According to the Centers for disease Control and Prevention in any 2-week period, 5.4% of Americans 12 years of age and older experienced some sort of depression. From major depression like being incapacitated, to symptoms like feeling a little blue, many people have been affected by this modern day malady.

Understand that not all kinds of depression are created equal. Some people have legitimately unbalanced hormones which can cause them to have major depression symptoms. Other people are in a rut or sorts, sad about the loss of a relationship, a death in the family or losing a job. Then there are also some teenagers, for whom the default setting is “depressed.”

The key here is to recognize that each of these states is different. While medication might be the best choice for some of the major depression symptoms, this is often not the case. That’s the importance of seeing a doctor or mental health professional if you are experiencing symptoms of depression. You need to know if you’re actually biologically depressed.

I recently read an article in the Bloomberg Times that said one in ten Americans are taking antidepressants. This is double the percentage of people taking them in 1996. During the same period the use of psychotherapy has declined because of insurance company restrictions on payments. So if you go to your doctor with symptoms, don’t look to them to supply you with any natural cures for depression. Since medication is more “cost effective”, and easier to get approved, it is typically used for people who are “clinically depressed”. The problem is that it often isn’t needed or even helpful. Does this help you understand why we need medical insurance reform?

Here’s a story that I personally observed that illustrates this point perfectly. A friend of mine recently was feeling “depressed”. It was probably because her life had recently changed. Her daughter had moved away to college that semester. Someone told her she might have a chemical imbalance due to aging. She went to the doctor, who tested her for any imbalances and found nothing out the ordinary. However since my friend clearly had “major depression symptoms”, she was prescribed Prozac to help her regulate her moods.

It didn’t work. Why? It didn’t work because she wasn’t clinically depressed. She was simply a little bummed out and blue that her life was changing and her daughter had left home. She wasn’t happy with where she was. The problem is that instead of attempting to make some changes in her life to compensate, she took what seemed to be the easy cure, drugs. Those drugs did nothing to cure her depression.

Before you really go off the deep end by taking drugs that mess with your biochemistry, a better step is to take a good look at yourself and try to understand what’s going on in your life.  Are you really, truly clinically depressed?  Or are you just looking for an “easy” way to make your life into something else?

I would venture to say that for most people it’s the latter. I say this because we as a society have been conditioned to reach for the “magic pill” instead of looking for real solutions to our problems. Do you remember “Brings relief faster?” or “What a relief it is?” These are advertisements for over the counter medications that could make you feel better “instantly”. We have been conditioned to believe that cures come in a bottle instead of having to do any work like exercising, eating right and finding a purpose in life.

Now, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that “depression” with a big “D” doesn’t exist.  For many people, there are legitimate chemical imbalances that they need to address using medication. That’s why it’s so important to uncover the cause of your depression. If you really do have a chemical imbalance you may not be able to obtain a permanent cure for depression with changes in exercise and diet. Some people do need chemical treatment. The issue here is that most people don’t!

Unfortunately for some people, even with chemicals, depression isn’t one-hundred percent curable. At the moment there is no scientific cure for depression. However for most people it is manageable. So whether it’s through diet and exercise or pharmaceuticals, managing your depression is the first step towards living a life where you’re in command.

You don’t have let depression be in command of you. You can take some steps starting today to change the way your feel. Most people can take the natural route to make a major change in their depression symptoms. If you need to take medication as a cure for your depression then by all means use it. The key is to take action, get started. Don’t wait. Life’s too short to go around being clinically depressed.

Wil Dieck is the founder of Total Mind Therapy and author of an e-Course “Steps to reducing your stress“ that you can have at absolutely no charge. Drop by http://www.beststressreliefinfosite.com/ for your copy today