A psychologists entered a room of depressed people. He asked them why they thought he was there. “You are here to save us” said one. The psychologist replied “ no, I am here to tell you that no one is coming to save you”
Some people may be offended by his statement but it’s true. With depression healing can only come from within you. It’s not saying depression is your fault, it’s saying that only you can get yourself out of it.
Depression and anxiety are created by the sufferers themselves. Things happen to create depressive states but it is the sufferer who practices, compounds it and eventually ends up making themselves feel powerless. If negative thinking continues it becomes unconscious and automatic.
It is the feeling of helplessness that really keeps people stuck in depression. The problem with depressive states are they keep the sufferers mind in defensive mode where hormones that heighten anxiety and increases physical pain are released. This only makes things worse.
Depression is usually treated by addressing the symptoms with anti-depressants and counselling. The worrying thing about long term chemical intervention are the side effects and the fact that Placebo is actually more effective. The other way depression is treated is with counselling or psychotherapy which if prolonged can lead to reliance or transference. Rather than helping the person long term, therapy keeps them reliant on the therapists weekly advise and therefore stuck in depression.
So what is the answer? I believe finding the ‘true’ cause and processing that is the best place to start. If a trauma is left unprocessed the fear, guilt, shame or anger attached to the memory will stay with that person and will be ignited in certain situations, maintaining the negative feelings. The only way to find the true cause is to communicate directly with the subconscious mind and the only way to do that is through hypnosis.
So what about depression that is caused by pain? Again stress hormone increase and concentrating on pain intensifies the discomfort. Chemical pain relief can help but the longer it’s taken the less effective it becomes. Sufferers can be taught self hypnosis to relax which will elevate pain because you can’t be relaxed and in pain at the same time. Concentration is taken away from the discomfort and relaxation allows pain relieving endorphins to be released.
Once a depressed person accepts that they are creating these feelings they can start to work towards fixing them. Therapy should be as short as possible to empower the sufferer not to keep them stuck.