Depression
Mary Condell Hypnotherapist & Psychotherapist – Brighton & Hove, Sussex
Solution Focused Psychotherapy & Hypnotherapy have an excellent track record for lifting depression without drugs.
What is depression?
How do I know if I am depressed?
How does a person get depressed?
Is it inherited?
Is it a chemical imbalance?
What is depression?
When trying to define depression we find various descriptions from a ‘mood disorder’ to ‘a chronically debilitating human condition and epidemic cause of suffering world- wide”.
People who suffer from depression will more likely define it in terms of how it feels:
“a thief in the shadows, stealing my life”
“An invisible insidious monster.”
“A suffocating shroud of pain.”
“A dark black hole, with no way of reaching the light.”
However we define it, the reality for depression sufferers is that it robs them of life, of purpose, hope and a sense of control and in severe cases, becomes life threatening.
The reason depression is such a serious condition is because the sufferer is sustaining a strong, ongoing emotional state. Paradoxically, many sufferers will say that when they are in deep depression, they feel numb. But the research is clear; depression is a state of high emotional arousal.
When high emotions are so dominant, people are less capable of seeing true perspectives of their problems and are less able to find solutions. They feel powerless and have no sense of control. Depression is a debilitating state that cultivates poor self image and a sense that even if they were able to lift the depression they would still be unworthy. This distorted perspective robs the person of optimism and motivation, so no matter how well meaning their family and friends are in supporting and helping them, a depressed person is likely to think “what’s the point?” It’s not their fault…. it’s the depression talking.
As well as being an emotional affliction, the strong emotions of depression are damaging to physical, and psychological health. (For more information about this aspect, see my ‘stress’ page)
“How do I know if I’m depressed”?
The most obvious pointer is that you will have been feeling very low for a while, with a sense that it is not lifting. This low state will have begun to impact on your quality of life. However, here are some common symptoms and if you are regularly experiencing a number of these, you may be depressed.
• Depressed mood
• Profound sadness or excessive focus on past hurts
• Loss of interest in usual activities
• Appetite disruption – eating less or more than usual
• Disturbed sleep
• Over-dreaming
• Loss of energy, especially in the mornings
• Lowered libido
• Psychomotor retardation or agitation
• Difficulty with thinking
• Feeling overwhelmed by simple tasks
• Feelings of worthlessness, guilt or remorse
• Recurring thoughts of death or suicide
• Reduced pain threshold or unexplained aches and pains
• Anxious or worrisome thoughts
• Loss of confidence and esteem
“How do you get depressed?”
It used to be commonly believed that depression is the sign of a chemical imbalance, and that lowered amounts of the neurotransmitter serotonin, were causing the person to feel depressed. More recent studies have now revealed that low serotonin is a symptom of depression, not the cause.
“My mother has depression, have I inherited it from her?”
In the 1990’s, the Human Genome Project set about years of study and research, in the hope of finding a ‘gene for everything’. Scientists were surprised to find that there is no depression gene. Furthermore “The marked increase in the rate of depression revealed in epidemiological studies itself shows that depression cannot be a biological disease carried in our genes. Genes do not change that quickly.” (Human Givens, Griffin & Tyrrell, p242)
If there is good news about this, it is that depression is only likely to be passed from parent to child as a learned behaviour and that with the right intervention and support can be unlearned, while new, more helpful behaviours are learned in place.
“So, if it’s not a chemical imbalance or a biological inheritance, what is it?”
There are many situations that can trigger emotional responses that lead to the debilitation of depression. Bereavement, divorce, redundancy, bankruptcy etc., will have an understandable emotional impact. So why is it that there are some people who experience these things and fall victim to depression, whilst others may have a similar experience and survive reasonably intact?
A significant ingredient for depression lies in the thought processes, or in how the person relates to the events they are experiencing. You are more likely to fall into depression if you have learned to take things personally, to worry that things will never change, or to blame yourself. High emotions and negative thinking will create a tendency to ruminate (or chew the same negative, emotional thoughts over and over).
These ruminations keep the emotions running high because the thoughts are feeding the emotional response.
When the emotions are high, the brain is more likely to revert to black and white thinking, which also happens in the fight flight response, where your body feels ‘under threat’. In depression, this kind of inflexible thinking is likely to be pessamistic or catastrophic.
The brain instinctively understands the need to lower those high emotions, to reduce the ‘threat’ and restore normality and it does this by using your ability to dream, to create stories and metaphors that will lower your emotions.
The more you ruminate, the more dreaming you will do to ‘flush out’ those high emotions. The problem here is that the dream state is not restful – the brain is highly active and the body is not experiencing vital, slow wave recuperative sleep. So when you wake in the morning you are likely to feel exhausted, which in turn will lead to more depressive thinking.
Over-dreaming also results in lowered serotonin levels. Serotonin is the neurotransmitter that governs the other ‘feel good’ chemicals, as well as helping to manage the body’s own pain management and appetite.
The lack of recuperative sleep due to over-dreaming presents a serious threat to health and well-being, because it inhibits immune system and other important ‘house-keeping’ functions of the body – so if the situation persists, the body will respond by waking you up in the early hours, in an attempt to break the dreaming cycle. The reason this makes sense is that the first part of the sleep cycle is deep, slow wave sleep. So the body assumes that when you go back to sleep, you will get more recouperative rest. What is doesn’t take into account is that in the waking state, the person is likely to click straight into worrysome or depressive thoughts and find it difficult to get back to sleep.
So, the cycle looks like this:
Ruminations lead to over-dreaming,……. over-dreaming leads to early waking,……. early waking leads to exhaustion,…….. exhaustion leads to ruminations,…….. ruminations lead to over-dreaming,………. over-dreaming leads to early waking,…….. early waking leads to exhaustion,…….. exhaustion leads to ruminations……….
A significant factor in preventing or treating depression is to be aware of the importance of meeting your basic needs.
Another significant, yet often over-looked ingredient in depression is nutrition. What we forget is that in order to make chemicals such as serotonin, endorphins or dopamine, the body needs the raw materials – good quality food. Quality proteins like chicken, turkey or tofu; a colourful variety of vegetables and fruits and wholefood carbohydrates. (Recommended reading: The Food and Mood Handbook by Amanda Geary).
Solution focused psychotherapy and hypnotherapy, combined with supportive, practical strategies will have a profoundly helpful impact on lifting that depression.
Call me to arrange a free consultation and we can discuss how you will benefit.
Further helpful reading for depression sufferers of their family/carers:
- How to Lift Depression (..fast) by Joe Griffin & Ivan Tyrrell
- Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
- The Emperors New Drugs by Irving Kirsch
