Depression is more than simply feeling unhappy or fed up for a few days.  We all go through spells of feeling down, but when you're depressed, you feel persistently sad for weeks or months rather than just a few days.

Some people still think that depression is trivial and not a genuine health condition. They're wrong. Depression is a real illness with real symptoms, and it's not a sign of weakness or something you can 'snap out of' by 'pulling yourself together'.

SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION

The symptoms of depression can be complex. If you are depressed, you often lose interest in things you used to enjoy. Depression commonly interferes with your work, social life and family life. There are many other symptoms, which can be psychological, physical and social. They include:

continuous low mood or sadness 
feelings of hopelessness and helplessness  
low self-esteem  
tearfulness 
feelings of guilt 
feeling irritable and intolerant of others  
lack of motivation and little interest in things 
difficulty making decisions 
lack of enjoyment 
suicidal thoughts or thoughts of harming yourself 
feeling anxious or worried  
reduced sex drive

TREATMENT

It is important to seek help from your GP if you think you may be depressed.  Treatment for depression involves either medication or talking treatments, or usually a combination of the two.

Because of the complex interactions between behavior, thoughts and feelings that maintain depression, hypnotherapy is an effective way to break the depression cycle.

Hypnotherapy can have a significant impact on relieving some of the symptoms. However unlike a supplement or pill, which also helps relieve the symptoms, hypnosis can also help deal with the cause.  Its effectiveness lies in the fact that the routes of depression reside in our unconscious mind, that part of us that controls our beliefs, feelings, emotions and behaviours. And it’s our unconscious mind that is extremely helpful in relieving the symptoms of, and dealing with the causes of depression, helping to retrain our minds to respond in much more resourceful and positive ways.