Depression

Understanding Depression, Causes, Types and Treatments

What is Depression?

Depression refers to an experience where you feel down most of the time which is called “low mood” and you have also lost interest in things you usually enjoy. You may also have changes in your sleep, appetite, feel guilty, de-motivated and generally withdraw from others.

Depression is now the world’s greatest cause of suffering, according to the World Health Organisation. It is estimated that more than 300 million people worldwide suffer from the debilitating effects of depression today.

Depression can cause a variety of symptoms including: a loss of energy, changes in appetite, disturbances in sleep patterns, loss of enjoyment, persistent sadness, reduced concentration, feelings of hopelessness and many more. In more extreme cases, it can result in self harm and suicide.

There is a significant cost to depression to both the person who is suffering from it, and the people around. Relationships, families and careers are regularly destroyed from the devastating effects of depression. People suffering from depression are often not motivated to take action, and this usually exacerbates the issue.

What do we know about depression?

1. On March 30th 2017, World Health Organization (WHO) declared depression the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide.
2. Depression exists in a social, psychological and biological context; that is depression is influenced by genetics, diseases, hormones, cognitive distortions, influences of family/workplace/friends, history and drug/alcohol use to name a few.
3. Depression onset is associated with the number of anxiety issues a person may have, the persistence of anxiety-based avoidance behaviors and how much they affect the person’s psychosocial functioning. Put simply, if you have enough anxiety symptoms for long enough and they affect your life enough you will probably get depressed.  
4. Insomnia and loss of energy are the most common symptoms of depression across cultures and women had a higher rate in all countries.
5. Response styles effect depressed mood and affect the course of depressive episodes so ruminative responses, that is thinking about things over and over again, prolong and intensify depressive episodes, create a level of passivity and negativity that are likely to raise the level of depressive symptoms in individuals over time.
6. Therapies with the greatest empirical support all emphasize ACTION in treatment; clients may feel better in merely supportive therapy but they will do better in treatment with direction.
7. Depression has serious health consequences not just for mood. Studies have shown that a group of adults from 55-85 years who did not have heart disease at the start of the study, but experienced major depression had their risk of death from heart disease quadruple. For those who had already had a history of heart disease, cardiac deaths tripled in those suffering from major depression. (Penninx et al, Archives of General Psychiatry, March 2001)
8. Depression is a risk factor also in stroke influencing frequency, functional recovery and possible post-stroke mortality. ( Nemeroff & O’Connor, American heart Journal, October 2000)

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What Causes Depression

Although there’s been a lot of research in this complex area, there’s still much we don’t know. Depression is not simply the result of a ‘chemical imbalance’, for example because you have too much or not enough of a particular brain chemical. It’s complicated, and there are multiple causes of major depression.

Research suggests that continuing difficulties – long-term unemployment, living in an abusive or uncaring relationship, long-term isolation or loneliness, prolonged work stress – are more likely to cause depression than recent life stresses. However, recent events such as losing your job or relationship breakdown can trigger depression.

However it’s widely accepted that personal factors are most likely to cause. These personal factors include:

Family History.
Depression can run in families and some people will be at an increased genetic risk. However, having a parent or close relative with depression doesn’t mean you’ll automatically have the same experience. Life circumstances and other personal factors are still likely to have an important influence.

Personality.
People may be more at risk of depression because of their personality, particularly if they have a tendency to worry a lot, have low self-esteem, are perfectionists, are sensitive to personal criticism, or are self-critical and negative.

Serious Medical Illness
The stress and worry of coping with a serious illness can lead to depression, especially if you’re dealing with long-term management and/or chronic pain.

Drug and Alcohol Use
Drug and alcohol use can both lead to and result from depression. Many people with depression also have drug and alcohol problems. Over 500,000 Australians will experience depression and a substance use disorder at the same time, at some point in their lives.

Types of Depression

There is an extensive range of types of depression, following are some of the more common ones;

Major Depression.
Sometimes called major depressive disorder, clinical depression, chronic depression, unipolar depression or simply ‘depression’. It involves low mood and/or loss of interest and pleasure in usual activities, as well as other symptoms.

Melancholia.
This is the term used to describe a severe form of depression where many of the physical symptoms of depression are present. One of the major changes is that the person starts to move more slowly. They’re also more likely to have a depressed mood that is characterised by complete loss of pleasure in everything, or almost everything.

Psychotic Depression.
Sometimes people with a depressive disorder can lose touch with reality and experience psychosis. This can involve hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that aren’t there) or delusions (false beliefs that aren’t shared by others), such as believing they are bad or evil, or that they’re being watched or followed.

Antenatal and Postnatal Depression.
Women are at an increased risk of depression during pregnancy (known as the antenatal or prenatal period) and in the year following childbirth (known as the postnatal period). The causes of depression at this time can be complex and are often the result of a combination of factors. In the days immediately following birth, many women experience the ‘baby blues’ which is a common condition related to hormonal changes and affects up to 80 per cent of women.

The ‘baby blues’, or general stress adjusting to pregnancy and/or a new baby, are common experiences, but are different from depression. Almost 10 per cent of women will experience depression during pregnancy. This increases to 16 per cent in the first three months after having a baby.

Bipolar Disorder.
Used to be known as ‘manic depression’ because the person experiences periods of depression and periods of mania, with periods of normal mood in between. Mania is like the opposite of depression and can vary in intensity, symptoms may include feeling great, having lots of energy, having racing thoughts and little need for sleep, talking quickly, having difficulty focusing on tasks, and feeling frustrated and irritable. This is not just a fleeting experience. Sometimes the person loses touch with reality and has episodes of psychosis.

Experiencing psychosis involves hallucinations (seeing or hearing something that is not there) or having delusions.  Bipolar disorder seems to be most closely linked to family history. Stress and conflict can trigger episodes for people with this condition and it’s not uncommon for bipolar disorder to be misdiagnosed as depression, alcohol or drug abuse, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or schizophrenia.

Cyclothymic Disorder.
Is often described as a milder form of bipolar disorder. The person experiences chronic fluctuating moods over at least two years, involving periods of hypomania (a mild to moderate level of mania) and periods of depressive symptoms, with very short periods (no more than two months) of normality between.

The duration of the symptoms are shorter, less severe and not as regular, and therefore don’t fit the criteria of bipolar disorder or major depression.

Dysthymic Disorder.
Symptoms are similar to those of major depression but are less severe. However, in the case of dysthymia, symptoms last longer. A person has to have this milder depression for more than two years to be diagnosed with dysthymia.

Treatment of Depression

Does hypnotherapy work for depression?

The answer is YES, depression is highly treatable with clinical hypnotherapy. Relief can often be achieved in a short space of time, so it’s important to act now.

Clinical Hypnosis combined with Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) offers the potential to help treat your medical conditions without the need for invasive therapies or additional medications. Therapists consider hypnotherapy a safe treatment option, with minimal side effects. According to the University of New Hampshire, hypnotherapy can help a person learn to reduce and/or better control feelings of anxiety, stress, and sadness. Hypnotherapy is also used to treat negative behaviors that could be worsening a person’s depression.

Erickonian hypnosis as developed by Milton Erickson’s (spanning over 50 years) it sparked a fundamental shift in modern psychotherapy and revolutionised the practice of hypnotherapy. Ericksonian hypnosis recognized as an highly effective type of therapy. It allows the clients to identify or resonate with their own strengths, abilities and resources that can assist in resolving the issues the seek to change. He developed the skillful communications combined with observation and expectancy. He understood that the client’s resourcefulness is the key to solving their own problem, and the role of the therapist is to help them find the way to it.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for depression and is comparable in effectiveness to antidepressants and interpersonal or psychodynamic therapies however when CBT is combined with hypnotherapy appears to work best, says Steve G. Kopp, a licensed mental health counselor and marriage and family therapist. It can help reduce a patient’s resistance to other more traditional treatments. Hypnotherapy seems most effective complementing cognitive behavioral therapy or interpersonal psychotherapy,” Kopp says.

Rapid improvements are made using a combination of hypnosis and other  therapies for mental health. Therapists now understand that finding the root cause is critical, traumas, recognising and understanding thought patterns.

Our Lake Macquarie Psychotherapy Treatments

Can Change Therapy offers the following treatments in Lake Macquarie and Newcastle: