Have you been diagnosed with depression and you feel, lost, confused, exhausted, withdrawn, overly emotionally or emotionally flat? Maybe wondering what the point to life is and feel it is always going to be this way. Right now, maybe you are not feeling any hope that life will get better. I know how overwhelming and hopeless it all seems, I've been there.
But there is hope. The first step is understanding your depression. Knowledge is power as they say.
First, lets dispel some of the myths around depression
It is not genetic or in your genes- only in very rare cases (1%). Many people in a family can suffer depression. However, it is not inherited in the majority of cases but rather a learned behaviour
It is not a chemical imbalance
It is not a disease
It is not events driven. Although people may develop depression following a bad experience or situation
Depression is a cycle which is why it feels hard to break. Breaking the cycle is the key to being free from depression.
Over dreaming/less deep sleep, tiredness/exhaustion, negative thinking patterns and negative emotional arousal through rumination. They all keep the cycle going.
When you ruminate (constant repetitive thoughts or obsessive thinking about a situation) or introspect (examine your own mental or emotional responses) this creates emotional arousal. Normally, when we are emotionally aroused e.g. angry at our partner because of something they've done, we take some type of action - maybe discussing it with them or even shouting at them). This action completes an emotional loop in the brain.
When we ruminate and introspect, we rarely take action - what action can we take? we don't have the answer to the questions we are asking ourselves so the emotional loop is left open.
When you go to sleep the brain has to find a way to close these emotional loops and it does this through dreaming in REM state (rapid eye movement). It fills in the story in a dream. You can experience bad dreams when the brain does this. However, what your mind and body really need to rejuvenate is deep sleep. This is one of the reasons you wake up tired or exhausted.
When you are tired and exhausted you tend to think in black and white terms, ruminate/introspect, experience emotional arousal, don't get enough deep sleep, wake up exhausted........
The key is to break the cycle to free yourself from depression for good and that is what my program 'Free from D' does. You learn will learn about depression so that you fully understand it and that alone gives you hope and awareness that your life can change.
I hope this post has given you some hope that you can free yourself of depression.