Depression Counseling

Common Symptoms of Depression

We all have different responses to our experiences. These unique experiences affect the way we think, feel, and act. Sometimes these reactions cause significant distress or block us from functioning as we did or how we want to. Depression counseling can help free you from the dark cloud that is depression.

Depression and grief are similar, but differ in the way they present and often in the solution as well. We can experience depressive symptoms when grieving, but the grief is triggered by something and it affects us differently. Grief is a usual part of loss, whether it’s a loss of a loved one, a job, or maybe a part of our identity. It can also involve intense sadness and withdrawal from others or things you enjoy. Grief is a process that can come and go, but changes and changes us. It is concerning when the distress blocks you from your life or from enjoying your life for a long period of time.

Commonly, grief is experienced in the following ways:

• Waves of sadness. The waves come and go and are often mixed with positive memories.
• Maintenance of self esteem. Unlike clinical depression, we usually maintain our self esteem when grieving. We generally feel the same about our worth.

Grief can be highly distressing and unmanageable. Along with feelings of sadness, our worlds frequently just do not make sense anymore. Finding meaning and learning how to live our lives without something we loved or valued is key to recovery.

Clinical depression (also known as major depressive disorder) can result from a combination of many factors, including our biology, our personality, and our environment. It can occur without a trigger. The symptoms can last for longer nearly sustained periods and you experience intense distress and impairment.

Some experiences of depression are more severe than others, but most have some degree of common symptoms, including:

• Feeling sad. These periods of sadness are sustained, meaning they are not experienced in waves.
• Loss of interest. Things you liked to do and enjoyed in the past are no longer an interest.
• Changes in appetite. You might eat more or less than you usually do.
• Difficulty sleeping. You have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep.
• Your body feels different. You feel tired or agitated and nervous.
• Loss of self esteem. You experience a loss of your sense or worth.
• Difficulty concentrating.

Depression Counseling

Depression counseling usually starts with determining how you experience symptoms and determining the factors involved. This is done by exploring how you functioned in the past and how you function now (sometimes these are the same). This can also involve family members and gathering information about many areas of your life.

Depression counseling involves processing, or exploring, the way you experience the world. Both for loss and for clinical depression, exploring your beliefs and thoughts will help to identify the thinking that continues to cause you pain. Learning to change these patterns, will help you change the way you feel. This also involves learning and applying new coping skills. Lifestyle changes are often needed to affect the environment that has grown to support depressive symptoms.