SADNESS
Online Counselling for Depression
According to WHO by the year 2020, depressive disease will become second disease in the world overriding cancer, diabetes or arthritis. Depression is not only sadness. We should know if we experience sadness, unhappiness or depression. 
Can we recognize the first signs of depression?
Everyone feels sad once in a while and it’s normal. Depression is not the same. Feeling sad over a period of time, avoiding, not communicating, feeling alone, abandoned, detached and isolated might be the red flags that depression is creeping. There’s a big difference between feeling sad and suffering from depression. In depression the hopelessness, sadness and emptiness can be insistent and overwhelming. There are certain risk factors that make some people vulnerable to become depressed such as genetics, childhood trauma or abuse, loneliness and lack of social support, stressful or traumatic life experiences, alcohol or drug abuse, financial stress, health problems or chronic pain.
How do we know someone is depressed?
There are different types of depressive disorders, all compromising life in many ways: they affect daily functioning, physical health, relationships, work, overall performance and social involvement. People experience depression differently and some describe it as “living in a black hole”. They can’t escape their unhappiness and despair. Some people with depression don’t not feel sad, they feel lifeless and empty. In this apathetic state, they are unable to experience pleasure. Even when engaging activities they used to enjoy, they feel as if they’re just going through the motions. They describe long lasting sadness, hopelessness the day after day, and their mood doesn’t uplift after enjoyable experience. Signs and experienced symptoms of depression can vary from person to person and they might change over time. Mostly we recognize a depressed person when they experience the full blown depression.
Some medical conditions have a specific biological or chemical cause, making treatment such as a medication or surgery more straightforward but depression is not like that. Some research shows a relationship between the amount of certain chemicals in the nervous system and the likelihood of being depressed. However, it’s not clear whether biochemical process causes depression or the depression causes a change in the biochemical process. Depression is a complex experience that rarely has one cause. It isn’t necessary to determine an exact cause to end depression. The most important is to get under control its symptoms and make positive changes to improve feelings.
If you think you might have depression you shouldn’t hesitate and find help. Depression doesn’t cure by itself, though it can get worse. You should know depression is treatable and as any other mental health disorder it needs adjustments of the ways of thinking, behavior, stress reduction, sleep improvement and overall life style change. Counselling based on cognitive behaviour therapy is one of the most effective treatments.
Symptoms of depression:
-low mood, loss of self-confidence, markedly diminished interest or pleasure, feelings of worthlessness, inability to concentrate, guilt, indecisiveness, increased irritability, frequent crying, suicidal thoughts, changes in appetite, fatigue, weakness, tiredness, low energy, changes in weight, lost in thoughts, headaches, pain not related to other sickness, constipation