Depression Counselling
What is Depression - Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment
Depression is a mental health condition that can affect any individual. Everyone can experience moodiness, sadness and/or periods of feeling low every now and then. Depression, however, is not just about ‘feeling down’, but is a serious mental health condition, where individuals experience low/flat mood, sadness and sometimes a sense of ‘emptiness’ for a prolonged period, usually lasting weeks, months and sometimes years.
Accompanying these experiences, it also presents with a few other symptoms and can affect our everyday life, depending on its severity. It is important to state that Depression is fairly common and is usually responsive to treatment.
Symptoms
An individual may be depressed if, over a prolonged period, they have experienced either (or both) of the following:
a sense of sadness, emptiness, or low mood for most of the day, nearly every day
a loss of interest/pleasure in almost all activities, even ones they have previously enjoyed
Other symptoms of depression may also include appetite and sleep changes, fatigue, unhelpful thinking styles and worry.
Causes
Research has demonstrated that there is usually not a single cause for depression. Depression can be triggered by stressful life experiences within an individual such as a loved one’s death, loss of employment, physical health issues, or a relationship ending. Sometimes, there is no clear cause that may bring about the onset of depressive symptoms.
Latest research highlights that the risk for developing depression is more likely to be related to a combination of a person’s genetic make-up, biological factors, stressful life experiences (e.g. childhood trauma), and unhelpful thinking styles (e.g. dwelling).
Treatment
Depression is a common reason for individuals to seek out help from mental health professionals, and research indicates numerous psychological treatments that have demonstrated to be effective in treating depression.
Specific psychological treatments for depression can include:
Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) - has shown to bring about lasting change and relapse prevention. It is designed to help people to notice and change unhelpful thinking style patterns, and thus, change is reflected in emotions and behaviours that bring about depressive symptoms. Additionally, it focuses on teaching clients skills to manage depression in an ongoing way.
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) - combines cognitive therapy with mindfulness, meditation skills. It is designed to help individuals to engage in the present moment without controlling, changing, or judging their experiences. This treatment has been found to be effective in relapse prevention as well as treating depression.
Problem-solving therapy - designed to help individuals to manage the impacts of stressful life experiences. It’s focused on building mastery over day-to-day difficulties that otherwise might seem overwhelming.
Behavioural activation - helps to increase motivation in people, which allows them to return to their activities that provided them pleasure. In behavioural activation, an ‘acitvity schedule’ is used to plan for behavioural activities (for enjoyment and satisfaction) that can help to improve mood and overall quality of life.
Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) - focuses on addressing unhelpful patterns and problems in the person’s relationships and expectations about others that may be contributing to and mantaining their low mood. IPT helps people with conflict resolution, improving social supports, effective emotional expression, and developing new skills to help nurture relationships.
Other formats of therapy which can be helpful, such as schema therapy and insight-oriented therapy.
Our clinicians at Life Growth Psychology are highly trained to provide the following to help you in treating depression symptoms. If you want to find out more, you can contact us below to make the first step.
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