Have you found yourself feeling hopeless lately ?

Do small tasks make you tired or drain you of your energy? Have you lost pleasure or interest in things you once enjoyed?  Have you experienced a loss in appetite? Or just the opposite, an increase in cravings and weight gain?   Have you noticed that you’ve become more irritable or angry lately?  It can feel both lonely and confusing when you lose your sense of joy for life. You may feel like you’re not really living life – sometimes it may even feel like you’re living a facade. While you may be smiling in front of your friends and family inside you feel sad and hopeless. The energy and love you once had for life has seemed to fade, and you don’t know why.  It may be hard to put in words exactly how you feel, your family knows you’re upset but you still feel misunderstood. They just don’t understand that you haven’t felt like yourself for a while and as much as you want to, it just doesn’t seem possible.

You’re Not the Only One

According to the National Institute of Mental Health 17.3 million adults suffer from major depressive disorder. I’m sure you’ve heard about happiness being a choice or a habit and while you can choose to try to make decisions and choices that will make you happy – you can’t prevent depression. And if you suffer from depression it’s not something that you can ignore with hopes that it will get better with time.   Depression can be triggered by many things. For some, their depression can be caused by a loss – the loss of a job, a friendship, money, or an actual death. While grief is a natural response to loss, it can evolve or trigger depression. For others, stress can cause depression. In fact, “stress causes hormonal changes that are present in about 70% of depressed people.” Big life transitions can be another trigger,    For some If you are experiencing depression you can experience a variety of things, including:

• Feeling worthless or guilty
• Difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions
• Thoughts of death or suicide
• Having trouble functioning on a daily basis

However depression looks different for everyone so it’s important that you don’t compare what you’re feeling to others.

Depression Counseling Can Help Bring Back Happiness

Depression is not uncommon, and it’s not something that you should be ashamed of. The clinicians and therapists at Jenkins-Richardson & Associates have helped many clients who suffer from depression and they are passionate and determined to help you learn how to take control of your life back and experience joy again.  In your sessions, we will focus on what you’re currently experiencing, what you’re worried about, as well as what you’d like to achieve not only in therapy, but in life in general. Therapy is not “one size fits all,” and we realize that each individual will have different experiences that need to be approached and addressed differently. Our team will take the time to make sure that we develop a strategy that will help you both in the present and the future.  Whether you feel that you’ve been experiencing depression for a month or a few years, we can help.

But You May Still Have Questions About Depression Counseling

What’s the difference between being sad and being depressed?

Sadness is an emotion that you may feel at times, but it is often temporary. Often with sadness, as upset as you may feel you are often still able to experience things like laughter and peace. With depression it is not an emotion it’s a mental illness. The feeling of being lonely and sad doesn’t fade – and it is very unlikely that you feel any type of joy or happiness. In fact, living life can seem hard and overwhelming.  If you have been feeling down or sad for more than 2 weeks along with any other symptoms – it may be best to seek help.

Can depression be cured?

Depression is a mental illness that cannot be cured. Therapy can help relieve you of some of the symptoms and help you navigate your episodes, but our goal isn’t to cure you. When addressing depression, our goal isn’t to “cure” you, it’s to help you learn how to manage it and navigate any future depressive episodes.

How do I know if therapy will help me?

You don’t know unless you give it a try! At Jenkins-Richardson & Associates we take the time to get to know who you are and what you’re going through so our clinicians can specialize your sessions to meet your needs.

Do you accept my insurance?

Please contact our office to learn if we accept your insurance. If you’re ready to start your healing journey, you can schedule a consultation.