Here, BBC Scotland's news website reporter Karin Goodwin writes about one woman's struggle to beat severe depression.

Lorraine Nicholson knows exactly what severe depression really feels like.

Three-and-a-half years ago the Perth resident was in hospital taking medication as a result of her illness.

Alternative therapies should be widely available, says Ms Nicholson

She describes her state during that time of her life as "a kind of hibernation".

"I had no response to anything around me," she said.

But with the help of art therapy, offered as part of her treatment, she finally started to fight back and reconnect to the world around her.

Ms Nicholson, who had had an interest in art before she became ill, started her "re-awakening" after her brother brought her camera to the hospital.

World of light

"The first thing I was able to reconnect to was my art work, the colour, the light, the shape and form," she said.

"Going walking in the hospital grounds I was able to connect with something outside myself for the first time in three years, to admire the beauty of nature around me and capture that on my camera."

Now working as a volunteer for mental health charity Perth Plus, she admits that she does not believe she would have recovered without the medication she was prescribed. It helped her "turn a corner".

However, she insists that the value of alternative treatments, such as art therapy, has not yet been fully recognised.

Ms Nicholson said: "It was a huge help and helped me to reconnect to the person I'd lost due to the trauma of depression.

One in five people will be affected by depression in their lifetime Read what the report said

"Now it is how I define myself. I describe myself as an artist. I'm not a service-user, I'm not a former-patient, I'm no longer an ex-depressive.

"Art is my recovery. It's my form of medication now and it's what sustains me."

Art therapy is just one of an increasing number of alternatives, known as social prescribing, recommended by mental health charities such as Mind, as well as many leading clinicians.

Other options, which have enjoyed a great deal of success, include prescribing exercise to help improve mental well-being, volunteering to boost self-esteem and eco-therapy, which includes time spent in the country surrounded by nature.

Susan Scott, involvement worker for Perth Plus, said: "People don't realise sometimes that sitting staring at a brick wall is not good for their mental health.

"A lot of these therapies could really help people."

Awareness needed

Both Ms Scott and Ms Nicholson believe that over-stretched GPs are the key to changing the culture, which would lead patients suffering from depression being offered alternative therapies instead of, or as well as, medication.

And according to Ms Nicholson better funding is needed to make sure there is provision across the country.

She said: "There are a lot of great pilot schemes around the country that have shown the merits of alternative therapies, but they are not widespread enough to be effective.

"In part it's due to funding and in part it is due to GPs not being aware. That needs to change.