Clinical Depression and Depression Symptoms
Clinical Depression and depression symptoms can mean that instead of being your usual self and able to function normally, you struggle with feelings of despair, dread and anxiety. You may have stopped doing a lot of the things you were doing when you felt better, yet you can feel more exhausted and drained.
With all your confidence, motivation and energy replaced with clinical depression symptoms, the impacts can negatively ripple into every part of your life including your work, relationships, socially and more.
And whilst antidepressant medication prescriptions continue to soar in adults and children, could it be that in fact there is another way to find that hope, optimism and lightness you currently only remember as a distant memory?
Depression Symptoms
Of course, we all know that the term ‘depression’ and ‘feeling depressed’ are used in very broad ways by many people.
For example, a recent client I helped had been told she had clinical depression and was offered antidepressants by her medical practitioner; yet in reality she was stressed and struggling with some current life issues. Once these were resolved, she could think more clearly and feel more in control over her situation. The depression symptoms disappeared and she never had any use for those pills.
However, real depression symptoms go way beyond that. You may feel angry, worried, guilty, hopeless, unworthy, not good enough and much more. And all those thoughts can circulate and dominate your mind ceaselessly.
When screening for depression, you are likely to be asked whether you have been bothered by:
- Little interest or pleasure in doing things
- Feeling down, depressed or hopeless
- Trouble falling or staying asleep, or sleeping too much
- Feeling tired or having little energy
- Poor appetite or overeating
- Feeling bad about yourself – or that you are a failure or have let yourself or your family down
- Trouble concentrating on things, such as reading or watching TV
- Moving and speaking noticeably slowly or being fidgety, restless and moving more than is usual
- Feelings that you would be better off dead or hurting yourself in some way.
Obviously if you have depression you may not experience all of these and all of the time, yet they give an indicator of the sorts of things someone with clinical depression is battling with internally.
And I would always be checking what else is happening in someone’s life as everyone can experience brief low periods or be responding to life events where it may be reasonable to have some of these symptoms for a period (before they improve).
Many people with depression symptoms may also turn to alcohol, smoking, drugs or other means to give them some brief respite from those thoughts and feelings.
Depression Help
If you are concerned you may be struggling with depression then I’d suggest that as a first step you consult your medical practitioner. Having done that, you can start to implement these steps to ease your depression symptoms:
1) Take Care Of Your Needs
However despairing you feel, and even if it feels like nothing could ever change for you right now, you need to take care of your basic needs, such as bathing, dressing, eating healthily, drinking water and so forth. It also means avoiding increasing levels of alcohol, caffeine and cigarettes. Find hope in the fact that millions of people (people like Ben who came to see me for help) have found a way to reach the light at the end of the tunnel and get on with their lives in peace – and that you will find your own way too.
2) Cool your brain
A depressed brain is a stressed brain. It’s like having a computer with too many programmes running: it gets hotter and stops functioning as effectively. When your brain is jammed with those thoughts and feelings, it can’t find the space to do things differently (just like it gets harder to learn anything if we get too stressed).
So take time to relax in a constructive way. Plan to give your mind some time off from all those thoughts, stresses and worries. One way my clients do this is to listen to my free relaxation audio so you may like to utilise this too.
3) Move Your Body
One of the ‘classic’ sign of depression is that lack of energy and listlessness which means the depressed person can feel exhausted just sitting in one place all day. One of the most effective ways to reverse the depression symptoms is to start moving more – get out for a walk each day and walk with your head up (rather than staring at the floor). If you struggle with this, enlist someone who loves and cares about you and have them walk with you.
4) When You Felt Better
Take some time and think about what you used to do that you enjoyed and that you have stopped doing since the depression arrived. We feel better because we do the things we enjoy so start, step by step, to reconnect to these things.
5) Build Cracks in the Dam of Depression
Depression makes everything seem black and white, like all those negative things will be with you forever and there’s nothing you can do about them. Well of course by implementing these 5 steps, you already know that there are things you can do to take back control.
And by making yourself think of three things you are looking forward to every morning and three things that went well every evening, you can start to build that mental pathway to strength and resilience. Find your three things, however big or small, and like a crack in that dam of despair, soon that positive gap will grow and spread until the whole dam crumbles to dust.
Help with Depression
If you are struggling with depression symptoms and could use professional help to overcome depression, then take action now and book your free initial consultation. Take that first step on the road to recovery and find a way to lift the fog of depression effectively.
Dan Regan
Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket
Struggling with anxiety, stress, worry and fear and need some help? Find out how I can help with a Complimentary Hypnotherapy Strategy Session. Learn more here: Appointments
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