Depression and Anxiety
Depression
According to the World Health Organisation depression affects 5% of the population or 5 out of 100 people. This means you will know someone who has depression based on the above figure.
Depression causes disability, missed work and school and poor performance. People often feel persistent sadness and lack of pleasure in activities that they used to enjoy. It also affects sleep and appetite causing eating issues, weight gain or loss and tiredness and poor concentration.
The ‘go to’ treatment in most cases is medication and it does indeed have its place, however, there is much that can be done in conjunction with or sometimes instead of medication.
In his book ‘Lost Connections, Johan Hari talks of the loss of connection between people, families and communities, and about our environment. Starting from the bottom up, (our environment and the people in it), looking at what we can rather than can’t do or change to help ourselves is the first step of the therapeutic journey.
Anxiety
The World Health Organisation stated in 2019 that 301 million people were living with an anxiety disorder including 58 million children and adolescents. The main characteristics of anxiety are excessive fear and worry and related behavioural disturbances which can include panic attacks and social anxiety.
Again, the problem affects peoples’ abilities at work, school and in personal relationships. Many work and school hours are lost each year as is productivity in the workforce and in the individual. Opportunities are missed, personal growth may be stunted and all because a response mechanism that is intended to keep us safe has gone into overdrive.
Oftentimes strategies can be created during therapy as well as techniques being taught and education given, as to what’s happening in the brain and how we can help ourselves. This bottom-up approach gives you the client control and the ability to move forward.
Whether the depression or anxiety stems from something that has happened to you even if that thing was many years ago such as Adverse Childhood Experiences, or an event in your life more recently, and sometimes you just don’t know why you feel depressed or anxious, there are many ways to help you help yourself. Hypnosis, EMDR, Neurolinguistic Programming and Coaching are particularly effective tools as are psychological techniques that are easy to learn in the therapy sessions.
N.B. Always consult your medical practitioner if you are concerned that you may be depressed or if anxiety feels overwhelming and is negatively impacting your life.