Anxiety/depression

At some point in everyone’s life they feel anxious or depressed.  After all, these are emotions that can be helpful (anxiety keeps us from jumping off cliffs and depression can serve to prevent multiple wounds from overwhelming our emotional system).  Still, many people are puzzled when it comes to the difference between ordinary “sadness” and clinical depression.  Likewise, most people don’t understand the difference between normal “worry” and an anxiety disorder.  One thing's certain when evaluating either potentially debilitating emotion; if they’ve become unmanageable with our current support and/or skill structure, it may be time to seek out professional help.

Unhelpful Anxiety

Helpful anxiety keeps us safe.  It becomes unhelpful when it keeps us too safe. Anxiety that keeps you between the lines while driving or keeps you from jumping off a cliff, is helpful anxiety.  When this same anxiety becomes overwhelming and/or misdirected and/or keeps you from driving or going anywhere near a cliff, it’s become unhelpful.  Questions to help you decide if you’re a good fit for anxiety-focused therapy:

• Am I avoiding situations (social, leisure or my own thoughts even) that give me anxiety?

• Am I avoiding certain behaviors that cause anxiety (or do I repeat rituals that lessen anxiety)?

• Do my family or friends notice a change in me?

• Do I become obsessed by worry/fear?

• Do I have panic attacks, and/or do I avoid what I think causes them?

• If we’re talking about a child, do they dislike school but it’s difficult to pinpoint why?

• Am I excessively irritable?

• Do I have sleep disturbances?

• Is it tough to concentrate?

If you answered yes to any one of these, it’s likely you could benefit from anxiety-focused counseling/psychotherapy with Restoring Lives Counseling Services.

Unhelpful Depression

It’s natural to feel/experience sadness after a tragedy of some kind.  Losing a job, a spouse, a child, a friend, a pet, your health, a way of life, will all cause sadness/grief that usually subsides over time. Depression, like anxiety, is an emotion that can be helpful.  Like the braking system in your vehicle, when you depress (push down) the brakes, the car slows down.  Depression, in it’s helpful sense can keep you safe, it slows you down while you’re hurting (to prevent further hurt and increase the chances of healing).  

Imagine, though, if you pushed your brakes down at the wrong time, too far, repeatedly, or continuously...I feel like you’re getting the picture here.  You wouldn’t go anywhere, right?  While depression can have various causes (trauma, grief, loss, chemical imbalances, hormonal changes, medications) there seems to be a good principle to follow when you’re tossing around the idea of getting help.  Depression that is severe, occurs over and over, or that lasts for an extended amount of time, can..well...as you probably know, keep you from moving forward in life.
 

Questions to help you decide if you’re a good fit for depression-focused therapy:

• Am I sleeping more or less than usual?

• Have I lost interest in things I once loved to do, including sex?

• Have I gained or lost a significant amount of weight recently?

• Do I feel empty, like the days keep repeating but nothing gets better/changes?

• Do I feel guilty, worthless or helpless?

• Do I feel gloomy or hopeless (like things will never change)?

• Do I feel the only way out is to end my life?

• Am I irritable, easily fatigued, distractible, forgetful, indecisive?

• Am I having back pains or other aches or pains that seem to have no cause and won’t go away?

If you answered YES to any one of these, you could benefit from depression-focused counseling/psychotherapy at Restoring Lives Counseling Services.

How We Can Help

At Restoring Lives Counseling, Colorado Springs (El Paso County), we love to help people get unstuck from anxiety or depression.  When you first meet your therapist, together, you’ll explore areas you’d like to see growth in.  Next, you and your therapist will devise a recovery plan.  Your therapist will use a variety of methods to help alleviate anxiety/depression symptoms so you can move forward in life.  Along with other forms of therapy, for sure, your therapist will use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help.  This is primarily due to CBT’s high success rate with anxiety and depression.  It involves taking old, unhelpful, distorted thoughts and replacing them with more helpful, balanced thoughts.  It also includes real life exposure methods to help you prove your self-condemning, overpowering thoughts wrong--the only way to move forward.

Anxiety and depression can be isolating and frightening; but they don’t have to be.  Many people have experienced relief from anxiety and depression by regularly attending sessions with a licensed therapist and with medication, if necessary.  

Make the first move toward hope and healing by scheduling your free consultation today, or email us:  admin@restoringlivesproject.com.