Depression and how Hypnotherapy can help?

Talking about depression can be a thorny subject, I say thorny as sometime people can become very attached to it, quite often you hear people talk of ‘my depression’ as if it is some sort of possession of theirs, or as if it existed separately from themselves somehow. But I will talk about this notion of ownership and why that might be the case later.
To start with I want to look at the commonly accepted causes of what depression could be. I say could be, as the causes of depression are quite complex and individual. A person may have got to the place where they are now due to one, or two, or a combination of what are the main accepted causes of the issue.

So, what are the main causes of depression?

1. Deep seated guilt. A person might have done something, said something, caused something that they regret, and this regret is being carried around like an albatross and eating into their lives. From a hypnotherapy point of view, it is possible that the person’s conscious mind cannot remember the exact reason, but the subconscious knows and feeds the raw unprocessed emotion back to the individual. The reason the subconscious does this is down to how the subconscious works. In that its evolutionary function is to always keep the individual safe. So, it makes connections between events, memories etc and the emotional response that they elicit as a kind of warning. It’s like the subconscious is remembering situations and saying to you “you don’t want to do that, or go there” etc “you remember how it made you feel, what a happened last time?” But it does all this on an emotional level. One such way it may do this in some people is to make them feel down as if you are feeling down, you may avoid certain situations.

(1.A) Another interpretation of the deep-seated guilt explanation is that the individual is in inner turmoil over something they may have done, caused, or believed to have done, and their internal moral compass is wanting them to either make amends for what they have done, or to suffer for it.  This latter explanation also connects with the first one above, in the subconscious is warning them not to do ‘it’ again.

1. A deep-seated feeling of being unloved or unlovable. The question a hypnotherapist must ask is what has happened to make them feel this way? The most likely answer is that something has happened in their early life, possibly in their very early life that the conscious mind does not know, but the subconscious does, and it is feeding the feeling back to the person as a kind of warning as a failed way to keep them safe from further harm. Consider, if you avoid any kind of social interaction, you won’t come across that feeling again?

3.Fear of what others may think.
Could the cause of the client’s depression be a fear of what others may think of them? A fear of judgement and of being evaluated and being found lacking somehow? Or could it be a fear of the unknown, i.e., exactly what someone thinks? Either way, again the protectionist aspect of our very powerful subconscious mind comes into play once again to steer us away from any form of danger or perceived threat. Once more the hypnotherapist needs to work with the client to find out why this issue affects them, and why? Equally, what can be done about it?

1. Repressed anger.

This is for me the main reason for all depression, and it can also include all the above factors as well.

A person is angry with a someone or something, or a particular situation for a multitude of reasons. Perhaps they know or feel that what is making them angry is either unresolvable, or unreasonable. But rather like the process I outlined in my article on how stress works (see my website blog or previous article). The subconscious mind has somehow perceived a threat and has generated chemicals to deal with it that need to be expressed somehow. Usually involving some form of physical action. But if for a whole load of reasons, it cannot be expressed. The chemicals must go somewhere, and that somewhere is inward. So simply put. If you are angry, but for various reasons you cannot express this anger. Then that energy must go somewhere, and that is inwards.
 
There are of course other perspectives on the way that depression works. Such as the lack of the meeting of various needs, love, validation etc, but from my perspective all the specifics can be included in one of more of the 4 main causes of depression with the effect of anger being, in my view the most profound and deciding factor.
 
What are the hidden benefits of depression?
I know it sounds strange to say, but when considering and dealing with depression a hypnotherapist must look at each case of depression individually and what positive effects may come from someone who has depression.

Now, remember when I said above a little on how the subconscious mind works? In that its only function is to protect the individual. If someone is depressed, then the person is cocooned in a protective shell where they have emotionally shut down and therefore are no longer vulnerable. In some cases, rather like the TV program “After Life”, the individual may feel that seeing as they are so depressed, nothing can hurt them anymore and they have a kind of ‘superpower’. This is because they do not care about the consequences of their actions and are no longer tied to any form of ‘comeback’ from anything they say or do. Some people enjoy this feeling as it makes them feel powerful, special, and liberated.

Another benefit, that is also connected to the point’s above, is that having depression could give them something to say about themselves and something that they may feel makes them stand out and to be noticed. In some cases, people can factor depression into their personality, and this can be, in a strange way, quite comforting. I once knew someone who used to use the phrase “I can be taken into account”. Meaning that they were considered, listened to, they were noticed and noted. This feeling once again can be enjoyed by a person.
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There may be many more hidden benefits to a person keeping their depression, again a hypnotherapist will help the individual to discover them and to seek resolution.
 
So what can I do regarding depression.
 
The main thing regarding self help is to know what the problem might be. The information above is a great starting point and once you have knowledge of what your issue is or might be, then the clouds may start to clear from your mind. Truthfully, drugs are not the answer long term as all they do is block out various connections in your brain that stimulate and create depressive thoughts. Which of course can help in the short run, and perhaps put people onto a balanced platform. But if and when the person chooses to stop taking the inti- depressants. The problem is still there.  
 
So how can hypnotherapy help?
Firstly, a hypnotherapist will view each person as an individual and each treatment will be specific to each person’s particular depression based on their individual personality.
Secondly, the hypnotherapist will go slowly and gently to remove the aspects of the issue that is dragging the person down. Rather like pruning back the jungle a bit at a time until the path is a lot clearer.
How they will do this is to use (depending on the individual) a combination of regression to cause (where a person is taken back in their mind to a time and place where a problem started.) And or to set up a ‘parts’ session where the hypnotherapist enables the person to ‘talk’ to different parts of their subconscious mind that are in conflict over this problem to seek a resolution. (Remember what I said above regarding the ‘hidden benefits’ of this condition)
Alongside the above the hypnotherapist will use powerful positive suggestions specifically designed   to help the mind heal and come back to its natural non-depressed state using special hypnotic language that the subconscious mind in its hypnotic and suggestive state will respond to.
The individual may need a few sessions to attain full clearance, but with time and work. This is entirely possible.
If you would like some more information on the above topic or would like to book some sessions with me. Please contact me.