Doe Zantamata
Everyone has times when they feel sad or low in mood. Depression however is more than this, it is when you feel this way for weeks or months at a time and it affects your ability to get on with and engage fully in life.
Depression affects people in a variety of different ways. It’s not just about feeling sad as it can have an impact on your body, emotional wellbeing, behaviour and thoughts.
As well as low mood, depression symptoms can include feeling tearful, irritable or angry, hopeless and a loss of interest in activities that you previously enjoyed. You may also lose concentration, your self-confidence & self esteem, appetite and motivation. Physical symptoms can too manifest themselves, like feeling tired and lacking energy, sleep issues, lack of appetite or sex drive and various other aches and pains.
According to the World Health Organisation the ‘causes of depression include complex interactions between social, psychological and biological factors. Life events such as childhood adversity, loss and unemployment contribute to and may catalyse the development of depression’.
Depression is therefore not trivial, it is not something that you can simply ‘snap out of’ but rather it is a genuine health condition that requires treatment. It affects people in different ways and can cause mild (feeling persistently low in spirit) but also severe symptoms (e.g. feeling suicidal).
Counselling can be one way to treat and help with depression, as this allows space to examine the potential roots of this as well as a way to explore strategies that may help you to re-engage with life with renewed insight and energy. Sometimes clients find it beneficial to have counselling alongside prescribed medication.
If this resonates with how you’re feeling please contact me to arrange an appointment to help with depression.
David Mitchell
