Depression

When is it a problem?

Most of us have had the experience of feeling down. Most of us have had the experience of feeling sad, perhaps we have a pessimistic outlook on life. Perhaps we see the glass is half empty, rather than half full.  These are normal human experiences, which we all have. Somewhere say that these are even essential human experiences for us to have, after all we have to grieve losses that we experience. However this is not what we would call depression.

Depression as an illness is not sadness, although we commonly use the word depressed when we really mean sad. Depression as an illness affects us mentally and physiologically. Depression affects our ability to sleep our ability to eat our ability to interact with our friends and our family and our colleagues at work. Depression makes it difficult for us to enjoy the simplest of things in life depression erodes self esteem makes it difficult for us to enjoy the simplest things in life. Depression gives us feelings of self-hatred and shame. Depression makes us judge ourselves. Depression gives us a distorted world view. Depression makes us angry with other people and angry with ourselves. Sometimes the pain is so difficult that it makes us want to harm ourselves, sometimes it makes us want to end our lives.

The good news is that depression can be treated. With a combination of psychotherapy exercise and diet we can move into wellness. We can start to see the world in a way that perhaps we haven’t for a long time.  My therapeutic approach to depression is to invite people to talk about themselves and to talk about their feelings. When you are not used to speaking about your feelings it can be difficult at first. That’s why it’s important to do this in an environment of trust and mutual respect, and most importantly, an environment free from judgment.