Depression Therapy
Has Depression Become An Inescapable Dark Cloud Hanging Over You?
Are you stuck in an endless loop of sadness, anger, and shame? Has low motivation led you to abandon the activities you once enjoyed? Do you feel hopeless about the future?
There may be days when depression weighs down on you like a heavy blanket. Perhaps you feel it in your bones as if there’s a physical density to the low mood that takes over. When you are in its grip, depression can impact all aspects of your life.
Depression May Affect You In Many Different Ways
You might experience sleep disruptions, whether it’s sleeping too much or not enough, as well as weight loss or weight gain. When your energy level is affected, it’s likely that your motivation to engage in pleasurable things slipping away.
Physical activities you once enjoyed may have been replaced with laying on the couch for hours. And the more inert you become, the less motivated you are to do anything. As a result, you may find that trying to accomplish even the smallest tasks becomes difficult.
Maybe you’re ashamed to reach out to others when you feel this way, which, in turn, leads to loneliness. Perhaps this vicious cycle of avoidance and isolation may keep you stuck in a trap of crying spells, angry outbursts, or general malaise. And if you have trouble concentrating, it could be impacting work.
You may turn to unhealthy ways of coping—such as substance abuse or binge eating—to appease your low mood. But as much as you wish you felt differently when depression takes over, you feel unable to turn the tide.
Fortunately, therapy can help you get unstuck when depression strikes. Working with a therapist can help you understand the nature of depression so you can begin taking steps to manage its devastating symptoms.
Depression Has Risen Steeply Since The Pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic has led to skyrocketing increases in depression throughout the United States. Since 2020, the number of adults affected by depression nearly tripled, jumping from 8.5 percent of the population to 32.8 percent.¹ With nearly 1 in 3 Americans suffering from depression, it’s no wonder that suicide rates are also on the rise, accounting for “the second leading cause of death among Americans aged 10 and 34.”²
While sadness is a normal emotion that everyone experiences from time to time, dysfunctional depression—also known as clinical depression—is more severe and requires therapy. Dysfunctional depression causes our brain to go into a “freeze” state. Believing there is no way out of the depressive state we find ourselves in, we begin to disassociate and numb out.
Whether we are predisposed to depression due to a chemical imbalance, genetics, or a flawed belief system formed in early childhood, its symptoms can have devastating consequences on our lives.
When We Lose Our Safety Net, We Suffer
In addition to our unique predispositions, there are also societal factors that can make us susceptible to depression. We live in a world that is filled with conflict and calamity. Moreover, we often experience isolation due to shifting cultural norms and our reliance on technology. Oftentimes, what’s supposed to bring us closer together ends up driving us further apart.
Without a safety net of family and community keeping us afloat, we drown in loneliness and despair. But unfortunately, those of us who need therapy the most tend to avoid it, either due to the stigma associated with it or because we may have had a negative experience.
Once you find the right therapist to help you work through depression, you’ll never regret it. Our treatment strategies will help you figure out what’s contributing to your depression and better ways to manage it.
Depression Therapy Offers The Solutions You Need To Feel Better
The reality is that sometimes life can be stressful and difficult. It’s easy for our brains to get overwhelmed and burned out. Many of us reach adulthood without ever having learned healthy ways to process stress and navigate challenging emotions. When you learn how to set boundaries, build up your self-esteem, and practice consistent self-care in therapy, you can overcome depression symptoms that leave you feeling listless, uninspired, sad, or irritable.
Psychotherapy for depression is a safe place for you to explore the causes of depression without judgment. Not only will your therapist help you examine what troubles you and validate your concerns, but they will also offer recommendations for establishing a healthy routine informed by gratitude so that healing can happen.
What To Expect In Sessions
After assessing the factors that contribute to depression—whether biological, psychological, postpartum-related, or social—we will collaborate to identify both short- and long-term goals for counseling. By the end of treatment, we will reassess your goals to ensure that your depression symptoms have subsided to your satisfaction.
Your therapist will help you better understand the biology of depression so that you can start taking action whenever you notice its symptoms taking hold. Learning tangible skills and strategies you can implement to get unstuck will help you shorten the timeframe that you’re sidelined a lack of motivation.
The Modalities We Use
We utilize Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for helping manage the negative thoughts that can fuel depression. Because we are often our own worst critics, we tend to believe the negative messages our brain transmits. Buying into this false narrative often leads to self-shame and self-criticism. With CBT, your therapist will act as your advocate, challenging these thoughts when you may lack the energy or perspective to do so on your own.
Developing small but life-affirming habits—such as breathing exercises, guided visualizations, journaling, and a focus on self-care—will help build confidence and trust within yourself. We will help you incorporate a positive bias into your daily routine and learn to focus your attention on what went well instead of what went wrong.
By setting modest goals for eating, sleeping, hydration, and movement that will build over time, you will acknowledge your wins each day through the lens of gratitude and celebration, leading to improved physical and emotional well-being.
Walking through your thoughts and feelings with someone who is trained to look at them with a compassionate, non-judgmental lens will help you learn how to do the same for yourself. In time, you’ll feel motivated to get back to doing the enjoyable things you’ve been missing out on.
But You May Wonder Whether Depression Therapy Is Right For You…
Understandably, the idea of simply taking a pill that will make everything better sounds tempting. Unfortunately, for severe depression, medications alone won’t address what you’re dealing with; you still need to learn effective ways to manage your symptoms. Once any chemical imbalance you may experience has been stabilized through medication and you’ve returned to baseline, depression therapy will be more effective. However, due to its potential side effects, our goal will be to eventually wean you off anti-depressants.
As helpful as technology can be in our lives, there’s no substitute for human connection. Working closely with a therapist not only builds a relationship based on trust where you can be vulnerable with another person, but they will also hold you accountable for showing up and doing the work. Accountability is an important component of counseling when depression has impacted your motivation and, potentially, makes you less likely to follow through with what an app is suggesting.
When you’re in the depths of depression, you can feel helpless. At your lowest point, you may believe that you’ll always feel this way. However, our emotions are changeable like the weather—while it’s true that we will experience some storms, rain, and cloudy days, eventually sun and clear blue skies will return. Becoming aware of the seasons of your emotions and how to navigate them will unlock you from the false belief that depression is a permanent condition.
Healing And Transformation Are Within Your Grasp
Having the tools you need to keep your symptoms at bay can help you enter a new phase of life where depression no longer defines you. If you would like to find out more about depression therapy with us and would like a free consultation, you may call us at 313-509-8817 or visit our contact page.
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