Depression
Depression looks and feels different for everyone.
For some, it’s a long struggle with deep, ever-present sadness. For others, it’s an acute pain that lasts for weeks or months.
You may experience changes in sleep and eating habits… or feel awash in “not so pleasant” emotions.
Everyone feels “off” or blue occasionally, but this is different.
When even the smallest things threaten to overwhelm you…
It doesn’t take a tear-jerker of a movie to make you cry. Tears are lurking behind your eyes all the time. Feeling as though you’re on the outside of life looking in, instead of living the life you imagined for yourself… just “going through the motions.”
Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason why you feel so overwhelmed by strong emotions. You may look at your life and think, “Nothing is really wrong or missing, but I just can’t shake the feeling that something is very off.”
Are your moods and behaviors like an unpredictable roller coaster… even for you?
Withdrawal can make things worse.
Depression may cause you to avoid people, places, and situations that were once pleasurable… leading to isolation.
This isolation can disrupt one’s normal and expected functioning – getting in the way of the usual things we do in our lives. Adults may find it hard to go to work or socialize. Kids and adolescents may confine themselves to their rooms or watch YouTube for hours on end just to avoid homework, chores, or socializing with friends.
I see kids quitting activities that were once so important to them and adults turning down social invites to stay home and sleep. Before we know it, this withdrawal from life can compound depression making it harder to regain our footing and re-engage in our lives. It removes our ability to connect with others who can be a source of support.
Life’s harsh and painful lessons…
Sometimes depression is situational, as we struggle to comprehend a traumatic or tragic event.
You may feel that your life has been upended… veered far off the path of what you had expected.
Now, you’re struggling to get your footing – struggling to face the daily tasks that a short while ago seemed so easy and mundane.
About that “genetic lottery”…
Let’s face it: Some of us experience depression, because we have depressive disorders in our families. We inherit this depression as one inherits curly hair, freckles, or diabetes. It is not your fault; you did nothing to bring this depression about. Your brain is predisposed to the disease.
There are ways to treat this inherited depression with therapy and possibly a combination of therapy and medications, if needed.
Depression can be conquered, and you can reclaim your life.
I witness this often. I see people go from feeling hopeless for the future to embracing their life, despite the diagnosis of depression. People may have multi-generational depression in their families; and despite that tendency, they learn coping mechanisms, cognitive behavioral skills that help them to think differently about their inner experience, and behavioral interventions that help them to function better.
The problem with well-meaning advice…
Has anyone ever pointed out that there’s nothing to be depressed about… that you should just “cheer up,” “get over it,” or “toughen up”?
The problem is that you have no idea how, and these well-intentioned bits of advice make you feel even more sad… and scared that nothing will change.
Despite your best efforts, nothing seems to improve.
In fact, things may slip even more.
You may be leaning heavily on loved ones and friends for support, and you worry that you are going to wear them out.
Deep down, you are struggling with feelings of emptiness and sadness… perhaps laced with shame and unworthiness.
Being diagnosed with depression may cause mixed emotions.
In our 21st century world, everything seems to have a label or a category.
On the one hand, you might feel relief that you’re not losing your mind – that there is a reason for what you have been feeling. On the other, you may feel shame or the stigma of having a mental health diagnosis.
Let me tell you, as a person you’re neither a diagnosis nor a set of symptoms. You are first and foremost a feeling person, with strengths and abilities. You deserve to be “truly seen.”
Here, there is hope of living a fulfilling and joyful life.
…. one where strong emotions don’t threaten to engulf you – where you can be free of the stronghold of depression.
You’ll be able to formulate a strategy for dealing with depression – for attaining mental wellness, peace, and hope for each day.
With me, you will find a comfortable place to be yourself, to venture unafraid into the sad, painful feelings and experiences you may be having. In our relationship, there is no judgment, nothing that can’t be said, and no worries that you may overwhelm me.
You get to “turn over the rocks” in my office and peer underneath.
Nothing you can express is off limits.
Typically, we will look at the places that feel hard to bear, where you feel stuck and powerless, where you may have a sense of shame or guilt – or hopelessness.
We will do a lot of cognitive work around restructuring your thinking process, and we will look at how you perceive your inner world. Are your perceptions accurate? Is there evidence to back up those perceptions? Where and when were they formulated? How does your thinking contribute to your emotional state?
Behaviorally, I will help you actively engage in the world again; we’ll start very slowly with small challenges to stretch yourself. I may ask you to do homework, such as journaling, visualization, or to try something that you have previously been afraid to try.
You can feel good again, in control of your emotions, and in charge of the direction of your life.
You have been struggling for too long.
Something has to give. You know you can’t continue like this, checked out of your life. You know that waking up with overwhelming feelings of sadness and hopelessness is not what this one life is all about.
You don’t have to suffer with sadness, isolation, loss of interest in things you once enjoyed, and feelings of hopelessness for the future.
This is no dress rehearsal. Call today and start taking care of yourself and get on the path to wellness: (571) 289-9181