DEPRESSION

     Depression can be an all-encompassing disruption to every facet of one's life. It may not only impact one's emotions (e.g., feeling down and/or irritable) and energy (e.g., fatigue and lack of motivation), but may also result in low self-worth, disruptions to sleep patterns, clouded thinking and indecision, lack of enjoyment or engagement in activates, social isolation and/or difficulties in social relationships, and disruptions to sexual functioning. It can also result in increased thoughts of death or suicide. Complicating this is that depression can oftentimes have a gradual, insidious onset, delaying its detection until the person is already steeped in it and struggling to get through the day, let alone having enough energy to seek help. It can also have a cyclical pattern  in which short term resolutions to symptoms can actually worsen the problem, pulling the sufferer into an even deeper depression (for example, feeling tired and then sleeping longer can actually make you feel more tired and entrench you in a pattern of hypersomnia).

     There are a variety of treatments aimed at alleviating depression and I will work with you to identify which may be the most beneficial. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), in particular, can be very helpful in analyzing and improving patterns in one's thoughts and behaviors that contribute to depression. Examining a person's environmental context and biological factors are also key to understanding the whole of a person's experience and are important to treatment. Ideally, treatment will involve helping you to analyze and improve your thinking  and coping patterns, while also rebuilding activity and social routines, so that your view of self, biological rhythms and relationship with others can all steadily improve.