Are there any alternatives like psychotherapy that are able to completely replace medication for anxiety and depression?

Doctor's Answer

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Dr Paul Ang

General Practitioner

Thank you for asking this question for the benefit of everyone.

It sounds that you are having a tough time, and its double whammy when the treatment gives you unbearable side effects.

Unfortunately in medicine, it is often times a zero sum game. Everything seems to have its "costs" and "benefits".

Fortunately for you, there are alternatives, like psychotherapy or more commonly known as talk therapy. The good side is that if it works for you, the effect is equivalent to medications, and the effects lasts way longer than medications. The down side is that, not every psychologist is made the same. Please keep your eyes open and look out for the following words.

1) "Clinical Psychologist": means they are trained to do one thing and that one thing in their life is to treat patients like you.

2) Post graduate qualifications like masters in clinical psychology.

The more down sides are the time, you have to invest in the time, typically a hour each session, and at least a couple of sessions before you would actually see improvements and some patients might even take a couple of months, that become couple of years for full treatment.

Also the perceived costs might be higher.

There are some GP clinics that have psychologists though, and you might be able to use medisave for the treatment of these conditions.

Take care and hope you will be treated some day.

PS: I would stay away from other things like hypnotherapy and general counselling, they might help some people, but notice that they usually don't happen in hospitals, for a good reason.

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