Have you ever wondered how much your depression is costing you each year? Does anyone have any idea? Depression does not only extract a monetary cost. There is also the personal cost of lost opportunities, relationships, and time. In this post I am going to use my personal life as an example of how much depression can cost per year in monetary terms. And you will get to hear a little of my depression history as well. I am eager for members to share their own rough calculations of how much depression is costing them on average each year. In a subsequent post we will discuss the personal cost of depression.
In my twenties… It was in my twenties that my depression was becoming too big of a problem for me to ignore. It was a rough decade. In those years I began a new relationship, had the first job of my career, and was attempting to get two Master’s degrees. During this time I also got married, I had a miscarriage, and then experienced infertility for several years. It was also during my twenties that my depression was increasing to the point where I found myself crying at work and unable to function very well. On one particularly tearful day my co-worker handed me the phone after having made me an appointment with a therapist. It was the best gift anyone could have given me.
In addition to therapy I also tried an antidepressant for the first time. I was taking nortriptyline for about six months under the advice of my doctor. I discontinued it so I could try to have a baby.
Financial cost of treating depression in my twenties:
Remember that this is just a rough estimate. I am also going to estimate the monetary cost for one year. During the worst of my depression I was seeing my therapist twice a week. Also keep in mind that I had the best health insurance of my life back then (we will never see such coverage again) when I worked for a local university hospital.
Cost of 50 minute psychotherapy session: $100
40 weeks of therapy 2x a week.
Yearly cost: $8,000 for therapy
Cost of nortriptyline: I do not know how much this medication cost back in the 90’s. Nowadays this older antidepressant can be found on the Target list of generic drugs where you can buy a 90 day supply for only $10.00.
Highest estimated monetary cost of depression per year in my twenties:
Over $8,000
My insurance paid for mostly all of this. It was not until the late nineties when I was beginning to have to pay a considerable amount of out of pocket for the co-pay.
In my forties… Let’s get into my time machine and travel the decades to my forties where I am now. I had ended my therapy when I turned thirty because it was then that I finally had children. These were the years where I was consumed with being a parent. When it was found that my youngest son had autism at the age of four my focus was even more intense upon helping my children. I did still suffer from depression but it went untreated due to my focus on family. I put myself last and ended up physically and emotionally exhausted.
