Depression Counselling
Depression can hit anyone and anytime: men, women, old, young, married, single, rich poor, anyone! It effects different people in different ways, for instance some people feel blue while others may feel irritable. However it manifests there is ongoing decrease in enjoyment of life.
Dysthymia
The trouble is it can sneak up on you over months or even years - part of depression is a sense of resignation - that this is just you lot and there is nothing that can be done so just grin and bare it. This can lead to long-term low grade depression referred to as dysthymia. It doesn't have to be that way!
Depression Symptoms
Depression usually builds up over a considerable time though it may be triggered by stress, relationship problems, grief or knockbacks. Symptoms of depression may include
- Feeling tired, lethargic, heavy, or slow
- Loneliness or loss of connection
- Low or irritable mood
- Decreased sexual drive
- Loss of interest and pleasure in life
- Thoughts of hopelessness or pointlessness
- Weight gain or loss
- Changes in sleep patterns
- Foggy thinking and poor concentration
- Thoughts of death or suicide
Impacts of Depression
More often than not there is change in the depressed person’s sense of self. In more severe depression people may experience themselves cut off from both themselves and the world. This may be described as sense of being in fog, underwater, in greyness, darkness, or even lost somehow within oneself.
While struggling with depression people may be functioning perfectly capably in the world (while seeming a little distant to those around then). Yet struggling with feelings of hopelessness and pointlessness. When depression it can be very difficult to seek help as the very act of seeking help can seem equally pointless or hopeless.
Depression Treatment
The good news is that depression is generally responsive to therapy. For severe depression a combination of medication and therapy is normally recommended but for mild or moderate depression therapy is just as effective as medication. Therapy can help in many ways including:
- Professional assessment and support
- Timeout from the world to recover each week
- A safe space to really tell it how it is to someone who will hear and understand
- Support that is consistent and reliable
- A chance to sort out the past
- Indentifying underlying causes and patterns
- Improve communication and relationship skills
- Improve self-understanding and self-compassion
- Recover hope, self-esteem and self-confidence
Find a Therapist
All of our team are experienced in working with depression. Find an Auckland Therapist in your area.
Emma Harris has a particular interest in working with pre and post-natal distress and mother/baby issues.