Depression & Mood Disorders · Online Across India & New Delhi
Depression is an illness. And it is treatable
Depression is not weakness, laziness, or a failure of willpower. It is a well-understood medical condition with effective treatments. Dr. Shaurya Garg, MD Psychiatry (AIIMS New Delhi), offers structured assessment and evidence-based care for depression and mood disorders, online across India and in New Delhi.
A structured, clinician-reviewed depression and mood evaluation, including screening for bipolarity, shared with patients following a consultation.
What Depression Actually Is
More than sadness
Different from sadness
Sadness is a feeling. Depression is a state change: mood, energy, sleep, appetite, concentration, and the capacity to feel pleasure shift together, and stay shifted.
Clinically, depression is diagnosed when low mood or a loss of interest and pleasure persists most of the day, nearly every day, for at least two weeks, together with changes in sleep, appetite, energy, concentration, psychomotor activity, or self-worth, and when these changes impair daily functioning. The loss of pleasure, called anhedonia, is often the most telling sign: food, music, people, and achievements stop registering.
Depression also does not always announce itself as sadness. In many patients, particularly men and adolescents, it presents as irritability, anger, risk-taking, or withdrawal. In others it appears mainly through the body: fatigue, heaviness, unexplained aches, and disturbed sleep. Recognising these quieter presentations is part of careful diagnosis.
Careful Diagnosis
Before treating depression,
be sure it is depression
The most consequential question in mood assessment is one many patients have never been asked: have there been periods of unusually elevated mood, energy, or activity? Depressive episodes occur in both major depression and bipolar disorder, and the treatments differ meaningfully. Prescribing an antidepressant without screening for bipolarity is a common and avoidable error, which is why a structured mood history comes before any prescription in this practice.
Medical contributors are considered too: thyroid dysfunction, anaemia, vitamin B12 and D deficiency, and medication effects can produce or worsen depressive symptoms, and are ruled out where indicated. Grief, burnout, and persistent low-grade depression (dysthymia) each have their own shape and their own management. The diagnosis determines the treatment; guessing serves no one.
How Depression Shows Up
The patterns
seen in clinic
Depression rarely arrives as one symptom. These clusters are what patients most often describe.
Treatment
Evidence-based care,
reviewed over time
Treatment is built on a structured assessment and combines proven components according to severity and history: psychotherapy direction (cognitive-behavioural and related approaches have strong evidence in depression), medication when indicated, chosen and titrated carefully with clear explanation of expected effects, timelines, and side effects, behavioural activation, sleep correction, and routine rebuilding, and structured follow-up with relapse-prevention planning once recovery is established.
Effective treatments are available, but response is individual and the first approach is not always enough. Follow-up exists to assess benefit, side effects and safety, and to adjust the plan when needed. Recovery is often gradual rather than sudden.
Not sure whether a difficult period has become clinical depression? Read Low Mood or Depression? How to Tell, including the warning signs that should not wait.
Common Questions
Depression questions,
answered honestly
How is depression different from normal sadness?
Ordinary sadness is often linked to an event and may fluctuate or lift with support. Depression is more likely when low mood, loss of interest or both become persistent and are accompanied by changes in sleep, appetite, energy, concentration, hope or daily functioning. Context, duration, severity and safety all matter.
Are antidepressants addictive? Will they change who I am?
Antidepressants are not usually associated with craving, intoxication or compulsive use, but stopping some antidepressants can cause significant withdrawal symptoms and should be planned gradually with a prescriber. Benefits and possible effects such as emotional blunting are reviewed individually rather than assuming everyone feels the same.
How long do antidepressants take to work?
Some early changes may appear within a few weeks, while fuller benefit can take longer and response varies by person and medicine. Follow-up is important to review side effects, safety and whether there is enough improvement rather than waiting indefinitely on a fixed promise.
Will I need medication at all?
Not necessarily. Psychotherapy and behavioural approaches may be appropriate without medication for some less severe presentations, while medication or combined treatment may be useful depending on severity, persistence, previous episodes, safety, prior response and preference. Assessment determines the plan.
Can depression come back, and can that be prevented?
Depression can recur, and the risk rises with repeated episodes. This is exactly why treatment includes relapse-prevention: continuing treatment for the recommended period after recovery, recognising early warning signs, and having a clear plan for what to do if symptoms return.
Can depression be treated online?
An online consultation can support assessment and ongoing treatment for many people, with in-person appointments available in New Delhi. Severe risk, psychosis, marked self-neglect or some medical concerns may require urgent local or in-person assessment instead.
Unlock depression evaluation
Book a consultation first
The detailed depression and mood evaluation is shared after a clinical consultation. Message on WhatsApp or email to book, online across India or in person in New Delhi.