Depression Treatment
Gold Coast Depression Therapy
Eternal Balance is a Gold Coast-based Mind and Body Wellbeing clinic specialising in mental health support, including depression treatment. We can help you with the therapy and counselling needed to overcome depression and restore balance in your life.
What is Depression?
Are you feeling flat, grumpy, unmotivated, or feel like giving up more easily? Do you find yourself wanting to be alone or withdrawing from people and social activities? Everyone has a bad day here and there and it is normal to feel sad or down. Sometimes, especially during tough times, feeling sad or upset is a normal reaction to difficult situations. But, it is when these changes in mood, feelings, and behaviours persist for long periods of time (more than two weeks) and are impacting your normal activities, you may be experiencing depression.
Causes of Depression
There are many factors that can contribute to depression. The causes will vary from one person to another. Unfortunately, there isn’t’ a simple answer as to what causes depression, because usually there are several factors playing a part. They can be due to personal circumstances, an individuals risk factors and or challenging life events they have experienced. It’s also quite common for people experiencing depression to also be suffering from anxiety at the same time. Some of the main risk factors associated with depression include:
- Relationship problems or conflict (e.g. separation/divorce, difficult/abusive relationship)
- Personality traits such as having low confidence, low self-esteem, self-critical, dependent, pessimistic
- Feeling isolated or lonely
- Unemployment – Job loss, long-term unemployment
- Emotion distress (e.g. Grief over the loss of a loved one or something important in life)
- Excessive use of alcohol or drugs, or prescription medications (often a behavioural coping mechanism)
- Family history or living with another family member who has depression
- Having a serious medical or physical illness, or injury
- Suffering from anxiety
- Being exposed to childhood abuse including physical, emotional, psychological or sexual abuse
Does Stress Cause Depression?
A stressed brain can cause a depressed brain. This is because our perception creates our reality, and our reality is created by the way we perceive things. So how we think and what we say to ourselves in our head (self-talk) can have a profound effect on our mood and mental state. In addition, our environment and support networks also play a big part in how we feel.
Symptoms of Depression
You might be wondering “how do I know if I am depressed?” The signs and symptoms detailed below are what we would normally expect to see in a person with clinical depression. However, it is not uncommon for a depressed person to only have a few of these depressive symptoms.
There can be many signs and symptoms of depression. Although the signs of depression in men tend to be similar to the signs of depression in women, the cause of depression can often be quite different for each. Some of the common signs and symptoms of depression to look for include:
- Are you always exhausted when you wake in the morning – and the more you sleep, the more tired you get?
- Does everything tend to seem black and white, all or nothing, to you, with no shades of grey in between?
- Do you tend to dwell on the past, current, or future events, spending a lot of time ‘in your head?’
- Drained and physically exhausted?
- Experiencing increased irritability and frustration?
- Feel like you are worthless or guilty?
- Have you lost interest in activities you used to enjoy (for more than two weeks)?
- Feeling sad, down or ‘flat’ most of the time?
- Changes in your appetite or your weight?
Please note that the information provided above is not for the purpose of a formal diagnosis of depression, but rather for educational purposes.
Signs of Severe Depression
If you are experiencing thoughts about suicide, or perhaps you’re not sure how much longer you can go on, or think it would be better to ‘not be around? These thoughts are present in people who are feeling very depressed. If you are experiencing these thoughts, please seek help immediately by calling Lifeline on 13 11 14 or talking to Lifeline online. Alternatively, the Suicide Call Back Service provides 24/7 telephone, video, and online professional counselling to people who are affected by suicide.
Depression Cycle and Stages
More than ever before people are consuming anti-depressant medications. Yet rates of depression continue to soar, especially in young people.
The cycle of depression is vicious and as depression progresses, we move further and further into a lower emotional state of mind. Without help, this downward spiral becomes even more difficult to change.
Depression impacts our entire body. It affects how we think and feel, our immune system and our sleep patterns. In turn, sleep, the natural process our body and mind use to stay in good physical and mental state is affected. The more emotionally-arousing, negative thinking we do, the more we dream. Excessive dreaming causes more REM sleep, meaning less deep sleep, so we become exhausted. The more exhausted we are the more we are likely to interpret reality in depressing ways. The cycle continues by finally affecting our immune systems, and periods of repair and re-growth we undergo in deep sleep, affecting our health, which only further adds to depression.
How Common is Depression
Featured below is Kate DeAraugo (Winner of Australian Idol 2005 and ambassador for Lifeline) talking about her experience with depression. Kate shares her experience and advice about the importance of talking about your wellbeing and mental health. This is a great reminder that no one person is immune to experiencing depression and importantly there is support available for those who feel depressed.
Overcoming Depression
The encouraging news for anyone who has depression is that depression treatment is available. At Eternal Balance we will help you to treat your depression, with the resources you already have.
Active change is always involved in taking charge of your life when working to overcome depression. This is often a difficult concept for people, who have been finding it hard to simply have the energy to get started. And is expected, especially since depression can be extraordinarily weakening to both the mind and body.
However, with small steps and the right tools to make change happen, you will rediscover the light and happiness within yourself.
Hypnosis Therapy for Depression
At Eternal Balance, our hypnotherapy for treating depression rebuilds the way you think about yourself, the way you work and the way you feel. Our depression therapy incorporates both clinical hypnotherapy and counselling. We’ve found depression therapy that includes hypnosis is more effective. What makes it so effective is that it allows access to the subconscious part of your mind. This access bypasses any negative thinking and critical thoughts or actions central to depression. Thereby, allowing the opportunity to rewrite the chemistry of the body. This results in increased self-awareness and changes in perception, which leads to a more positive outlook.
While hypnosis is highly effective depression therapy, it is also very important to stay connected with your GP and other health professionals. Keeping them involved will help aid your recovery journey and wellness for the long term.
How hypnotherapy will help you
One of the first signals of recovery you’ll experience as you start to come out of your depressed state will be an increase in energy and a feeling of clarity and perspective. You will see positive results as we help you connect your mind and body and learn the relaxation response. This is highly effective for depression, as it creates time to stop the cycle of rumination. We will also help you develop better coping mechanisms that will create a stable foundation for you as a person. Through our treatment, you will feel more empowered, stronger, and confident knowing that you have the resources needed within you to create change and overcome your depression. As you begin to leave depression behind you will not only feel better and think more clearly, you will also behave differently.
Where to Find Help for Depression
Many people suffer from depression, and there are many factors that can contribute to it. It’s important to remember feeling depressed is not your fault and there is no need to feel embarrassed or ashamed by asking for help. If you live on the Gold Coast, our Counselling and Depression Treatment Gold Coast services can provide you with the support you need to help overcome your depression. If you happen to live outside of the Gold Coast we provide online counselling sessions using Skype or Zoom for depression treatment. Please contact us to find out more.
