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Depression
Depression is one of the most common debilitating illnesses around the world today. In the UK during 2006, over 31 million prescriptions were written specifically for the treatment of Depression.
We nearly all experience some level of depression during our lives, and the following symptoms are signs that your GP will look for to help diagnose this condition.
· Depressed mood
· Loss of interest or pleasure in almost all activities
· Significant weight loss or gain, or change in appetite
· Lack of sleep (insomnia) or excessive sleep (hypersomnia)
· Psychomotor agitation or retardation (observable by others)
· Fatigue or loss of energy
· Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt
· Inability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness
· Recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal thoughts/actions
The usual test employed by most British GP’s, is to see if you are suffering from any five of the above symptoms for a period of at least 14 days. If you are, then they can help alleviate the symptoms with combinations of prescription drugs, counselling, change of lifestyle, and diversion.
What is Depression
Depression can take many forms, but in general it is psychological, organic, or both.
Taking the Organic depression, this is where a particular hormone of chemical imbalance exists in the brain, usually resulting in low serotonin levels within the brain. Serotonin is the “Happy Hormone” widely recognised as the “Feel Good” hormone. Modern antidepressants commonly are SSRI type drugs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor). These drugs effectively slow down the loss of Serotonin in the brain and help enhance the patient’s mood. This improvement will take at least two weeks to occur. Many other drugs are available and may require trialling in the patient to find the most effective way forward. The treatment for this “organic” type of depression is can be long term, possibly life long, but once balanced a good life can be lead.
Psychological depression is far more common. We all experience days or times where we feel “low”. This can be for hundreds of reasons, including death of a loved one, loss of employment, financial problems, relationship problems, health issues and so on.
At times like these we can either accept that there is a problem or bravely try to carry on with a positive attitude. Acceptance is by far the best choice, as trying to fight depression is an uphill struggle, whereas accepting that the situation is not good, and you have a right to feel down, takes a lot of pressure off you. I’m not for a second suggesting that you accept the situation and live with it, far from it. However when you realise what you would have been fighting, it’s so much easier when you know how it works. As with any battle, know your enemy.
From a psychotherapy point of view, depression occurs when an outside force triggers an internal reaction or emotion, to that force. This might be something as simple as an argument, leaving you with feelings of despair, loneliness, worthlessness, tearful, even suicidal. Depression doesn’t normally just “appear” it takes time to evolve and get more powerful until it seems to envelop you with total lethargy, and seemingly no way out. People can only take so much, and different people cope in different ways. Some cope easily with seemingly impossible situations, whilst others fold at the slightest problem. It all depends upon your view of the world around you, and, how you react to that world.
Clients often ask my “Why am I so tired – Everything is a real effort”. For this I need to give an explanation of how the subconscious works, and what it’s trying to do.
Your subconscious is approximately 85% of your brain, the remaining being your conscious mind. The conscious mind is the logical, planning, organised part of you. The secondary function of the subconscious is as a massive store for everything you’ve ever done. It never sleeps (even when your conscious does) and it remembers every incident in total detail from your birth to right now, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Everything is “filed” in emotional order, and it has no sense of time nor reality (ever woken from a nightmare sweating, in total belief that it was real?). However, the primary function is to protect you AND make you happy to the best of its ability.
So, when you try to fight the emotions / feelings / reactions of depression you are consciously (Logical & Organised) telling your subconscious (Emotional & Protective) that you’re OK. Effectively, 15% trying to convince 85% that there’s nothing wrong. No wonder it’s difficult. Also this battle consumes an enormous amount of energy which leaves you completely worn out, listless, and tired
Moreover, depressive clients find it difficult to sleep, or sleep too much. Again this is the subconscious at work. Sleep runs in cycles, approximately 90 minutes from peak to trough, so it takes approximately 90 minutes to get to a state of deep sleep, and then another 90 minutes to return to a state of near wakefulness. If at this point of wakefulness, there is a lot being sorted out in your mind, typically you’ll wake up feeling you mind is running at a millions miles an hour. It does no good staying in bed, you need to get up and do something different for 15 minutes, then return to bed and go back to sleep, effectively diverting your thinking process (See article on insomnia).
The same diversion trick can be used during the day to take your mind off the depression and its associated emotions. However it does take a lot of effort initially, and is generally the last thing anyone wants to do, but it does work.
Pure Analysis looks at the emotions you attach to that depression and where they came from. These may also be experiences which gave rise to a negative emotion. These “incidents” give rise to the forming of your view of the world, and the way you treat the world in a given set of circumstances, and the emotions you feel.
A typical example could be the feelings you get when you hear or are involved in a heated argument. If your upbringing involved the occasional argument, and reconciliation afterwards, it may just leave you feeling angry. If however you were used to continual arguments from a young age, the emotions left can be guilt, insecurity and sadness. This is due to very young children generally feeling that if parents are arguing, it must be about them, and they (the child) must have done something wrong. As adults you realise that the argument could be about anything. That adult view is what needs to be “updated” in the subconscious overwriting the “child” view, thus taking away most of the negative early emotions.
Effectively a change of perspective is immensely helpful allowing you to see the wood for the trees. If you were in the centre of a dense forest with many paths leading out, which path would you pick, and why? However if you could be looking down from a helicopter onto the forest and see all the paths, you could quickly work out which was the best route. Seeing from a different perspective is what it’s all about. Being able to realise what triggers a slump into depression is also key, just as the knowledge that it is a temporary state for most people.
Who is Affected?
In general, it’s down to personality type. If you are the type of person who has difficulty saying “No” to requests for help; prepared to put yourself out for others, or put others first, you have an Oral personality type. The “Oral” is the nicest personality type, but is most susceptible to depression. In reality we are all mixtures of personality type, the basic three being Oral, Anal and Genital. The anal type is always right, stubborn, and probably believes in super natural or spiritual things. The anal type is also usually the one who cannot understand anyone with depression, believes the person is being lazy and comes out with statements like “Pull yourself Together” which are completely unhelpful. The genital type blends into the background not wishing to be noticed; is introverted, quiet and ineffectual. I’m sure you can see these traits in you, or your friends. Fortunately the Oral personality is the best to treat with therapy!
Depression - a thing of the Past?
Yes, depression CAN become a thing in the past, a time you’d rather forget but has no further hold over you. With Pure Analysis WE can find the root cause and remove it. Once that’s gone, the symptoms disappear and CANNOT come back.
If you are suffering from depression
The first step to recovery is to admit it and seek help. Your doctor can help you, and this in conjunction with Pure Analysis can provide relief and removal of the depression for the rest of your life. In addition if you are feeling suicidal now, or have feelings of self harm, then contact The Samaritans (08457) 90 90 90 and discuss how you feel. There is no need to feel depressed and there is always a solution.
If you would like to book a free initial consultation on a 1 to 1 basis, then please call in confidence 07878 558692.
Last Update 26/03/08
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