Anxiety and Depression
Depression and anxiety are of great interest to me. If you have any of the problems listed below, you could be suffering from anxiety and/or depression.
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Poor sleep patterns
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Endless negative thoughts, over-thinking and over-analysing with many ‘what if?’ thoughts
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Anxiety and sometimes panic attacks
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Irritability, frustration, and unprovoked anger
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Social withdrawal: spending less time with family and friends
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Feelings of sadness and moodiness
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Low self-esteem
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Low libido
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Poor motivation, including loss of interest in pleasurable activities
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Irrational phobias
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Oversensitivity to minor criticism
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Increased physical health complaints like fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome
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Slowing down of thoughts and actions
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Anxiety and depression can often lead to a need for comfort or escape. At times this can lead to a dependence on a range of things like cigarettes, alcohol and other addictive drugs, gambling, rich and sweet foods, etc..
While antidepressants and tranquilisers have a role to play in suppressing symptoms of anxiety and depression, they don’t deal with the actual condition and its causes. We can’t feel sad, angry or experience any other negative emotion without first having a thought. These thoughts usually have no evidence to support them. They tend to be negative and emanate from the past or the future. The past is dead and the future doesn’t exist. Anxiety and depression are a states of mind, rather than 'conditions or mental illnesses'. Effective treatment is therefore possible through a combination of counselling, cognitive behaviour therapy and the disposal of the baggage of the past through hypnosis.
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One of the hurdles in dealing with anxiety and depression is the fear of change. Many people have experienced anxiety and depression for so long that they have become used to them, and life without them seems unimaginable. So, even though they want to change in their conscious mind, the subconscious can stubbornly hold onto the only thing it knows and often this creates the habit of anxiety. Habits can be changed. Therefore, anxiety and depression can be changed.
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Anxiety and depression are often lumped together. This is because if we feel anxious, we feel insecure. If we feel anxious and insecure, we have self-doubt ( low self-esteem ). If we are anxious, insecure and self-doubting, the chances are we will be sad and unmotivated - all this, leading to depression.
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Remember that change is possible. Depression has its roots in the past. The past is like the wake behind your boat. It tells you where you have been, but not where you are going. In depression, the steering wheel is locked at a full turn, so your boat goes round in a circle catching up with your wake (past), causing a downward spiral. It’s time to take control of your boat and steer it to where you want it to go. We make our own futures. We steer the boat!