Depression Counseling
Tired of Always Seeing Life Through A Cloudy Lense?
Thinking about Depression Counseling, yet not sure it’s right for you?
Everyone around you thinks you’re doing well. You may be in a great career, a loving relationship, and have the family you always dreamed of. You may believe that at this point in your life, you should have it all together. Yet, you struggle because no one really knows how you’re feeling. The isolation in sadness stops you from embracing all the good things in your life. It’s as though there’s a wall between you and your happiness.
On the outside it looks like you have it all together on most days. On the days you struggle with your depression, you may be able to pull through without anyone knowing. Or you may show some signs of depression, but no one has called you out on your mood. So you just keep going through the routines in life as though there is nothing you can do to change how you’re feeling.
There’s a sadness that goes where ever you are and if you can get away from it, it’s never long enough. This sadness is not something you can put your finger on but it’s been with you. Either for awhile or for as long as you can remember.
Despite having a good support system with family and friends, you just can’t seem to shake off feeling down. Sadness, fatigue and a lack of interest in things may dominate your life. You’ve tried to get a handle on this, but nothing seems to work – or at least not well enough. You want help and you don’t want to struggle with depression any longer.
Is This Occasional Or Ongoing Depression?
We all experience occasional depression. Depression from a loss of a loved one, a job or any other major life changes are to be expected. But this type of depression is related to grief and loss. If you experienced loss, please click here to learn more about grief counseling.
Depression Counseling is for those who experience persistent feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed. Ongoing depression can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at work, home and in relationships.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, Depression symptoms can vary from mild to severe and can include:
- Feeling sad or having a depressed mood
- Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed
- Changes in appetite — weight loss or gain unrelated to dieting
- Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
- Loss of energy or increased fatigue
- Increase in purposeless physical activity (e.g., hand-wringing or pacing) or slowed movements and speech (actions observable by others)
- Feeling worthless or guilty
- Difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions
- Thoughts of death or suicide
Not everyone who is depressed experiences every symptom. You may experience only a few symptoms or experience many. People with only a few – but distressing – symptoms may still benefit from depression counseling.
How Can Counseling For Depression Help Me Feel Better?
Most of the people I see, experience depression caused from things that accumulated over time. You may not even be aware of how much of these life experiences you still carry around, despite the fact that the events are over. Although you feel like you have dealt with things as they occurred, depression is usually an indicator that you have things that still need to be resolved. Unresolved experiences, thoughts, and feelings pile up and depression is the emotion that is trying to get your attention. The coping skills used in the past might have worked then, but it didn’t allow for full resolution.
You could still be carrying the pain from past losses, bullying, negative inner dialogue, family origins or changes in life during earlier years. Or maybe you always had a tough time with emotions, and no one spoke to you about what to do when you experience something upsetting. You probably did not have coping skills that worked to heal from painful experiences. Overtime as life kept going on, emotions that built up were pushed down. Isn’t it time to figure out what is causing your depression, learn ways to decrease negative emotions and start enjoying life again?
Depression counseling will help you begin to listen to your emotions and see where change needs to be made. By working together, you will learn new coping skills, improve self-compassion, and get rid of your negative inner dialogue. The goal is to have you feeling more positive in life and to stop depression from stealing your joy.
Depression Counseling can help you:
- Get relief from depressive feelings
- Heal the root-cause of your problems
- Feel more optimistic about your life and relationship
- Improve feelings of self-worth and self-confidence
- Develop skills and tools to manage your moods
Still not Sure if you Need Depression Counseling?
When is depression ok to experience and when is it time to seek counseling?
Situational depression as discussed earlier, usually resolves itself with time or positive changes in circumstances. If you feel that your situation is causing significant distress, then speaking with a counselor can be a good idea. Speaking with a professional who is knowledgeable and has tools to help decrease depression would provide you the opportunity to work on identifying your needs during a challenging time.
Feelings of sadness, that are not from any loss, and lingers for two weeks or more may be clinical depression. Individuals with clinical depression can benefit from depression counseling by addressing the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that lead to depression. Sometimes, people think depression is only an emotional issue. But after seeing a professional who specializes in depression counseling, people usually uncover many other things that are driving their depression.
How Depression Counseling Can Help You Manage Your Mood and Feel Better About Yourself
In working with me, we will explore what may be causing your depression. Some causes are related to thoughts, feeling and beliefs about oneself. Other causes are related to life experiences from past that keep reinforcing negative messages of self-identity, life, relationships and expectations.
Often times, an event happens and we attach a story to it. For those that are experiencing depression the the story does not match the truth. This is your false story. But since the story feels real, the individual continues to believe the story. As life continues, any time there’s an event that matches what you are believing, the false story keeps getting reinforced and the depression continues taking deeper root in one’s mind.
In depression counseling we will identify false stories and replace each story with truth, so you will be able to have positive thoughts, feelings and ideas in understanding yourself. These changes will improve the way you see yourself and improve your mood as well.
Learn More About Depression Counseling
If you are ready to try working with a depression counselor, I offer a free 15-minute phone consultation. You can contact me at (631) 406-3139.