I'm Still Human: Understanding Depression With Kindness (Expanded Edition - 2021)

11. When will I recover?
This depends on various factors, e.g. the severity of your
depression. There’re also individual differences in how fast a
person responds to treatment. Generally speaking, it will take
several weeks to see significant improvement in mood and
behavior – definitely not in a few days – be patient. I suggest that
you should be mentally prepared to spend at least 3-6 months for a
complete treatment plan. Take this positively, like signing up for a
certificate course on depression – enjoy your
learning. You’ll be a better person after this.
12. How do I prevent a relapse?
If you are on antidepressants, please don’t stop too early
(it should be continued for at least 6 months after you are well). Try
to maintain whatever you practiced that brought you out of
depression and kept you well (e.g. all the non-medication
recommendations in this book). Just like physical health, mental
health doesn’t come free – we need to put in effort to maintain
wellness.
Relapse often occurs with a unique set of symptoms specific to an
individual. Some people call this, ‘signature symptoms’ (e.g. poor
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