OVERCOME DEPRESSION AND WELCOME JOY BACK INTO YOUR LIFE!

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Stanlee Panelle, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Depression is more than a Blue Day, sadness, or even a broken heart, although it happens because of such things and feels a lot like the blues. If you’ve ever had a real depression, you know what I mean.

Depression is usually seen as something that requires medication to relieve and sometimes it’s simply taken for granted that you must learn to live with it … forever, more or less. But if you know depression, you know it’s truly frustrating and feels pretty hopeless when you think of taking toxic drugs all your life just to be able to get out of bed or act like you’re ok at work. Your life kind of wanders past you without noticing that you exist. You gain weight from the medications and feel even worse about yourself and your future happiness. You rarely feel like going out or doing fun things and nothing is interesting enough to motivate you to be creative or adventurous and it’s hard to be active, athletic, involved with others. Eventually, people get tired of asking you, listening to you and waiting for you to “get over it”.

You’ve probably seen the commercial: “Depression hurts”. Yeah it does. It hurts your head, your feelings, your heart, your work, your friends, your family, your legs and your lover – or love life. But the answer isn’t adding medication to your medication that is already not working. Really! If medication worked … why isn’t it working?

Depression needs healing! I know. I grew up depressed and lived most of my life dealing with depression and yes I did some of the meds and thought a lot about suicide. Today I can honestly say that depression is a thing of the past for me. Completely! It has been for over a decade now and during that time I have used what I’ve learned from depression and healing and what I’ve learned in my professional training and education, to help numerous clients overcome their depression whether it was a situational depression, recurring major depression or a chronic life long depression (dysthymia).

You weren’t born depressed and it’s not natural to you, so you don’t have to learn to live with it forever or take medications all your life to control it. You have to learn to love yourself and know your value in this world you were born to live in. That’s all.

Sounds simple, and in truth it is. But it’s not exactly easy, and no one else can do it for you or make it happen. It really is an inside job that only you can do and in the process you will become a better, more flexible, wiser, stronger and confident person. You will let go of shame, guilt, victimhood, doubt and indecisiveness while __becoming someone you can truly love, respect and admire __… and others will too.

There is a caveat. Bi-Polar depression is a physical issue that usually requires and responds well to medications, and, there are alternative and natural meds that when properly used and combined with excellent counseling and self work can do the job if the aspects of the Bi-Polar condition are not too severe. (Not St. John’s Wart! While it works well for non Bi-Polar depression in most people, it can trigger manic episodes in a Bi-Polar condition.)

A couple good websites to check out for Bi-Polar help are: www. truehope.com and www.bipolar-disorder-survivor.com. A lot of great info there from a truly amazing guy.

Another caveat is this: Depression can become a brain pattern where the chemistry that usually helps us regulate moods goes astray and becomes an additional component to depression. Sometimes it even goes as far as creating delusional episodes that can look like a serious mental illness and be kind of scary. That happens when depression goes on too long or major depressive disorder reoccurs. Medication is sometimes helpful for a short while to allow you to mellow out some get some strength and control, and feel some internal support while you start working on the steps toward your recovery. Those steps include a whole body, mind, spiritual makeover. They include physical, mental and spiritual exercise.

Often, people don’t recognize depression because it shows up as worry, anger, road rage, jealousy, shyness, and of course there is always the self-medicating denial of depression known as substance abuse and addiction. Most addicts suffer from depression and drugs make it tolerable.

Men for instance, often display depression with anger, impatience and intolerance in addition to a lack of sponteneity and lack of interest in activity or anything new instead of tears and helpless hopelessness. It is such a relief for these men when they finally realize that they are dealing with depression rather than a new set of character defects they have to try to control. Many times, depression is misdiagnosed in men because depression is characterized by tears, lethargy, apathy and hopelessness which is how women usually display depression. Men get different socialization and training that gives them the push to keep going instead of dissolving into tears, and that dissonance makes them internally angry.

Depression is also often paired with anxiety and worry or a feeling of constant stress. All these things can be overcome, balanced and let go of so that life can be the joyful and interesting adventure it really is and your relationships and career can take the directions you really want them to.

If you are tired of dealing with depression and are ready to take control and overcome it finally … another great website is: www.stanleepanellecoaching.com 4Life.Love.Joy.

Stanlee Panelle, M.A. is a former Psychotherapist that practices internationally as a Personal Life Coach successfully teaching people how to overcome depression, for the past 10 years. Coach Stanlee also specializes in guiding Mid-Life Women through the transition into the best years of their life. For more information on how to overcome depression or for a free consultation contact Coach Stanlee at www.stanleepanellecoaching.com