Depression
Introduction
Joan's Story
Introduction
When a person suffers from depression, he/she has a depressed mood most of the time. This can be accompanied by feelings of emptiness or feelings of not wanting to live anymore. For a depressed person nothings seems pleasurable and he/she loses interest in things that were enjoyable before.
Depression can be accompanied with sleeping problems, fatigue, weight loss, weight gain, a diminished ability to concentrate and think. The person with depression could also feel worthless.
The onset of depression can be greatly influenced by a family history of depression.
Depression can also start when a person goes through stresful and traumatic events.Medication is always advised for depression as there is a chemical imbalance in the person's brain that needs to be dealt with. Medication can correct this while the person is attending to the emotional issues.
With depression there could be many emotional issues to handle. Depression could have started long before the person realized it or was diagnosed. Our childhood usually has a big influence on the onset of depression. When you have feelings of worthlessness, most often this feeling already started during childhood.
Thoughts of death and suicide have usually already started during childhood and can be treated effectively with Inner Child Therapy.
Joan's Story
Joan started to feel depressed right after she got married to her high school sweetheart. The symptoms of depression started slowly and became so severe that Joan started to have difficulty getting out of bed. Joan had a feeling of severe hopelessness and could not see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Joan's husband was very concerned about her and took her to see a therapist. Joan did not think therapy would help, but she agreed.
The therapist told Joan that trauma she may have experienced in her childhood could still have an effect on her today and that this may have caused her depression. Joan could not remember any trauma, but she soon discovered that her childhood was the reason for her depression.
When asked in therapy to go to the source of the feeling of being worthless, Joan remembered how she was 4 years old and discovered her mother's body. Joan's mother suffered from major depression and took an overdose of medication. She died while Joan was playing in her room.
The little girl at first thought her mother was sleeping but soon realized that she was in fact dead. She sat by her mother's body until her father came home from work. While sitting next to her mother's body, this little girl decided that she must be worthless if her mother wanted to die. In her mind she took responsibility for her mother's suicide because she could not yet understand depression. She never told this to anybody and for years carried this burden with her. With therapy Joan could work through her pain and look at the situation through the eyes of an adult. She could make new subconscious decisions and say "It's not my fault. I take responsibility for my decisions only. I am worth a lot."
Joan felt a sense of relief after the very first session but continued with her therapy and could finally embrace a healthy life with her husband and put the past behind her.
Inner Child Therapy is recommended for persons suffering from depression. The thoughts, behavior and feelings you have today, are the thoughs, behavior and feelings of your inner child. Through healing the little child within you, these thoughts, behavior and feelings can be healed. Please read The Inner Child, Feelings and Behavior for more information.
© Copyright 2009-2017 Happy Family Therapy