Suffering Depression
The definition of Depression I feel is – feelings that start to interfere with your life and don’t go away after a couple of weeks, or keep reoccurring over and over again a few days at a time. In counselling I find clients with signs of depression make statements like;
“It starts as sadness, I start to shut down, I feel less able to cope, then the numbness and emptiness arrive and goes on and on and on…”
Clients confidence disappears and for some is replaced with anxiety and self-hatred, the vulnerability this causes leads to impacting everything in their life. Nothing appears to bring any small pleasure even the things they did before that they enjoyed, everything seems pointless and uninteresting and the only small relief would be to sit and cry.
With the clients I support we recognise Depression is not something that can be healed quickly, and can revisit, so the view taken at the time is to work on getting better, develop healthy techniques to manage mood changes and have an acceptance we may work together again.
If you are given a diagnosis of depression by your GP, you might be told that you have mild, moderate or severe depression. For some people they move between different mild, moderate and severe depression states across different episodes. An episode of severe depression, you may experience some psychotic symptoms. These can include: delusions such as paranoia and hallucinations such as hearing voices. I have supported individuals who were convinced they may commit an unspeakable crime. It can be a very scary place to be, very upsetting so its important to seek professional treatment and support and the first place to go is to visit your GP.
With permission I share with you a client’s experience:
“I felt humiliated that I didn’t have a traumatic experience for the depression to kick in. It hits you when you least expect it. I remember feeling physically exhausted, my depression led to paranoia, which hugely impacted on me, causing me to fret, be severely overwhelmed with life, and so, the cycle continued between being paranoid, which caused panic within me and feelings of worthlessness. I felt so ashamed of telling people I had or have a cycle of depression, it’s a task I still struggle to achieve. However, counselling has empowered me to accept I have cycles of depression and openly discussing it with others, I don’t feel as ashamed anymore……….
If you think I can support you please get in touch……..