Depression
Do you find yourself feeling as if a black cloud is following you around, and that you just can’t have a good day no matter how hard you try? Many people have experienced feelings of depression at one time or another. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that “about 20.9 million adults, or about 9.5 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year, have a mood disorder.”1
Most people will experience feelings of sadness following a loss or major disappointment, or even after a “rough day” in the ebb and flow of day to day life. However these feelings usually pass in a few hours or days, depending on the intensity of the loss. But when depressed feelings persist and interfere with one's health and social well-being, then sometimes people find that professional help is needed to move past the difficulty.
What is Depression?
Depression by definition is a negative mood or inability to find pleasure in previously pleasurable activities which persists for more than two weeks. Feelings of depression can interfere with many aspects of a person’s life. Some of the common symptoms of depression are:
| Emotional Symptoms | |
|
|
| Physical Symptoms | |
| - Change in sleeping patterns (not able to sleep or sleeping too much) - Change in eating patterns (lack of appetite or eating more than normal) - Unintentional weight loss or weight gain - Fatigue - Difficulty concentrating - Loss of sexual desire |
|
| Behavioral Symptoms | |
| - Crying for no reason - Isolating yourself from other people - Difficulty meeting or setting goals. - Use of drugs or alcohol in an attempt to “feel better.” |
|
How Do I Feel Better?
So what should you do if you are wondering if you may be depressed? A good first step would be to take a free depression inventory. Instruments such as these can help you to put your mood into perspective and to objectively determine whether you are depressed. It is usually a good idea to try to increase your physical activity. Medical research has repeatedly shown the positive benefits of physical exercise for mood stability, as well as overall health. You should also try to increase your level of connection with meaningful people in your life. Many times when people begin to feel depressed they distance themselves from others, however this the very time when you need the support, encouragement, and accountability that can be gained from meaningful and healthy relationships. You may also find benefit by trying to set achievable goals for each day and tracking your accomplishments, so that you will begin to pay attention to the positive things you are achieving.
Should I See a Counselor?
If you find yourself unable to implement the above suggestions, it is possible that you will need to see a professional counselor to help you move past the depression. A counselor can help you make changes in your thinking, which sometimes becomes persistently pessimistic when a person is depressed. They can also help you set behavioral goals and give you some accountability in reaching them. Finally, a counselor can assist you with evaluating the systems in which you live: family, work, community, etc., to assist you with making changes in these systems that will help you move out from under “the black cloud” that seems to be looming above you.
At Counseling Services of Austin, we count it a privilege when you allow us walk alongside you on your journey of healing. If you think you may be depressed, our intake coordinator would be pleased to talk with you about scheduling an assessment. Feel free to contact us by phone at 512-351-4933 or by email at csoa@csoaustin.com.
Reconciliation-focused therapy has been taught to literally hundreds of graduate counseling students over a period of 10 years and it continues to be developed and refined through rigorous empirical investigations. In 2002 the first book on reconciliation-focused counseling was published. Subsequently, three attachment scales were designed that serve to objectively measure the quality of a person’s attachments across three relational domains. These instruments serve to guide therapists in their approach to the counseling task. To date, these attachment scales have been the subject of empirical investigation by two doctoral dissertations. In 2002, RFC was presented to the International Conference of the Christian Association for Psychological Studies.