Around one in five of us will suffer with depression during our lives, and that statistic is sadly on the rise.
Depression can feel like a dark cloud that follows you, blocking out the light, sapping our energy and sucking the joy out of life – like the ‘Dementors’ in the Harry Potter stories that feed off human happiness, depression is an enemy that robs us of the will to fight back, as it makes us believe we are already beaten.
You may feel hopeless, or that the depression will never lift, maybe you can’t remember ever being happy?
Depression is a liar that tricks you into believing it is a permanent state that you can’t do anything about. You feel as if you have nothing to look forward to; even those things you used to love doing don’t seem worth the effort anymore. You feel tired all the time – yet when you go to bed you cannot sleep, or you sleep too much and yet still wake up exhausted. We used to call depression ‘nervous exhaustion’ or a ‘mental breakdown’ and this gives an insight into what is going on inside your body when you become depressed.
“You are allowed to feel messed up and inside out. It doesn’t mean you’re defective – it just means you’re human.”
Depression, stress and anxiety should be seen as emotional signals that something isn’t right, either in our environment or in the way we process and make sense of our lives. Depression is the long-term effect of excessive rumination, worry, stress and unmet emotional needs. Treatment should be focused on fixing the underlying problems, not simply masking symptoms with drugs.
Life is filled with challenges, experiencing loss, pain, and disappointment are all part of being human. But it is not the bad stuff that happens to us that causes depression, it is the way we process the bad stuff and the meaning we give it. We tend to believe that stress and anxiety are just unavoidable responses to certain life events. However, there are certain thinking styles that will make it more likely for you to succumb to depression, and these thinking errors can be easily corrected once you are aware of them.
You are not your thoughts, and with a little practice, your thoughts could be very different.
Hypnotherapy cannot change the things that happen to you, but it is very successful in re-shaping your thoughts and beliefs, which in turn will enable you to change how you react to those events, and how you feel about them. Hypnotherapy also helps you access a deep state of mental and physical relaxation, which is just what your depressed brain needs and provides a chink of sunlight to break through and illuminate a way forward.
“You will feel better than this, maybe not yet, but you will. You just keep living until you are alive again.”
Neuroplasticity – the science of growing a new brain.
People will often label themselves as ‘depressives’ and consider they have a mental illness that will recur whenever life gets challenging. That limiting belief is not true. If we change our thoughts, we change our emotions and we change the way our brain functions. Our brains are constantly being shaped by experience.
New neural pathways are being formed. This is the science of Neuroplasticity, which loosely translates as ‘our brains are malleable.’
With every repetition of a thought or emotion, we reinforce a neural pathway – and with each new thought, we begin to create a new way of being.
We literally become what we think and do. Wouldn’t you like to remodel your brain so that it becomes more resilient, adaptable, and positive? Let me show you how.
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” Marcus Auerlius
Having suffered from depression myself, as well as having grown up with a mother who suffered from bipolar disorder, I feel I am uniquely placed to understand your problems and how they affect your life. You can’t just “pull yourself together” – anyone who says this to you has never experienced depression.
Please note that if you feel that your depression is completely overwhelming, you find yourself contemplating self-harm, or you are experiencing feelings of paranoia, hallucinations, or severe agitation, you should speak to your GP/health care professional immediately.
You don’t have to live with depression. Just imagine what a relief it would be to finally step out from under that cloud and feel the sun on your face.
Email me at lynn@lynnwardhypnotherapy.co.uk or call me on 01278-760003.