I work a lot with people suffering with Depression and low mood, within my counselling clinic in Aghada, Midleton and in my counselling Ballincollig. Depression is a very common condition which affects 1 in 10 people at any one time, 450,000 people in Ireland alone. Any one of us, irrespective of age, gender or background can be affected.
Depression is a mental health condition which can affect the whole self, the thinking, energy, feelings and behaviour. It can vary from mild to severe and can have a profound impact, affecting every aspect of the individual, their relationships, family and work life.
How does Depression and Low Mood affect me?
- Feeling – sad, anxious, guilty, alone, a failure.
- Energy – low energy, feeling tired or fatigued
- Sleeping – under or over-sleeping, any change to normal sleep pattern
- Eating – under or over eating
- Little or no motivation to do things
- Thinking – poor concentration, thoughts slowed down, spiralling negative thoughts.
- Interest – loss of interest in hobbies, family or social life, want to isolate self from others.
- Value – Low self-worth and self esteem
- Apathy – nothing excites, why bother, feel like I am faking everything, possible thoughts of suicide?
Within my counselling clinics in Aghada, Midletion and Ballincollig the majority of people I work with will be depressed will have one or a number of the following underlying contributing factors:
- After a prolonged period of stress – the mind, body and soul have reached exhaustion and burn out.
- At a transitional stage in life, feeling very ungrounded and insecure. Not sure where and how on moving forward with life. For example following: Separation /Divorce, Children growing up, Job Retirement/Redundancy/Out sick, Big Mile Stone Age etc.
- Grief – depression is a part of the process, but feeling stuck and cannot move onto with life.
- Feeling Empty: In the past continuously giving and pleasing others and their needs and not looking after your own. Struggling to do so and feeling a bit used and washed out.
- Following a traumatic event or a series of traumatic events and stress system just not turning off, still stuck on.
- Long term effect of: Negative self- talk, unhelpful thinking and habits, underlying self-depreciating negative programs/rules about ourselves continuously running in the background.
- Physical stress – long hours, no rest, over exercise, injury, hormonal changes, virus’s, inflammation etc., can all contribute to an imbalance in the Mind-Body-Spirit Connection and affect the holistic balance .
