Have you stopped taking an interest in things you used to enjoy? Do you feel down most of the time? Has your appetite changed? Do you feel tired all the time? Do you have difficulties concentrating? Do you have difficulties falling asleep or do you wake up early in the morning feeling exhausted? Do you suffer from low self-esteem, lack of confidence? Do you often feel guilty about all sorts of things? Have you found yourself thinking about death lately?
Yourdoctor may tell you that you are suffering from depression, if you have answered with a yes to several of the questions, including the first two and you have felt like that for a least a couple of weeks.
'Depression' is what happens when essential emotional needsarenot being met. Sometimes depression is diagnosed when you naturally feel depressed because of a sad event or a crisis. Take control of your own recovery: visit the page on beating depression without medication.
Causes of depression: linking dreaming and depression
The discovery of why we dream, by Joe Griffin, has given us a new understanding of the cycle of depression. This is how depression starts: you have likely suffered a setback - a loss, such as the ending of a relationship, ortrauma that you have difficulties coming to terms with. This results in negative introspection and then the sad cycle starts:
your emotional needs are not met you worryexcessively. See symptoms of a nervous breakdown you feel lethargic and 'flat', yet are flushed with stress hormones your emotional brain is trapped in black and white thinking 'everything' becomes: all or nothing, love or hate, good or bad you can only focus the problems and loose context you feel unable to express yourself and/or resolve anything much increased dreaming results -nature's way of healing upsets decreased restorative slow-wave sleep causes you to feel tired on waking; it's hard to get up and motivate yourself lack of energy leads to further worrying about how you'll cope increasingly unable to meet your emotional needs the cycle repeats itself and you become increasingly depressed
How to overcome depression
The FDA has warned that certain behaviours are known to be associated with SSRI's including the following symptons: anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, impulsivity, severe restlessness.
Think about what Dr Peter Breggin says about the dangers of taking antidepressants, when you consider how to overcome depression.
"What lies behind us, and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Treatment without medication
Natural remedies Light therapy Exercise Self development Counselling Relationship counselling Change of medication with side-effect of depression Acupuncture Music therapy Aromatherapy Religious practices Meditation Emotional Freedom Technique
Relationship problems and depression About 50% of people who suffer from depression have relationship problems. Could that be the course of your depression? Is your relationship in trouble?
Depression is a debilitating condition that saps you from energy and takes away any joy in living. Any counselling/therapy that relies heavily on you introspecting about negative events in your past could prolong the depression.
