Hypnotherapy

Sheffield Based, Nationally Registered Hypnotherapist.

Depression

Clinical depression is serious and your first contact needs to be your GP. Diagnosis can be catergorised as mild, moderate, severe without psychotic episodes or severe with psychotic episodes. There are two significant categories of mood disorders; major depression (unipolar depression) and bipolar disorder.

15 - 20% of adults suffer symptoms of depression at some time in their life and feel that their lives are affected to such an extent that they need to seek treatment.

Most of the general population experience low moods from time to time. A diagnosis of depression requires the presence of five symptoms nearly every day for at least two weeks and these symptoms are defined according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM-IV.

The symptoms of bipolar disorder are extreme talkativeness, hyperactivity, either elated mood or irritable mood, inflated self-esteem, feelings of racing thoughts, distractibility, reckless activity. All of these can be interspersed with periods of depression.

For people who have never experienced depression, it can be impossible to realise just how bad it can feel. To the outsider, it could just appear that someone suffering depression is either un-cooperative,withdrawn, lazy, anti-social or just not bothered. It may be extremely hard for a person suffering depressive illness to communicate their feelings to someone who is not. To someone who is not depressed it would just sound like a lot of negative thinking. A busy, active positive-minded person could think or say (unhelpfully) "snap out of it" or "you need to pull yourself together".

Diagnosing depression in children can be difficult. It can manifest as aggressive behaviour and over-activity. Anti-social behaviour combined with negative thinking and feelings that no-one understands them can signify depression in adolescents. Older adults can present with amnesia and distractibility.

Environmental factors can cause depression and there are biological factors too i.e. high levels of the adrenocortical hormone, cortisol can lower the density of serotonin receptors and impair the function of noradrenergic receptors.

Mild to moderate depression can often subside after 3 - 6 months, although it has the potential to recur. Where depression becomes chronic, the sufferer may not return to the level of function they had previous to the last bout.

Over the past two decades, depression has been effectively treated with SSRIs, selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, which replaced the tri-cyclics which had more severe side effects. Prozac is an SSRI. Prozac has controversial implications associated with reports of increased risk of suicide although in comparison to the numbers of people it has helped, the risk is relatively low.

Exercise has proved to be an effective component in treatment for mild to moderate depression as exercise stimulates the release of helpful chemicals.

Hypnotherapy is an effective treatment for depression. If you are considering hypnotherapy and suffer severe depression, it is important that you find a hypnotherapist who is familiar with depression and has the competence to work in this field. I have several years experience of voluntary listening and support work with people suffering depression. This has given me a breadth of understanding that, when combined with clinical hpynotherapy competence, gives me the confidence to work with clients in this area.

It can take longer than 6 sessions for symptoms of depression to be alleviated.

SSRIs are extremely effective for alleviating the symptoms of depression, but the underlying causes are not addressed, unless a GP has prescribed a course of counselling or cognitive behavioural therapy in addition to the drugs. When a course of tablets has ended, after a period of time, depression can recur unless unless you have developed the resources and awareness to manage it.

I will formulate a treatment plan once I have established the key features of your depression. There are various psychological theories for why someone might develop this condition. I would normally start by looking at your perceptions of yourself and your life and how you feel this may have changed over time. Negative life events affect people differently and you may have developed a 'set' way of thinking. I would encourage you to develop techniques to control your thought processes. I would use confidence building, guided imagery, metaphor, post-hypnotic suggestion and possibly regression. It can be immensely beneficial for clients to re-frame past emotional experiences where they may be carrying unhelpful emotions such as self-blame, guilt, anger and fear. We will explore past experience through association and disassociation both in and out of trance-state in order that you may gain insight about your feelings. In later sessions you will learn self-hypnosis and focus on cognitive re-structuring to empower you with resources to manage any future occurences of negative thought patterns before you become depressed.