Working with depression can be tricky business as anyone who suffers from it or is close to someone who does would know. Depression does not necessarily manifest in blatant feelings of sadness. Your conditioning plays a part in how you process and act out when depressed. In other words, symptoms of depression are a lot more than feeling sad and bogged down.

Manifestations of Depression

Depression can be felt as overwhelming numbness, an inability to mobilize one’s self or persistent self doubt and this is not all. There could be a loss in interest in daily activity, feeling ashamed and guilty as well as overly self critical. Depressed individuals might also suffer from the inability to focus on important tasks and in cases can even be restless and anxious. Depression also has the ability to make an individual overtly or passive aggressive and irritable.

For the person suffering from depression, living like this is nothing short of exhausting.

Working with Depression

The title of this blog states the question; how to heal? However when it comes to depression, anyone suffering from it might be aware that for the most part the ‘healing’ in question takes a whole lot of work and management. It is also in many cases a long process.

That being said, healing from depression is not impossible and there are some things you can do in order to help yourself forward which we’re going to proceed to elaborate on.

Steps You Can Take

As we mentioned earlier, everyone responds to depression differently and due to personal nuances, it would be unreasonable to think it is within the scope of this blog to provide a complete roadmap to healing! We can however, share certain pointers with you that are relevant to working with depression across the board.

These pointers should help give you a clearer sense of what you might need to do, take up and look into on the road to healing.

Recognize the Problem

The first thing you need to do if you or someone you love suffers from depression is to recognize the problem. Recognition is always the first step. If you suspect you suffer from depression, visit a psychologist, psychiatrist or psychotherapist for a preliminary diagnosis.

If you are indeed diagnosed with depression, take ownership of what you need to deal with and proceed to do so.

Record your Moods

One thing that often helps with depression is clarity. Record your moods and how you are feeling. Keep a journal maybe and attempt to get a sense of what your perception is like before the depressive episodes kick in.

Do not Isolate

Though for someone suffering from depression, this might seem like a good idea, isolation is the worst. Sure you can take your time outs and pull away when you need to but long drawn isolation will only serve to magnify your depressive symptoms.

Get the help you Need

It is important to understand the magnitude of the problem you are struggling with and to approach it such. Sometimes, in certain situations, professional support will take you a long way. There are many ways to work with depression and one or the other is bound to work for you.

Talk therapy is one way to begin addressing your depression. Other forms of therapy such as CBT and DBT are useful in rewiring your emotional responses to those more conducive to your healing.

Last but not least, many who have struggled with depression for years have finally found some respite from their depression through techniques such as EMDR and Hypnosis.

The roots of depression often lie deep in our subconscious minds. They can be internalized messages and perceptions of the environment that sit within us acting as self fulfilling blueprints for our lives.

Hypnosis in particular has the ability to help individuals access parts of their psyche that other techniques might not be able to.

The way this works is that individuals are put into a hypnotic state by the practitioner where they are susceptible to subconscious suggestion. After doing so it is a matter of making a suggestion conducive to healing from depression and repeating the procedure till the positive effects are realized.

Upshot

The main take away here is that you need to work with your depression in order to heal. There are no two ways about it. The good news is that there are very effective ways to work with your problem that can help make things not just bearable but actually positive!

If you’re looking to work with your depression, have tried other methods and feel like hypnosis might help, our hypnotist Rekha might be someone you could connect with.

Rekha has a Masters in psychological development among other qualifications and is extensively qualified and experienced in the field of hypnosis. She works effectively with anxiety, depression, rage and even helps clients with smoking cessation and weight loss through hypnosis. If you need support, reach out! We’d be happy to be of service!