There are many signs and symptoms of depression. It can manifest as low self-esteem, a general lack of interest in life and an intense or persisting sadness. Depression can strike at any age. Often depression accompanies other diseases – both mental and physical. It can accompany debilitating illnesses such as stroke, Parkinson’s Disease, cardiovascular disease and any other degenerative or chronic diseases. Children may become depressed and exhibit moodiness, irritability, as well as insecurity and clinginess, or they may become very demanding. You may be suffering and struggling with one of the following symptoms or a combination of these most common forms of depression. You may find that some of these emotional states are often part of your daily experience –
Once depression seems to take hold of you, it tends to permeate every avenue of life – family relationships, friendships, work and school. You may feel that your experiences are rife with negativity – the side effects of financial burdens, changes in the workplace, life transitions, difficult relationships, illness – your own or a loved one’s, care-giving responsibilities, eating disorders, abuses of any kind, sleeping too little or too much, endless worrying and/or obsessing over problems. Unavoidable circumstances may cause you to feel like you are barely coping. We rarely can control what is going on outside our minds in the world, but we can take control of what is going on inside our minds.
Depression counseling can provide the tools needed to manage your problems without identifying with them. It can help you function more productively, to have a renewed sense of self-worth and identity. Therapy for depression may include health- promoting recommendations such as support through individual and group therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, exercise, and meditation. Working with a professional can offer techniques that allow you to face life with a renewed ability to solve and manage problems with a changed perspective.
It may seem natural to feel some of the mentioned symptoms from time to time. However, when these symptoms begin to last for extended periods, become all consuming and excessive, feel out of your control, or difficult to let go of and resolve on your own – it may be time to seek professional therapy for depression. The cost of waiting could take a toll, not only on your general health, but also, on the lives of all those around you – your intimate relationships, your friendships, your work.
The non-judgmental presence of the therapist is there to help you look at your thoughts, and discern with you, their validity versus their falsity. If your thoughts are hurting you and making you sad – then they are false, or at least, your interpretations are. Depression is a term that covers a broad spectrum, or many forms, of problems that have a common thread. Every depressing thought puts you down, makes you feel bad, goes against the truth of who and what you are, distorting the truth about your real self. Depressing thoughts are unloving thoughts. Holding on to these thoughts attack your self worth, and often get projected – beginning unconsciously with the attack of others.
Through depression counseling, you can train your mind to be aware of your untrue thoughts so that the truth of your natural, loving, innocent self can be revealed. Therapy for depression assists you in removing the mental blocks of hatred against yourself to allow your real self to emerge – the one who had been buried under the mountain of assaults and self-condemnation. However, you cannot get to the truth about yourself until the untruth is observed and brought to light and even realized. You must observe your very own thoughts that are putting you down. When you realize it is your own mind you use to judge against yourself – you can change your mind. All your power lies in your own decision-making. Depression counseling helps you reclaim your decision making ability, returning you to your right mind and thus, to your true self. That is where your peace is and where you can learn to live an inspired life rather than a pained one. Just as the rays of the sun are never separate from the sun, and the spokes of a wheel are not separate from the wheel itself, likewise, our minds are not separate from the Mind of Love and it is that Mind that we want to turn to, and focus on.
Therapy for depression can help with specific types and symptoms of depression while uncovering the habitual thoughts, beliefs and assumptions that are reinforcing the depression. It is important to treat depression to prevent it from escalating into even more serious problems, such as alcohol and drug addiction and even suicide. Therapy for depression improves every aspect of your life – your health, welfare and relationships on every level.
Everything in this world can either hurt you or help you depending on your perspective. But what can hurt one day and help another cannot be the truth because the truth cannot change. Yet, truth, or at least a reflection of it, must exist. However, truth can only exist within and depression counseling can point the way – back to the mind where only truth can be. Depression therapy is a means to re-focus the mind in the direction where peace and happiness can be attained. To look for happiness outside the mind, where it cannot be found, is a futile search. Seeking the quiet that you truly want, with a guide, your professional depression counselor, you can learn how to let go of all the unhappy thoughts that deny you your true happiness.
Thoughts affect everything – bodies, moods, emotions, interactions and reactions. With the guidance of a professional, depression counseling helps you look at your painful thoughts, question their validity, and change them. It can be a very difficult process to change your mind on your own. You do not want to reinforce guilt but become free of it. Professional therapy assists you in that freeing process, and can save you years of unnecessary suffering and pain. Though it may take some time to re-learn new ways of thinking, the improvement in the quality of life and relationships makes the work invaluable and truly life saving.
Though there may be many situations you cannot change, therapy can help you change the way you look at those situations. It returns to your mind a sense of empowerment, freedom and peace, enabling you to think and live your life differently – from a relaxed and centered state of mind. Depression therapy makes it possible for you to live life fully, peacefully and unshackled by limiting ideas.
Make an appointment today to heal your depression so you can begin to live the life you are entitled to and deserve.
Photo credit: John French