Is it Depression or Something More?

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This post is part of a sponsored partnership with Your Wellness Center, however we would not partner with a business we did not feel brought value to our readers. The Cincinnati Moms Blog team shares a common mission with Your Wellness Center in supporting women's health and well-being.

Cincinnati Moms Blog has been partnering with Your Wellness Center for a couple months now and if I am being honest it has made me look at my quality of health and overall well-being a little differently. I am supportive of “alternative” therapies and treatment, even trying acupuncture for my migraines when I was in my 20’s. I am also a supportive of “Western medicine” and don’t shy away from taking medications when needed. However, the more I talk with the staff at Your Wellness Center, the more I learn about finding the balance between the two as well as the importance for looking beyond the surface… especially when your intuition is telling you that you should.

Balance and individualized care are themes that you will hear repeated over and over when you talk to any of the practitioners at Your Wellness Center. Treating the individual is the primary goal, and this is done by forming a partnership with you as the patient to take an in depth look at the symptoms you are experiencing and WHY you are experiencing them. At Your Wellness Center, symptoms are not viewed in isolation, but in conjunction with the story being told by detailed lab work as well as by you, as the one experiencing those symptoms. The end result of this comprehensive approach is often an answer that is more intricate than it initially appears on the surface.

Depression can be a default diagnosis for a specific set of symptoms that can also often be explained by hormone imbalance.

Recently, in preparation for an online informational event, we (Cincinnati Moms Blog) did a survey of the moms who were attending. Anxiety, irritability and depression were a universal complaint in the responses we received. It turns out that SO MANY of us (women and moms) are taking some sort of anti-anxiety and/or depression medication… myself included. Which forces me to wonder… are we all seriously this unhappy? Or is it something else?

So how do you know if those feelings of melancholy are true depression versus the result of hormone imbalance? It can be easy to default to the depression diagnosis as the symptoms of depression and hormone imbalance are so similar. Start by asking yourself this:

What is causing your symptoms?

Did something happen recently which makes sense to have caused depression? (Think death of a loved one, loss of a job, financial stress etc…) Or have your feelings of depression been creeping up on you for seemingly no reason? Are you experiencing postpartum depression… feeling sad when you have every reason to simply be happy?

If the latter describes you, and there is a chance your feelings are caused by hormone imbalance, then it should be treated differently than depression. Makes sense right?

So what do you do?

The most important thing is to make sure you are having an open and honest conversation with your health care provider. No one should live their lives feeling like they are helpless. Depression is a very real diagnosis and if you are someone who is experiencing emotional depression, having the support of your healthcare provider (and even depression medication) is important to your overall health and well being. 

If you feel like what you are experiencing may be something more, then listen to your intuition and give our friends at Your Wellness Center a call. You can start by filling out their online form (on your desk top, not your mobile device). Their staff will then be in touch to get you scheduled for some blood work to take an in-depth look at your hormone panel. If your blood work looks great, they will let you know that and you can cross hormonal imbalance off of your list. If your blood work indicates an imbalance you will then schedule a consultation in which every hormone level will be discussed with you in detail and a recommendation for a care plan will be outlined to help balance your body from the inside out.

Why Your Wellness Center?

You may asking yourself why you can’t just make an appointment with your primary care provider or your OB/Gyn? You could, but the answer to why I recommend Your Wellness Center boils down to two things:

  1. Your Wellness Center will start off checking blood levels at a much more detailed level than most primary physician’s offices… and this DOES matter.
  2. The goal is to find the most optimal balance for YOU. The range doesn’t matter as much as how those numbers are translating to you and your life. It is a true partnership to help you regain the quality of life you deserve.

Want to learn more?

You are in luck! Mark your calendars for our next Mom’s Night Out event! Join us and our friends from Your Wellness Center on Thursday, May 11th from 7-9pm at the Red Tree Art Gallery and Coffee Shop. This will be a great opportunity to not only relax and enjoy an evening with friends, but an opportunity to learn a little more about the people behind Your Wellness Center and see the passion that is evident when they talk about what they do. Follow our event page for more information.

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