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Telephone CoachingA simple process of downloading "forms" from the tab at the top and e-mailing them to Swanny602@hotmail.com will qualify you to have a one hour coaching session for $60 with a follow up e-mail summarizing the coaching session.  Or try the 1/2 hour "get acquainted" session for free.
Depression

Depression Telephone Life Coaching Services

“Black hole,” “Black cloud”, “Black, optionless night,” “drowning”.  All are ways clients have described their depression.  While this endless sea of blackness is a disease which can be ameliorated with a combination of medication and therapy, seriously depressed people often don’t have the energy or decisiveness to make that first phone call for help. Depression is the most common mental health disorder in America, averaging 16 million new cases every year. The economic loss to the country from lowered productivity, absenteeism, lost earnings and treatment expenses is enormous. But that pales in comparison to the personal cost.

Just getting up in the morning is a major chore. Self-destructive patterns of guilt and anger keep the depressed person from seeking the social connections that could lift their spirits. Losing sleep while constantly ruminating over defeats and disappointment of the day reinforces the pessimistic world view that characterizes the depressed person’s thinking. Alternatively, the depressed person may escape in to excessive sleep. In either case the prevailing feeling is tiredness and exhaustion.  Women tend to overeat when they are depressed, attempting to fill the emptiness they feel inside. However, loss of appetite is common for sever sufferers of both sexes.  

Other symptoms of depression include difficulty concentrating, irritability, lack of interest in usual activities, or inability to complete tasks. “What’s wrong with me?” deteriorates in to feeling self worthlessness, helplessness, loneliness and despair. Suicidal thoughts may follow. This is a dangerous level. Yet four out of five sufferers fail to get the help they need. Why is this?  Stigma, lack of information, fear of being thought defective, fear of taking antidepressants, poor insurance benefits and the lack of motivation previously mention all play a part.  Those experiencing depression pressure them selves to “pull themselves together”, “suck it up”, “take charge”. 

Women are particularly susceptible to depression when they are victims of an unequal power base in relationships or jobs.  They lose their voice, begin to distrust their own feelings (after many times being told they “shouldn’t” feel that way), shoulder the responsibility for the emotional and physical well being of the entire family/office, accept blame when anything goes wrong, hide their anger, and constantly “give pieces of themselves away,” always putting themselves last.  Perfection is also a culprit, “If I can’t do it perfectly, why do it at all?” This exacerbates the de-motivational factor already present and further undermines self–esteem. Under these circumstances anybody would be come depressed. Women are socialized to acquire these depression inducing traits. 

These behavioral causes are the very reasons that medication alone is not a recommended form of treatment.  Most depression experts agree that treatment should include one or more of a variety of therapies—individual, group, family, marital,--along with attention to exercise, eating right and good sleep hygiene (see link to sleep).  In the past 25 years antidepressants have made huge strides in reducing suffering of the clinically depressed.  Most of these antidepressants work by affecting the brain’s levels of serotonin dopamine, and norepinephrine, the chemicals that affect mood.  But medication is not a panacea. When the issues are losing one’s voice, expressing one’s emotions—including anger, setting boundaries and limits, and taking care of oneself first before succumbing to the demands of other, help doesn’t come in the form of  a pill. However, medication has its place. It can take the edge off the do-nothing, sink–further-into-oblivion tendency and allow a person to take advantage of the help available. 

Please click on the Depression Screening link and take the self test.  Then call for help before you fall further in to oblivion. Also click on 47 Ways to Conquer Depression to begin your self help journey.

Providing: depression coaching by phone, inexpensive life coaching options

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