Depression

THOUGHTS ON DEPRESSION

Many of us experience depression. But most depression is treatable.

Many of us experience levels of depression that have a significant negative effect on our lives, creating mood and behavioral changes such as:

• I just don't seem to care about my work (school, etc.) anymore
• I'm withdrawing from my friends and family
• It's harder and harder to leave home
• Nothing seems enjoyable
• I'm drinking more
• I care less about what I eat, about exercising
• More and more I feel like: "what's the point?"

These changes are often accompanied by identity (self-concept) changes:

• I don't feel as confident as I used to
• I feel like I'm cursed
• I feel like a loser
• I'm a failure

The third type of symptom that we often experience when we are depressed involves physiological or body changes, such as:

• feeling low energy, sluggish
• sleeping too much or too little
• eating too much or too little

Depression depresses. There can be a powerful relationship between these mood, behavior, identity, and physiological changes and depression, in which they can be both cause and effect.

At Blue Mountain Counseling, I work with the interaction between these causes and symptoms of depression. Understanding how depression works helps us find several points at which to intervene in specific, pragmatic ways to stop the downward cycle, to take concrete steps to reverse this trend, as well as to identify and treat many of the underlying emotional factors that are at the root of the depression.

Depression can be treatable. If you are depressed, you may be living your life in a way that you don't need to be. I can help you stop the downward cycle.