There are more reasons to be depressed today than there have ever been. Luckily, there are more effective ways to deal with it today too. But don’t you hate when someone expects you to snap out of your funk – as if it’s just a mild headache or something?

And sometimes you may encounter people in your life like my friend, John, who seems over-the-top enthusiastic and cheerful everyday. He would be irritating if I didn’t think about “Ned Flanders,” the Simpsons cartoon character who is similarly upbeat all the time.

When is a person thought to be “clinically depressed?” Clinical depression has a lengthy list of symptoms, but quickly it basically indicates you feel so down for a minimum of two weeks that you can’t accomplish the things you usually do.

As you likely already know, depression can be vastly different for different people. Major Depressive Disorder is the category that describes depression symptoms that are more serious than others. But MDD is not a condition that comes on instantly. No, it builds up over time, so don’t allow yourself to deteriorate to that point without obtaining help first.

But the most typical symptoms of depression are: Sleeping too long or not long enough just about every night. Over-eating or under-eating constantly. Low energy, the feeling of being fatigued all the time. In addition to those, certain things such as inexplicable headaches, stomachaches, and so forth normally go with the other symptoms.

So how do you deal with depression properly? The simple answer is with a blend of external help and self-help. We’ll review both of these individually below:

External Help: The outside help should really start with a search for a qualified health professional in the town – someone who is schooled and experienced in dealing with depression. Ideally, this person can make recommendations to you with an open mind and not always default to either medication or always default to the same ‘touchy-feely’ alternative treatment. For example, some orthopedic surgeons always recommend surgery because that is what they are trained in, when in reality the better alternative is physical therapy.

…So the right way to go about finding the doctor that’s right for you is to start by asking about a doctor’s treatment programs. Which ones does he use most often? Remember that usually the best treatment for any mental disorder like depression is a combination of therapies.

Self-Help: Reading and applying self-help advice in the form of books, magazine articles and the like. The funny thing about self-help books is that the main ingredient in their effectiveness is the reader! Don’t expect to pickup a self-help book, read it, and expect results without any effort on your part.

People suffering from most types of depression are rarely completely cured through medication alone. Normally, they have to apply the advice given from health care professionals or the information gotten from a self-help book.

But if you are completely dedicated to your own recovery – and not lazily waiting for a ‘magic pill’ to fix all your problems, then reading and applying what you’ve read in a self-help book can do wonders for you in the long run. After all, when you take a proactive role in your own mental health (and physical health), you are fifty percent cured before you do anything else. Because you will be able to immediately implement treatment strategies, due to your open-minded willingness to ‘try anything’ to help yourself.

Charles’s miraculous survival of a suicide attempt when he was only 16 years old was the inspiration for a controversial booktitled “Outsmart Your Depression By Learning More About Yourself: A Step-By-Step Guide With Extraordinary Case Studies.” To discover more about how to deal with depression go to his site at http://dealwithdepression.org/