About Depression

We all feel low or down from time to time. This is normal, especially if we have received bad news or a loved one or close friend has died. However, depression as an illness is persistent, and we need help to get through it. Depression may be due to a chemical imbalance, such as with Seasonally Affected Disorder (S.A.D.). Depression can be when we feel unhappy without necessarily an obvious cause, or that this sadness lasts much longer and is out of proportion to circumstances. We feel that the situation is beyond our personal control.

Depression may be mild and we may be able to function despite these persistent feelings but, depression can also feel overwhelming and we may even find it difficult to carry out our most basic daily tasks, like washing and dressing.

If you are feeling depressed, you may experience any number of the following symptoms:

Feeling tired all the time, listless and irritable, at times angry or aggressive; anxious, perhaps with irrational or guilty thoughts, you may have difficulty sleeping or sleep too much, you may comfort eat or have lost your appetite. You feel tearful and emotional - perhaps even hopeless and worthless - you may have even contemplated or attempted suicide.

Depression is complex and may be triggered for several reasons. These might include:

• A change in our social circumstances – perhaps we lose our job, our relationship breaks down, or there is bereavement.
• Unresolved emotional and psychological issues – sometimes when we have not dealt with events in our past, an added challenge in our circumstances can be the ‘straw that breaks the camel’s back’ and background anxiety becomes depression.
• Severe illness and disease such as glandular fever, influenza, arthritis and multiple sclerosis (to name just a few) and cancer treatments put a strain on our nervous system. This may result in depression.
• Post Natal Depression due to hormonal changes affect about 10% of all women. Unresolved emotional and psychological issues may also play a part with this; at times, becoming a mother encourages us often to re-connect with our own early life experiences and the young child we once were.
• Drugs and alcohol, whilst stimulants in the short term, are actually depressants. Abuse of drugs and alcohol can trigger depression.

A Way out of Depression…

If you are suffering from depression, there is much you can do to help yourself. For example, make sure you eat a healthy and balanced diet and try to exercise regularly in some way. Cut down on stimulants like alcohol, caffeine and nicotine. Keeping yourself busy is a good idea so that you don’t sit and dwell. Indulge yourself in the things that give you pleasure, change the pace a little – maybe even take a short break away.

It is best to give air time to these feelings of sadness and frustration. Integrative Hypnotherapy can help you to begin to understand yourself and your life more clearly. It might be also that you need to review things with a view to reducing an accumulation of minor stressors in your life. Whatever the cause behind the depression, we can work together at your pace to strengthen your resolve and move you forward.

You can recover fully from depression but it may take some time so do not set yourself unrealistic time scales for recovery. Everybody is different. Medication combined with Cognitive Hypnotherapy is often considered the best way forward. Medication may help to lift your mood enough to be open to the possibility of change, to learn new coping skills and strategies to live life more positively.

It is best to see your GP in the first instance for a confirmed diagnosis and to be sure that there is no physical cause for the problem. Some depression is related to more severe mental illness. Your GP will be able to advise you on this. Depression may be as a result of some kind of chemical imbalance which medication can help to offset. Medication will help to a degree but it will not cure the condition if there is an underlying emotional cause. In order to recover fully into the long term, any unresolved issues will need to be dealt with.

If you prefer to not take medication and your GP agrees, advanced hypnotherapy can be an effective drug-free way out of depression and is totally natural. Learning to relax fully supported by an individually recorded CD program specific to your needs can be highly beneficial. We would then work together to understand underlying issues, clearing negative emotion which may well have contributed to the depression. As outdated and self limiting beliefs are examined and you learn to understand how they may have negatively influenced you, it becomes easier to find a way forward in a much more positive way.

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