of addressing the negative thoughts and adjusting their behavior.

Effectiveness of CBT for treating depression

A 2011 medical study showed that CBT is as effective in treating depression as most antidepressants. According to the study, patients that underwent the full course of CBT sessions were less likely to experience a relapse than those who were treated with medication alone. It is also worth mentioning that the patients that show the most improvements from CBT are also the ones with the most severe symptoms. Nonetheless, CBT remains one of the best treatment modalities when it comes to dealing with depression.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

DBT is quite similar to CBT. For the most part, both modalities utilize similar techniques. However, the difference is that DBT focuses on emotions instead of thought patterns. The therapy involves patients engaging in a dialogue of sorts with their emotions. Most people experience numerous contradictions in their emotions and attitudes, something that may prevent them from making positive changes. Undergoing dialectical behavior therapy helps with challenging those contradictions and learning to deal with negative emotions. Throughout the therapy sessions, patients slowly learn to “talk back” and not allow their emotions to rule them.

DBT is mostly utilized in child and adolescent mental health care, but even adults and the elderly can benefit from it.

Behavioral Activation

As you might already realize, all therapies that deal with depression have some similarities. BA is not an exception, as it also deals with one’s thoughts and behaviors. Behavioral activation is seldom used on its own, however, and is usually working in conjunction with other treatment modalities. What BA does best, though, is helping patients figure out and adopt long-term coping strategies. It does so by identifying unique, specific, goals and providing a way to meet them.

BA creates positive reinforcement which helps patients overcome situations and behaviors that they wish to avoid. Throughout the therapy, patients exhibit higher and higher self-confidence. The result is a certain sense of accomplishment and positivity that slowly overcomes depression.

Problem-Solving Therapy

This form of psychotherapy focuses on “life stressors”. All of us experience stress on a daily basis but people that are under the influence of chronic stress may develop a depressive disorder. What PST does is identify the stressors that contributed to the disorder and help manage them. This is done through adaptive problem-solving and increased mindfulness. The therapy also focuses on processing the negative emotions that occur when difficulties arise. The main examples of these stressors are the death of a loved one or a loss of a job. Through PST, patients learn to accept the situation for what it is and create problem-solving techniques unique to them.

Interpersonal Therapy for depression

Mostly used in conjunction with CBT, IPT is a great modality to treat depression on its own. The treatment focuses on interpersonal relationships and connections, and how to improve them. The focus of interpersonal therapy is the patient’s own actions and reactions and how they influence their relationships. Throughout the interpersonal therapy, the patient and their therapist will identify the important interpersonal relationships, address how they affect the patient’s mental health, as well as develop strategies and skills to improve them.

One thing to note is that IPT is somewhat time-limited, which is different from other modalities. Most treatments will last for 20 sessions or less, depending on the needs of the patient. But the benefits of interpersonal therapy are numerous and will arrive much sooner as well!

As you can see, there are numerous approaches to dealing with depression. Traditionally, people did not have much choice in the matter, as they were limited by their geographic position, therapist availability, and similar. But these days, with the best online therapy for depression being readily available, it has all changed.

Why choose online therapy for depression?

Traditionally, mental health therapy was always performed in a therapist’s office. This means that the patients who did not have access to a nearby therapist had a much harder time dealing with their condition. Furthermore, the sessions themselves needed to be scheduled in advance, a couple of months in some cases.

But today, with almost everyone having access to the internet, online therapy has flourished. Online therapy was always quite similar to in-person therapy but was riddled with technological shortcomings. While it is not perfectly ideal yet, today’s technology allows therapists to provide the same level of care and treatment to each of their online patients. Here are some of the advantages of online counseling that the best online therapy for depression brings:

• Easier to “open up”
• Time savings
• Higher comfort
• Greater security
• Supreme confidentiality
• Cost-effectiveness
• No traveling

While in-person therapy and online therapy are pretty much the same when it comes to most parts, studies show that patients usually feel more comfortable when they talk through their smartphone or their computer screen. This is invaluable in psychotherapy, as its basic principle involves people “opening up”. With online therapy, patients usually find themselves more eager and courageous to talk about things that they would never think of talking about face-to-face.

Time-saving

Furthermore, by the virtue of not needing to move an inch from your home, you will be saving a lot of time on your therapy sessions. There will be no traffic to worry about, no commute whatsoever. All that you need to do is schedule the best time for your session and connect from the comfort of your own home!

Comfort

Being comfortable is one of the basic premises of any treatment modality. And what can be more comfortable than your own home or the place you want to be when attending the therapy session. That’s right, you can literally be at any place that has an internet connection and attend your session from there! When you compare comfort in online therapy vs in-person therapy, there’s no contest!

Security and confidentiality

With online therapy, you are taking almost no chances whatsoever. By not leaving the safety of your home, you are not exposing yourself to a potentially dangerous commute. All the sessions are conducted via a computer (smartphone, tablet, etc.), without any need to drive anywhere.

Your sessions are also encrypted, meaning that all the conversations between and your therapist remain purely confidential. Furthermore, by choosing to attend the best online therapy for depression sessions, no one needs to know that you are attending them in the first place!

Affordability

Psychotherapy can get pretty expensive, that is a fact. However, by choosing online therapy, you are removing many of the associated costs of why therapy is so expensive. You will not need to pay for any gas, subway, taxi, or any other travel arrangement, for example. Furthermore, online therapy can be substantially cheaper than in-person therapy.

In fact, the best online therapy for depression is usually one of the most cost-effective choices you have. But there are many choices when it comes to therapist networks. If you want to learn more about the pros and cons of each of the top networks, you can find all the information in the Consumer Opinion Guide! Explore at your leisure!