Hypnosis for Depression

hypnotherapy for depression

“I am so depressed!”

“Depression” has become the magic word in which we use to describe moments when we feel down. These can range from not being able to buy a pair of jeans that you really like to finding out that your partner for many years has cheated on you.

Depression is a mental state marked by melancholy and pessimism. People who suffer from depression often see the world in a cloud of haze, the haze of negative feelings and thoughts which leads them to gradually withdraw themselves from reality. Depression and anxiety are often intertwined. They are like the buy one-take-one packages you see on a grocery store. It is often the case that when you are depressed, you also feel anxious of the things around you and vice versa.

Experiencing depression is one of the normal things in life. In fact, there may be a number of times that we have already experienced and got over it. It is the beyond mild depression to watch out for as they can be life-threatening.

Here are a few statistics:

• 1 in 4 people will experience some kind of mental health problem in the course of a year

• Mixed anxiety and depression is the most common mental disorder in Britain

• Women are more likely to have been treated for a mental health problem than men

• About 10% of children have a mental health problem at any one time

• Depression affects 1 in 5 older people

• Suicides rates show that British men are three times as likely to die by suicide than British women

It is often the people who are afflicted that are the least aware. This is because there is the stage of self-denial. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, here’s what to look out for:

• Difficulty concentrating, remembering details, and making decisions
• Fatigue and decreased energy
• Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, and/or helplessness
• Feelings of hopelessness and/or pessimism
• Insomnia, early-morning wakefulness, or excessive sleeping
• Irritability, restlessness
• Loss of interest in activities or hobbies once pleasurable, including sex
• Overeating or appetite loss
• Persistent aches or pains, cramps, headaches or digestive problems that do not ease even with treatment
• Persistent sad, anxious, or “empty” feelings
• Thoughts of suicide, suicide attempts

How Hypnotherapy Can Help

As with all mental health problems, it all begins and ends the mind. Hypnotherapy will help you locate the source of the problem and work your way through it.

During a hypnotherapy session, you would not feel in any way that you are not in control of your body or that your hypnotherapist can make you do weird things. Hypnotherapy works by inducing a trance-like state—this is a state of utter relaxation that allows your hypnotherapist to reinforce positive ideas and suggestions into your subconscious.

Our subconscious mind is our autopilot. All our responses, emotions, reflexes, virtually anything that we automatically do are controlled by our subconscious mind. Depression is one of them. Depression makes you see things negatively and establish a negative train of thought. Through hypnotherapy, your hypnotherapist would be able to identify the source of the problem, what makes you feel depressed? When did it start? This offers significant insights that would then allow your hypnotherapist to reprogram your mind, make you think positively and help you live through and conquer your depression.

As with all cures, hypnotherapy is not a magic drug. It is only as powerful as the patient would allow it to. It is important that the decision to go to a hypnotherapist is a personal one and not forced. This way, optimum results could be achieved. That, my friends, is the power of the willing mind.By Jo Gowda