Are You Feeling Sad, Depressed, and Lonely?
Do you have trouble finding meaning in life? Like your relationships, job, or goals aren’t working out?
Maybe you find it hard to wake up each day when your obligations overwhelm you. Perhaps you think you’re a burden to those who care about you, and depression makes you feel useless. When you’re lonely you want to disappear, and you don’t know who to talk to about it.
You might be worried if you open up to someone, they could judge you, or—worse—listen and then leave you alone in that place. Thoughts like these can convince you it’s safer to shut down or withdraw.
The Downward Spiral
Maybe you want distraction from the pain, but your phone and TV aren’t enough. Maybe you try to “make the conscious decision to be happy,” but you don’t see the point in living pretty much the same day over and over again. With all the energy it takes to hold your body upright, make your legs move to walk, or command yourself to sit down, you’re probably exhausted. So it’s no mystery why you might wonder how you can move forward.
At this point, you’re probably looking for help with your severe depression symptoms. Fortunately, if you’re ready to work with a depression therapist, you can find out how to manage your daily struggle and build a better future.
To Feel Depressed Is To Be Human
Depression hurts many of us. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 21 million Americans have had one major depressive episode. Worldwide, 280 million people are depressed.
To feel depressed is not something to be ashamed of. It doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you, and only you. To feel depressed is to be human. And, after working on this area of psychology for many years, I’ve learned there’s a simple “trick” to getting yourself to start healing your depression…
You simply need to give yourself permission to be depressed and tell yourself it’s OK this has harmed your motivation to TAKE ACTION up to this point.
It really is worth taking a moment to pause and offer yourself this permission (or compassion, if you allow). For a long time, you’ve had feelings and emotional memories running your life. You’ve had several layers of pain that literally forced you to make various self-harming and self-sabotaging choices.
Even worse, these feelings and memories locked you away from other people and kept you from even getting started at any real healing process inside. You probably already have an intuitive sense of all this—and why so many people with depression feel like they have no other choice but to be alone in the struggle.
The Challenge To “Cheer Up” Or “Move On”
Unfortunately, some people think you should be able to cheer yourself up and move on from your hurt.
This might be one of many influences stopping you from reaching out for help. And if you don’t feel like one of those happy people who have it all together, it can make reaching out for help even scarier.
It’s Time To Cope In A Healthy Way
Some are terrified to re-live the past. Others can barely get out of bed.
Some are numb to everything because their full attention is on how they feel—which is awful. Others believe the meds are failing and there’s only so much pretending you can do with the pills… so why bother?
The well-documented fact is that, with treatment, depression can have less of an impact on you because it helps you eliminate the self-sabotaging of your life or health. And the good news is working with a compassionate depression therapist like me can help you start to feel more positive sooner rather than later. In fact, studies show 80-90% of people who struggle with depression benefit from therapy for depression.
Depression Therapy Can Help You Find Hope
Here’s the thing:
We actually come hardwired with mechanisms for recovering from depression. And these same mechanisms help us move forward into the right kind of relationship with life. You just have to learn how to use these mechanisms.
When you get the best help that depression counseling has to offer, you’ll spend less energy on how you can’t see a way forward and you’ll be able to put more energy into healing and comforting yourself. So how am I going to help you do this?
First, I’ll help you manage the deeply rooted fears and harmful beliefs that keep you feeling like you’re always fighting, instead of living. Next, I’ll help you deal with the intense emotions of sadness, worry, and loneliness you feel in your life in the safe space of my practice. And finally, I’ll help you re-program your negative thinking, enabling you to automatically break free when you start spiraling downward in the future.
What To Expect From Depression Treatment
Beginning with our first session, I’ll custom-fit my approach to your depression personally. I’ll listen to you talk about any topic without judgment. You’ll have 100% confidentiality.
Then we’ll establish realistic, attainable goals for our work together as well as for yourself. And I’ll work hard for you (both in session and in between sessions) to figure out how to best help you manage your pain with depression treatment. While we work together, I’ll apply various evidence-based skills to guide and assist you with feeling sad and other depression symptoms.
Existential Therapy
Existential therapy helps you step out of your emotional rollercoaster and come into the here-and-now. As your therapist, this is how I’ll get to work with the real you deep down who keeps thinking about things like failure or who keeps crying off and on.
Existential therapy looks at how you feel you can’t live like this, so we can find some possible reasons for living differently. (Click HERE to learn more about my existential style.)
Cognitive Therapy
Cognitive therapy examines the “why” and “how” of negative thinking patterns. When you work with me to connect the “why” and “how” of your negative thinking patterns to the “why” and “how” of your experience with depression, you can go even further.
Then, you can create new patterns to go in other directions—that are specific to your needs as an individual. (Click HERE to learn more about my cognitive style.)
You May Have Some Concerns About Depression Treatment
What if seeking help is just another failing in myself?
You don’t have to go through life as someone with depression who keeps making painful mistakes in life, or worse… someone who avoids life all together!
Part of depression therapy is learning how to fail so you can move away from feeling like everything is hopeless and move toward healing. This helps you stop punishing yourself emotionally and physically. Then you can learn and work on powerful, scientifically proven methods to keep helping yourself long after our work is complete.
Do I seem pathetic if I reach out for help?
If any of what I’ve been saying sounds familiar, it’s not because I’m psychic. It’s because I’ve been there. I experienced a time when I needed depression treatment because I was absolutely convinced there was no hope. Due to life events, this happened to me more than once. So I get it, and I have nothing but compassion for those who need help with depression.
If I can’t find my own solution, then what good am I?
In life, we all feel pain—and it’s up to each of us to either choose to enlist the assistance of an outside party, or choose to keep doing what we’ve been doing and get the same results. For a person with depression, reaching out for help can feel like one further weakness. And one of the things I learned about my fear of reaching out to a depression therapist was that instead of being less than normal, I was actually typical. And so are you.
Let Me Help You Discover A New Way To Be
If you’re ready for a change in your life and you think we might work well together, depression counseling can help. Please call or email me for your free 15-minute consultation so I can hear your needs and answer your questions.
Let’s find out if we’re a good fit. I offer face-to-face therapy in Denver, CO, and I offer confidential online therapy and phone calls as well. Please reach out soon!
P.S. You should also take a minute and check out my depression blog posts that talk about everything from how your childhood issues haunt you to the hopeless future when you’re depressed.
If you’re thinking about suicide and are in immediate danger, please call your local emergency number. For Denver, Colorado, call 1-844-493-8255 or text TALK to 38255. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
