Depression Counselling
Reaching out for help when you are depressed can be really difficult. Perhaps it will help to understand a bit about my approach to depression counselling.
Most of us go through periods of feeling low from time to time, feeling sad or down. We get the blues, feel miserable, out of sorts, not ourselves.
Usually these phases pass after a few days or weeks.
Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they go on for weeks or months or even years.
Have you been feeling persistently low for some time? Or even suicidal, feeling like life is not worth living any more?
Depression Counselling Hove
There is a big difference between sadness and depression.
Depression can overwhelm you with feelings of isolation, self-loathing, and guilt.
Maybe you have been feeling unhappy or hopeless for some time. You might feel tearful all the time, or maybe for you it’s more of a deadened feeling, a painful nothingness.
One of the worst things about depression is how it sucks the joy out of things you usually enjoy.
Are you always feeling tired, having trouble sleeping, suffering unexplained aches and pains? Maybe you’ve lost your appetite, or on the other hand you might find all you do is eat. Is your sex life suffering too?
Often the symptoms of depression coincide with anxiety.
It could be that you have been through a life-changing event like a bereavement, illness, divorce, being made redundant, or having a baby.
You could be lacking direction, feeling aimless and pointless, wondering what you are doing with your life.
Maybe there is a history of depression in your family.
Maybe you have no idea why you feel this way.
Feeling Better
Talking therapy like I offer at Depression Counselling Hove can really help with depression.
Some interesting new research suggests that depression might be your brain’s way of making you slow down, make sense of and solve a problem.
(And it could be that depression and anxiety often appear together because some problems require both analysis, which is promoted by the depression, and vigilance, which is promoted by the anxiety. It could be that the depression gives you space to work out what happened while the anxiety helps you prevent it from happening again.)
You might be wondering what on earth that problem might be that your particular mind is struggling with. That’s OK. It will probably take us a little while to work it out.
While we’re doing that, we’ll also think about little things you can do to help yourself feel better, like making healthier choices and reaching out to people who might be able to support you.
How Depression Counselling Hove Can Help
You might have found that some people have struggled to accept your depression. That they tell you to cheer up, snap out of it, get yourself together.
I understand that it doesn’t work like that. I know that it’s only when we accept ourselves and our feelings as they are that we are able to move through them.
That is why I will sit with you and support you as you are now. I will hold onto the hope that you can’t feel right now, and believe in your capacity to heal even when you are struggling to.
I will listen to you and bear witness, following your lead as to what you need to talk about. Having your pain acknowledged in this way can in itself be healing.
If it interests you, we can also do some CBT. I can give you some workbooks to make your way through in your own time and then come back and discuss with me. Each module includes information, worksheets, and exercises or activities you might find helpful.
You deserve to feel better. Getting in touch is a big step, which can feel particularly difficult when you are depressed. I understand that, and I will do my best to make the experience of reaching out to me as comfortable as possible.
