Managing Depression
What is depression? Most people use the term loosely to mean sad or down, upset or disappointed. Whilst these feelings certainly can impact relationships and performance at school or work for a period of time, they are not what psychiatrists, GPs, or psychologists prefer to as clinical depression.
Clinical depression, a negative mood state, has that has emotional, physical and thinking aspects which do persist for longer period of time and has significant negative effect on daily life. Clinical depression is to be distinguished from grief such as we experience in response to bereavement; even though the symptoms are similar they are a response to a specific and identifiable loss and is part of a natural, albeit painful, adjustment to a new life with new opportunities for growth. Depression, by contrast is a poor road to adjustment often serve to keep people stuck, rather than enabling adjustment and growth.
Depression is not permanent, nor is it a personality defect such as a lack of discipline, or laziness, it is not just a “mood” and can not just be thrown over simply by choice. That is, people don’t choose depression. The symptoms of depression are debilitating and include low mood, low energy, low motivation, social withdrawal, decreased communication, loss of interest in pleasurable activities and daily routine, changes in eating and sleeping patterns, worrying and negative thought patterns, irritability, agitation and fatigue. Obviously the longer these symptoms persist, the more collateral damage they cause.
There are a number of well documented pharmacotherapies and psychotherapies for the treatment of depression. As a psychologist, I can support and coach you to push against the symptoms of depression and take back your life. I can help you to define small desirable and achievable goals for yourself so that you gradually rebuild your emotional, physical, social and professional functioning, and with it your sense of mastery and self esteem. We can increase you skills based to increase your protective behaviours in order to reduce the risk of future relapse and maximise your overall life satisfaction.
Choose today to make the change; Decide to make tomorrow different
