Ask HN: Mental health clinic near Seattle? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Mental health clinic near Seattle?

9 pointsmannicken5 comments

I might be suffering from depression and would like to consult a doctor. Nothing serious, no suicide attempts yet but I'd like to be on the safe side.

Anyone can give recommendations for a clinic near Seattle area?

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Are you physically active? If no do yourself a favor and exercise. In my opinion it's the first thing to rule out before taking medicinal measures.

I would also recommend visiting a therapist instead of a GP. Your primary care physician likely knows everything they know about depression from the pamphlets and samples the pharmaceutical companies provide. Your GP will have you fill out a 6 question form asking how sad you feel and then put you on Zoloft. It's worth eliminating social and environmental issues with a psychologist before altering your brain chemistry.

http://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms/state/WA/Seattle.h...

Good luck. It's a really easily treatable problem.

Apart from physical activity, regularly seeing some sunshine (i.e. more than the 2 minutes it takes to walk to a car) is one of the other lifestyle-change options that can sometimes have surprisingly large effects. It's pretty easy to try, at least.

Wouldn't your GP be the right person to ask? Or the psychiatry department of a hospital?

The chances that someone on HN has this information are relatively small. It may work though, who knows!

It's a big internet, and sometimes you gotta seek help where you're comfortable.

If you're cognizant of the fact that you aren't at risk immediately but could be, schedule an appointment with your General Practitioner as soon as you can.

Take some time to try and narrow down what is bringing you down and try to isolate those stressors for the time being. Go spend some time with those people who won't ask you questions and will just get it. We all have friends like that.

Most of all, hang in there.

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