I can't get up and face the world in the morning...

How often does your alarm go off in the morning? You wake up and all you want to do is shut off the alarm. The 5 minutes suddenly turns into 30 minutes... but really deep down, you don’t want to get up. You feel there is no reason to get up – you pull the covers over your head and you lie there wrestling with your feelings – feelings of sadness, or anger, or guilt. You find yourself crying. When you start thinking about it all, you find yourself feeling little interest in anything that you do. Whatever you do leaves you with feelings of hopelessness. You feel helpless. At the core, you are fed up with life. Perhaps you have also become increasingly irritated by people around you. You wonder why you struggle to make those daily decisions so you withdraw. Just to keep yourself to yourself. You think to yourself: “What is the point anyway?” Somewhere at the back of your mind, you wonder if harming yourself or ending your life may not just resolve everything...

Does any of this sound familiar to you?

What I have described above are classic indications that you may be suffering from a form of depression. You may not be aware of this but depression affects approximately two in three adults at some stage in their life. While some people are more susceptible to depression than others, it can affect anyone, even at a time when that person may feel that everything is going well in their life. This sometimes makes it even more difficult to make sense of your feelings.

Talking through your thoughts and feelings with a psychotherapist offers the first step to help you to make sense of what is happening in your life. Your therapist can work together with you to help you to understand the triggers behind your depression. In a professional and confidential setting, you will be offered the space to explore those difficult and perhaps painful thoughts that you couldn’t possibly share with anyone, whether family or friends.

Talking to a psychotherapist also helps you manage what feels like unmanageable feelings. Your therapist will explore with you those feelings in-depth, in a safe and containing way. Your psychotherapist may even where appropriate, gently challenge you so that together, you can make sense of your thoughts. In this way, you can work towards taking charge of your life again, cope and ultimately thrive in your day-to-day living.