Depression Understood Forums

Do you feel a doctor could understand depression better, if in fact, they dealt with depression themselves. As in them being depressed or a family member or loved one being depressed?

Warmie

Only if the doctor has the capacity for empathy. It's a bonus if s/he has dealt with depression firsthand, because there are aspects of the condition that cannot be fully understood unless one has experienced it himself.

However, experiencing depression doesn't guarantee that the doctor can place him- or herself in the patient's shoes. It's really tough to find a medical practitioiner who can truly relate to what you're going through without turning you into a lab experiment, or worse, just another source of income.

Hope this helps.

It just really all depends on what kind of depression they had and how hard and long it had hit them. I think doctors in general do have an understanding of what depression is but not so much the understanding of how it trully affects the person with depression. My doctor is just focused on the depression itself and thats it and thats what usually doctors are there for. Counselors and therapist have more of the empathy and try to understand the depression and how it emotionally affects the person. Well thats my blabber (blabber, haha). ((((Jeanie))))
take care

((((((((((((((((( Inominatrix and Emotional )))))))))))))))))

Wow, some strong and good answers. Can see your points. Thank you for replying.

Warmie/Jeanie

Yes, I think so.