Depression affects one in five people at some point in their lives. Anybody can get “the blues” – but if you are depressed, the negative feelings don’t leave after a few days and can get so bad that they interfere with daily life. Undertaking Depression Counselling in Newcastle with Reflexions will help you to work through your low mood.
Common Symptoms in Depression Counselling:
- Persistent sad or empty feelings
- Losing interest in life, lack of sex drive
- Finding it harder to make decisions
- Not coping with things that used to be manageable
- Fatigue, exhaustion
- Crying
- Irritability, feeling restless and agitated
- Loss of appetite and weight or excessive eating
- Difficulty sleeping or sleep disturbances, excessive sleeping
Sometimes bad feelings are a natural result of ordinary life events and they are explainable. To the depressive, it is much more than this. It is something which makes it difficult to deal with everyday life itself. It’s a serious illness, painful for the person experiencing it, but also for those that care about the person.
Treatment for Low Mood
“Why do you stay in prison when the door is wide open?” Jalal ad-Din Rumi, Persian poet and mystic
There are a number of treatments, pharmacology (drugs), depression counselling or exercise. Research shows that talking therapies such as counselling are very effective, particularly if cognitive behavioural (CBT) techniques are used. Rythmic Exercise is very helpful either alone or in conjunction with other treatments – particularly if that is “your thing”. Think jogging or swimming or anything which is aerobic and rhythmical. Although its effectiveness is debated by some experts, pharmacology seems to work for some people, and in this case you would make an appointment with your GP. At Reflexions we work in an integrative manner. This means that will apply the techniques that we use in a way suited to you. Whilst we will certainly work with you behaviouraly (The B in CBT) and work with your thinking (The C in CBT) the therapy (The T part in CBT) will also help you to deal with your emotional side as well.
How can Depression Therapy Help?
The main benefit of working with a counsellor or a psychotherapist for your depressive state is that you can develop ways of thinking, and doing which you can use both now and in the future. We believe that a combination of techniques learnt with a counsellor will together combine to pull you through and out of depression. This is now being supported by some of the new research coming out.
In short, therapy helps you to:
- Explore the cause of your depressed emotions.
- Use strategies to combat your low moods
- Explore your thoughts and behaviours which contribute to low mood.
- Learn the techniques that work for you in the long term
Some thoughts:
“Creativity is the antithesis of depression. It is a way of saying that what I think and feel matters…Depression is not just an illness, but a failure of creativity. We all face the problem of creating meaning in our lives. When we’re depressed, we’ve lost hope for meaning. We all need to make a deliberate effort to make the self fertile; for the depressive, that effort is essential to life.”Richard O’Connor
What is the Next Step?
At Reflexions Counselling and Psychotherapy we can support you to work through feeling low, depressed or “blue”. We will work with you in a supportive and non-judgemental manner. As the video implies, don’t lose hope. Therapy is a postive, helpful route to getting back to enjoying life again. Contact us for depression counselling in Newcastle and we will take if from there.
Book Online
Or email:
counsellor@counselling-newcastle.co.uk
Or phone: 0191 5805080
Resources:
Overcoming Depression – A self-help guide. Gilbert, P (2000). This provides practical ways of controlling depression and low mood with step-by-step guides to cope with depression, supported by case studies. A lot of detail in here in a fat book.
Royal College of Psychiatrists
Good, clear information about depression, and treatment options. Worth a read. There’s a handout on here too
NHS Depression
NHS information on Clinical Depression. Some good links and resources.
Mood Juice
NHS Scotland self-help guide for depression.
Reflexions Depression and Anxiety Assessment Tool
An assessment which measures symptom severity for anxiety and depression.
Depression Alliance
Charitable organisation for sufferers of depression. Includes self-help groups.
Mind: Understanding depression
Organisation which supports and provides a voice for people with mental health problems.
Tel: 0300 123 3393 (Mon – Fri, 9am to 6pm)
Young Minds
Headway
