We know when we're sad. We don't need the dictionary definition of depression, "a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity" to explain the condition. But when it is truly an illness, not just a passing emotion, doctors do a complete physiological evaluation to determine the extent of the problem, whether it is a mild case of depression or an extreme condition that would require depression rehabilitation.
We are fortunate in this century, that getting help for depression no longer means getting shock treatments or a frontal lobotomy. The father of the lobotomy "Walter Freeman believed lobotomies worked because the procedure severed connections between the frontal lobes of the brain and the thalamus, thought to be the seat of human emotion, which the mentally ill apparently had in overabundance. "
Success with Depression Rehab
Luckily, that treatment is now recognized to be the barbaric procedure it is, and doctors have turned to actual science for answers.
Nowadays the cause of depression is thought to be due to chemical imbalances in the brain. Contemporary scientists have come up with a variety of medications to correct those imbalances. Doctors select antidepressants based on their patient's symptoms but there's no one magic pill or one magic protocol. The drug side effects differ, as do their effectiveness. Dosages and prescriptions are adjusted over time as doctors use their best judgment on which specific medications the symptoms respond to--or don't respond to.
Depression rehab is not limited to drugs, however; it is combined with a variety of supportive practices, such as psychotherapy, cognitive and even physical therapy. The point of depression rehab is to treat not just the body, not just the mind, not just the symptoms, but instead to treat the whole person.