There are some things you can do for yourself to get over depression.
It might be chicken and egg time, in as much as you don't have the motivation to do anything, but you do have to start somewhere. That is if you want to get better.
First of all, ask yourself how much do you really want to get better. On a scale of one to ten, ten being the most motivated, where are you right now? If it is below five, you may have to ask someone to help you to get motivated to begin with.
Change your diet. There are so many foods that help with depression. Find out all the foods that increase good chemicals in your brain.
Get plenty of sunshine. The natural vitamin D helps enormously.
Get some exercise into your life. It makes no difference what you do, whether it is just walking or cycling or running. No need to pay expensive gym fees especially if you think you will give up soon. Do the free things first and then make a choice of what exercise to do later. Walking gets you fresh air. If you have a dog or can offer to walk someones dog so much the better. Do just a little to begin with, don't push yourself too hard at first and then build it up.
Find a beach if you are near one and try walking along the beach very early in the morning. If no one is around shout out all your troubles into the wind and sea and imagine they are being carried away by the sea and wind.
Talk to someone who is impartial. Often friends and family mean well, but they only see things from their perspective. They may often say, 'well if I were you I would do this this and that'. They are not you and have a different mind set. This is one of the reasons why people often turn to a therapist because they are impartial and have your best interest at heart. They are also skilled people, so go to those people you think you can trust and have experienced and are well trained. Do your own homework first, it is important to find the right help.
If your GP suggests drug therapy ie medication, ask about the drug, find out for yourself the side effects. The internet will give you all the information.
Your GP may offer CBT through the practice. You may have to wait a long time and CBT can also take a longer time to make any differences. All talking therapy helps though so never discount and offers of listening to you. Friends and family will eventually get fed up with you talking about the same thing each time, so rely on therapists to help you to understand yourself better and show you how to become a much more resourceful person.
Remember, grief is a natural process, don't try to rush it through. You have to let your body and mind deal with the effects of grief. It is normal. Don't rush down the drug route as that is not going to ease the grief.
Wednesday, 11 April 2012
How do you know if you are depressed?
Depression affects most of us from time to time, and it can be low level or serious enough to stop us functioning properly.
More women appear to suffer from it, but that could be because they look for help more quickly or recognise it. men may just try to get on with life and bury their head to the affects of depression.
The thing about depression is that if it gets a hold of you, it just does not go away. What kind of help do you look for? Either you down the drug route which often takes weeks to take affect and also there are side effects too. There is also concern about how addictive these types of drugs can be which means when you try to come off them you may experience worse side effects.
Or, you can go down the therapy route and explore what causes you to feel depressed.
Reactive depression can be cause by significant emotional events and experiences that have happened to you. Job loss, relationship breakdowns, moving home etc etc. This is where you suddenly feel depressed and can identify the reason for doing so.
Endogenous depression is not triggered by an event, but can have roots that go way back in your life and have never been dealt with.
Mild depression usually has just a little impact on your life. Moderate depression has significant impact and severe you would daily life nearly impossible. Your job would be affected, you may not want to get out of bed, wash or eat.
Some illnesses cause depression and some prescriptive medication can also cause depressed moods. Drugs such as Beta Blockers do have such side effects. Its true to say that often we take one drug to help with one thing and then end up taking a whole cocktail of other drugs to counteract the first drug.
Taking cannabis and or cocaine, or alcoholism has significant effects on the chemistry in our brain. So we drink alcohol to drown our sorrows or numb the emotional pain, only for it to cause depression later.
People often find that both drug therapy and emotional therapy with a therapist to be more effective.
If you answer yes to more than a few of these questions, you may have some kind of depression happening. Remember, scientists only know that lack of the chemical serotonin causes depression, but what causes in the imbalance to begin with?
Do you have continuous low moods or bouts of sadness?
No motivation and very little interest in day to day things
Feel snappy with people or irritable with others?
Feelings of worthlessness
Rejection?
Guilt feelings
Suicidal thoughts, (Life would be better without me, I can't cope with all I have to each day)
One minute you feel up and the next you feel very down
Lack of confidence
Difficulty in making decisions
Tired all the time and lack of concentration
Crying a lot and feelings of doom and gloom as if someone may tell you any moment that something dreadful has happened
If you think you are depressed, take action now and do something positive about it. It will not go away on its own.
More women appear to suffer from it, but that could be because they look for help more quickly or recognise it. men may just try to get on with life and bury their head to the affects of depression.
The thing about depression is that if it gets a hold of you, it just does not go away. What kind of help do you look for? Either you down the drug route which often takes weeks to take affect and also there are side effects too. There is also concern about how addictive these types of drugs can be which means when you try to come off them you may experience worse side effects.
Or, you can go down the therapy route and explore what causes you to feel depressed.
Reactive depression can be cause by significant emotional events and experiences that have happened to you. Job loss, relationship breakdowns, moving home etc etc. This is where you suddenly feel depressed and can identify the reason for doing so.
Endogenous depression is not triggered by an event, but can have roots that go way back in your life and have never been dealt with.
Mild depression usually has just a little impact on your life. Moderate depression has significant impact and severe you would daily life nearly impossible. Your job would be affected, you may not want to get out of bed, wash or eat.
Some illnesses cause depression and some prescriptive medication can also cause depressed moods. Drugs such as Beta Blockers do have such side effects. Its true to say that often we take one drug to help with one thing and then end up taking a whole cocktail of other drugs to counteract the first drug.
Taking cannabis and or cocaine, or alcoholism has significant effects on the chemistry in our brain. So we drink alcohol to drown our sorrows or numb the emotional pain, only for it to cause depression later.
People often find that both drug therapy and emotional therapy with a therapist to be more effective.
If you answer yes to more than a few of these questions, you may have some kind of depression happening. Remember, scientists only know that lack of the chemical serotonin causes depression, but what causes in the imbalance to begin with?
Do you have continuous low moods or bouts of sadness?
No motivation and very little interest in day to day things
Feel snappy with people or irritable with others?
Feelings of worthlessness
Rejection?
Guilt feelings
Suicidal thoughts, (Life would be better without me, I can't cope with all I have to each day)
One minute you feel up and the next you feel very down
Lack of confidence
Difficulty in making decisions
Tired all the time and lack of concentration
Crying a lot and feelings of doom and gloom as if someone may tell you any moment that something dreadful has happened
If you think you are depressed, take action now and do something positive about it. It will not go away on its own.
Saturday, 7 April 2012
Can you be 'cured' in just one session?
I am not convinced that anyone who tells you that, 'you only need one session and your problems are cured' is giving you sound advice. If it takes some time to create behaviours, then does it not follow that it also may take some time to change those behaviours too? Hypnotherapy and NLP have a good reputation of being able to help people to change behaviours very quickly, but I doubt that even the best of therapists would want to claim it only takes one session.
Of course if those therapists charge a huge amount of money for just one session, then they may claim to have great results, and who knows, some people may even believe that. For most people though, they are realistic enough to know that behavioural changes come about less quickly than just one session. I would hope that no therapist with integrity would claim to help people overcome panic attacks in just one session. That would be most unfair to clients.
Therapists also need feedback as to how the previous session has gone, and so if you only go once, how does that therapist know if you have made enough changes that will continue?
Best Practice would be that you go for an initial session, experience hypnosis, and see what happens. Go to each session with feedback so that your therapist can evaluate how you are doing. How does any therapist know how quickly you will change? Some clients need three or four sessions, others may need more. A good therapist will be able to judge by what language you use during the following sessions, and how you are making changes in your behaviour.
Of course if those therapists charge a huge amount of money for just one session, then they may claim to have great results, and who knows, some people may even believe that. For most people though, they are realistic enough to know that behavioural changes come about less quickly than just one session. I would hope that no therapist with integrity would claim to help people overcome panic attacks in just one session. That would be most unfair to clients.
Therapists also need feedback as to how the previous session has gone, and so if you only go once, how does that therapist know if you have made enough changes that will continue?
Best Practice would be that you go for an initial session, experience hypnosis, and see what happens. Go to each session with feedback so that your therapist can evaluate how you are doing. How does any therapist know how quickly you will change? Some clients need three or four sessions, others may need more. A good therapist will be able to judge by what language you use during the following sessions, and how you are making changes in your behaviour.
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
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