For suffers of depression, each day can feel like a climb up the north face of the Eiger. It can be difficult to see anything worthwhile or joyful in the situation that seems to surround you on all sides. Of course at some cognitive level you can see that things might get better in this area or that area of your life, but deep down you feel thinks will go badly for you, rather like looking into the abyss. Worse almost than that depression saps your energy so that you feel that you want to shut the world out, even spending the day or days in bed. The statics make for alarming reading 1 in 4 of us will suffer from some mental illness and depression and anxiety are the most common mental health conditions.
In recent years there has been a concerted effort to talk about mental health and in particular stress, anxiety and depression. Stars like Stephen Fry talk openly and frankly about how it made them feel and how they changed their behaviour as a result of the illness. More than that many ‘ordinary’ people have stepped up and been brave enough to open up in public about their depression (something that takes far from ‘ordinary’ courage). Perhaps then there has never been such an open environment in which to realise that mental health issues can affect us all and that getting help is no different to asking for help with a chest infection or a broken arm.
The really good news is that there are effective treatments for both anxiety and depression and many who have gone before have recovered and perhaps most important now have the tools to help them in the future. A good place to start as always is your GP, while the GP may offer you some medication to help with your mood, they are likely to refer you to one of the so called talking therapies (which include counselling). The purpose is to offer a space, a non threatening one which allows you to open up to say what you feel and really look at those feelings in the cold light of day. It allows you to challenge the unhelpful and the faulty thought and to replace them with practical steps that put you back in the driver’s seat.
Many clients feel that their life is out of control and that there is little they can do to change things, yet with counselling you can look at the bits you do control and learn to accept the bits that you can’t. What is the point in worrying about the weather, it is going to happen however much you worry about it, you can’t control it. What you can control is an alternate plan if the weather is bad (or indeed good).
Depression is a state of mind but its one that there is a remedy for so if you can only do one thing for yourself talk to somebody today