Are you feeling hopeless, isolated and not your usual self?
Do these thoughts often enter your mind?
- “I am worthless.”
- “My life sucks and I can’t do anything about it.”
- “I feel guilty, but I just want to eat, sleep and be left alone.”
- “I hate who I am these days.”
- “I can’t stop crying.” Or “I wish I could cry but can’t.”
- “The last thing I want is to be around other people.”
- “I feel gut-wrenching pain, but not a soul understands.”
- “My life and the world around me are dark. I hate it, but I can’t change it.”
- “Life isn’t worth living. I wish I were dead.”
If you have had any variation of these thoughts and don’t feel like your usual self, chances are you may be suffering from depression.
Symptoms of depression can include the following:
- Trouble concentrating, remembering details, and making decisions
- Fatigue, or lethargy
- Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, and helplessness
- Crying spells, or inability to cry
- Pessimism and hopelessness
- Insomnia (trouble getting to sleep, or waking up in the middle of the night or early morning)
- Sleeping too much
- Irritability
- Restlessness
- Loss of interest in things that were once pleasurable, including sex
- Overeating, or appetite loss
- Aches, pains, headaches that won’t go away
- Digestive problems that don’t get better, even with treatment
- Persistent sad, anxious, or “empty” feelings
- Suicidal thoughts or wishing-I-were-dead thoughts
Psychotherapy is indicated in the treatment of depression.
Psychotherapy can help you:
- Adjust to a crisis or other current difficulty you may be having
- Identify negative beliefs and behaviors and replace them with healthy, positive ones
- Explore relationships and experiences, and develop positive interactions with others
- Find better ways to cope and solve problems
- Identify issues that contribute to your depression and change behaviors that make it worse
- Regain a sense of satisfaction and control in your life and help ease symptoms, such as hopelessness and anger
- Silence the inner critic
- Learn to set realistic goals for your life
- Develop the ability to tolerate and accept distress using healthier behaviors
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been proven effective in treating depression. From this perspective, depression is maintained by constant negative thoughts (self-talk) which are automatic in nature. With cognitive therapy, I teach clients to recognize and correct negative automatic thoughts and to challenge and dispute their cognitive distortions (thinking errors). I may give homework assignments such as journaling or tracking dysfunctional thoughts, make behavioral prescriptions, or assign therapeutic exercises. Over the course of therapy, my depressed clients are able to discover and correct deeply held but false beliefs that are adding to or sustaining their depression.
Embracing a holistic, integrative approach, depending on the individual I may also suggest or employ one or more of the following alternative, mind-body approaches to augment treatment:
- Acupuncture
- Relaxation techniques such as yoga or tai chi
- Meditation
- Guided imagery
- Massage therapy
- Music or art therapy
- Spirituality
- Aerobic exercise
If you are experiencing symptoms of depression, I want you to know that you are not alone and that help is available. Many of my clients find relief in realizing that their struggle does not own them and that there are many options available to once again have hope for their lives.
I understand the social stigmas that come with the label of being depressed, and thus I aim to help clients sort out the environmental, biological and situational factors that may contribute to the depression, while offering support and care through a very dark time in their lives. Medication combined with psychotherapy has been shown effective for most people with depression. Your primary care doctor or a psychiatrist can prescribe medications to relieve symptoms.
If you are hoping to finally lighten the heavy burden of depression and feel like yourself again, contact me today for a free consultation.