Depression Treatment Melbourne FL

Depression is a medical condition that affects mood, energy, sleep, appetite, concentration, and the ability to take an interest in things that used to matter. It is not a mood that can be reasoned away, and the exhaustion that comes with it is physical as well as emotional.

It looks different depending on who has it. An adult may describe it as heaviness or emptiness. A teenager is more likely to present as irritable than sad, which is one reason depression in adolescents is often read as attitude. An older adult may report aches, sleep problems, and memory complaints before ever using the word depressed, and it is regularly mistaken for ordinary aging or for the effect of a medical illness.

Our clinicians have evaluated and treated depression across Brevard County since 1992, in children, in adults, and in older adults. Many of the people who come to us have been managing it for a long time before making the call.

The first appointment is an evaluation. It covers what you are experiencing, how long it has been going on, what your sleep and appetite are doing, what else is happening medically, and what has been tried before. Depression frequently occurs alongside anxiety, grief, a medical condition, or a substance problem, and the evaluation is where that gets sorted out rather than assumed.

Care is built around the person. For some that is therapy. For others it is medication management. For many it is both, and our practice is structured so that a prescriber and a therapist can coordinate directly rather than through the patient. Where depression is being driven or worsened by something medical, we will say so and work alongside your other providers.

For children and adolescents, parents are part of the plan, and with permission we will coordinate with a school. For older adults, we look carefully at the overlap between mood, medical conditions, and memory, because those three are easy to confuse and are treated differently.

If you are having thoughts of ending your life, please do not wait for an appointment. Call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or go to your nearest emergency room.