Depression

You’re in bed and the alarm clock goes off to wake you up for work. You switch it off but continue to lay in bed. Thoughts and feelings began to build up like cement, sinking feeling that just keeps you still laying in the same position wondering, thinking whether it’s actually worth getting up today. You decide to look through your phone on social media and images of friends looking happy and confident evoking deeper feelings of sadness and fatigue. You eventually decide to call in sick and not go to work, as you feel unmotivated to do anything at all. Many feelings of hopelessness and helplessness build up within you as you continue to lay in bed. You eventually decide to go back to sleep and spend most of the day away from others, isolated, feeling “empty inside”, unable to talk to anyone about how you feel.

Summer may be here however, depression affects many people’s lives in so many ways regardless of the season. The above covers just one illustration of how depression may affect your thoughts, feelings, and body, losing interests in what you use to enjoy.

There are significant other symptoms of depression:
• Overeating or losing appetite
• Persistent aches and pains, headaches, cramps or digestive problems
• Persistent sadness, anxiousness or feelings of worthlessness
• Suicidal thoughts or attempts
• Losing interests in hobbies and pleasurable activities including sex
• Insomnia
• Difficulty making decisions and concentrating, remembering detail

Neuroscience allows us to understand more about the brain and how it works. Research suggests that connectivity is the link and key to understanding depression. It makes sense in a way that our perceptions with the world around us are an active process by complex interactions in the brain. The amygdala is part of the limbic system which is embedded deep in the brain which is linked and associated with the emotions part of the brain. These include fear, pain, anger and so on. It is known that activity is higher in the amygdala when someone suffering from depression. The right hemisphere of the brain is where difficulties arise. It processes selective thoughts, emotions, and how you perceive life, along with the pain. If there is poor ability and connectivity from the hierarchical apex of the limbic system into amygdala there is likelihood that it is higher in the right side of the brain to be able to regulate lower aspects of the brain.

I have experience of working with clients who suffer from depression and low moods which affect their life . I can explore and show you ways in which to change the patterns and pathways of your brain, so you less likely to feel low moods and depression.

I can be contacted on 07960 832585 or via my website www.hughhowecounselling.co.uk

I would also like to mention the tragic events in London this year. There are many counselling services that are offering and providing counselling for those who have been affected. I would like to offer my deepest sympathies and thoughts to those who lost family members of loved ones or witnessed the terrible events in London this year.