When you suffer from depression, it feels like nothing can ever help, and nothing will ever change…
That is what depression does to your thinking. It makes you feel certain that you can never feel happy again. It drains the pleasure from things you used to enjoy, makes you see everything through grey-tinted glasses and eradicates hope and energy.
In short, depression is a parasite that feeds off your life. But when you know how depression works; what it needs to sustain it, then you start to gain power over it and hope starts to sprout again.
What is Depression?
Man Experiencing Depression
One definition is “losing interest in important parts of life”, and sufferers speak of ‘shutting down’, becoming less able to cope and also of feeling numb or empty. However you describe or define it, one thing is certain – it doesn’t discriminate – absolutely anyone can suffer from depression.
Symptoms:
There is a wide range of psychological, physical and social symptoms associated with depression – here are some of them:
Psychological Symptoms:
- Consistent feelings of sadness, loneliness and worthlessness
- Loss of interest of pleasure in activities you used to enjoy
- Thoughts of death or suicide
- Feelings of anxiety and worry
- Low self-esteem
- Tearfulness
- Irritability and intolerance of others
- Lack of motivation
- Feelings of guilt and shame
- Lack of enjoyment
- Restlessness
- Pessimistic thoughts
Physical Symptoms:
- Unexplained aches and pains
- Changes in appetite
- Tiredness
- Reduced sex drive
- Changes in sleep patterns
- Women may experience changes to their menstrual cycle
Social Symptoms:
- Avoidance of social situations
- Loss of interest in hobbies or activities
- Lack of motivation at work
- Having problems with family and home life
Depression can be a reaction to a traumatic or distressing event in life, sometimes it comes on more slowly, like a fog rolling in. It’s more than just feeling unhappy, bored or fed up. If feelings don’t go away quickly, or they start affecting your everyday life, it may be time to seek professional help.
Depression is a common psychological disorder, and as strange as it may seem, depression is also a normal reaction of the brain and body just like anxiety. The human mind can only cope with so much at any given time and when it has used up all its coping mechanisms the brain naturally goes into overwhelm.
In fact, depression is often just the brain’s response to overwhelm. In order to help you get out of overwhelm you need new coping mechanisms, or new strategies, to deal with whatever is going on.
Who Suffers from Depression?
According to research, approximately one in four people in the UK will suffer from a mental health problem at any one time throughout the year – with depression being one of the most common types, and these days it is rarely out of the news.
Indeed in recent years depression has reached epidemic proportions and is now widespread, from the shop floor to the boardroom, from the city to the farming community, and from the classroom to the university campus.
But, with the right support and treatment, people can overcome this common mental health condition. And importantly, there is a growing cultural movement to make it easier for people to ask for help and speak out about their illness, as celebrities and members of the royal family open up and talk publicly about their experiences.
Help to Overcome Depression
Grace Jones – Hypnotherapist
I have been trained by Uncommon Knowledge in an approach to treating depression that focuses on getting you feeling better quickly. The very first thing we will do in our session together is to ensure you understand why you are feeling this way. It has a lot to do with the levels of stress you are currently experiencing, which leads to physical as well as mental exhaustion.
Then I will work quickly to help you feel better by using deep relaxation with you. This is to prepare your brain to learn, because as you’ve probably noticed, depression makes it almost impossible to pay attention and retain information.
When you leave after that first session, I would expect you to feel better than you have in a long time.
But of course, depression doesn’t shift overnight. So in future sessions we’ll work ‘consciously to help you begin to bring back flexibility into the way you think about things. When depressed, people tend to develop a very black and white view of things, an all or nothing approach, and this affects the way they remember the past and imagine the future, the way they talk to themselves, and literally the way they experience the world.
We’ll also work unconsciously (that’s where the hypnosis comes in) to help you gain flexibility in your behaviour, to build with suggestion, metaphor and conditioning, new resources, and to connect you with the resources you already have but have been unable to access during the ‘depression’.
In the following sessions, we will work together to:
- reduce the amount of worrying and introspection you are doing
- resolve any practical problems that are causing you stress
- work on any relationship difficulties you may be having
- help you balance your thinking so you are not plagued by negative thoughts
And as you start to feel better, gradually introduce elements to your life that will protect you from becoming depressed again.
Depression can make you feel hopeless, but there is hope, and I think I can help, so if you’d like to find out more, check out my contact details below, and get in touch to set up your free 30 minute initial consultation. Note that if you are not local to my practice, I can provide this consultation over Skype.
