Getting affordable counseling

You don't absolutely need medication. You might, but no one can accurately tell you that over the internet.

In many cases, depression is effectively (and pretty quickly) addressed through talk therapy, and there are a lot of advantages to that over antidepressants if it's an option that works for you. In your case, since the depression is likely tied to your feeling trapped in a relationship that isn't working, and living a life where you feel like you can't be yourself, my guess is that working with a therapist to address the issues will resolve the problem without the need for medication.

In any case, what you do need is an evaluation. If your husband makes reasonably decent money, then one of the first steps you can take is to sequester some of it for your own needs, of which help with your depression should be right at the top of the list. If for some reason that isn't an option, there may be either peer counseling, or counseliing with psychologist interns available either through a local LGBT center if there is one in your area, or through a college or university nearby with a psychology program. That's where I'd start.

 

For the record, all 50 states regulate mental health counselors and the provision of mental health services, and licensure to provide mental health, counseling, and psychotherapy services requires a masters degree or better.

Psychotherapists with a master's degree are called "counselors" or "marriage and family therapists" in most states, while "psychologist" is generally a term reserved for doctoral-level psychologists. Social workers have a wider scope of practice than psychologists do, and those who are LISW/LCSW/LMSW have the clinical training to do therapy; the MSW degree alone does not confer competence in psychotherapy.

There are no states that allow "untrained amateurs" to provide counseling or therapy services.

It is the skill of the particular counselor or therapist, not so much the training, that impacts how well the therapy process will work for any individual. Having been to many professional trainings with many different therapists, counselors, and social workers, I can say with a pretty high degree of confidence that there's close to zero correlation between the amount of education and the quality of the therapist.

It generally isn't useful to generalize an individual experience (even a 28 year one) to other individuals. Some people do have an intractable depression that may require medication to overcome (and for some people, medication is not even effective.) Most others, such as the OP in this thread, have a specific, definable issue that is likely driving the depression, and in those cases, generally, when the issue itself is resolved, the depression also lifts.

 

Hi there! Glad to read that you have found potentially a counsellor that could provide the help, and that you will be able to afford! That's great! Hope it goes well.

 

Henry, I'm sorry, but this is simply not true. As I said in the above post, all 50 states license mental health counselors. California, surprisingly, was the last to do so, in 2007 or so. And anyone who provides counseling services in mental health must have a minimum of a masters degree and qualify for licensing in his or her respective state.

Again, it's not as simple as you describe. and again, your sweeping statement is simply not correct. There are a lot of nuances in depressive disorders. For example, there is short-term episodic depression that can be extremely debilitating, but lifts on its own, generally in under 2 weeks. There are depressions that are biochemical imbalances that may or may not require medication as the preferred means of addressing them, and there are episodic depressions, and depressions secondary to life situations (such as what we're likely seeing with the OP) and depressions that can be byproducts of dietary changes, (non-psychoactive) medication changes, loss of a relationship, death of a loved one, and various other things that can, temporarily, cause someone to have difficulty with daily functioning. A large number of those do not require medication, and most do not require hospitalization.

To be honest, when you look at the blinded testing of SSRI antidepressants (the most commonly prescribed and used variety), the results are only very slightly better than placebo (less than 10% according to a number of studies), and many people get no benefit from them at all. In fact, there's some evidence that some herbal remedies are more effective than the prescription medications, and certain types of therapy (notably DBT and CBT) can have a very profound impact in a matter of two or three weeks.

There are certainly cases where SSRIs and other antidepressant medications are helpful and effective. But the situation is far more nuanced than you are apparently able to grasp.

You are certainly welcomed to state an opinion here, but one of the things that we value at EC is the accuracy of information shared in our community. So I'd again ask that you please not take your singular experience (as you seem to be doing) and generalize it to the experience of others, particularly when it appears you are not fully informed about either the nature of the licensure of the mental health profession or the differences between episodic vs chronic depression.