Explain Why They Feel Like They Do.
I know we touched on this in the previous article on depression, but now we should dig a little deeper.
If the therapist asks the following questions, I think you'll agree you'd start to have some confidence in them by way of their understanding your problems.
When you wake in the morning, do you still feel tired, even exhausted? And how do you feel if you have even more sleep? If you turn over and drop off again.
Do you feel even worse when you wake up? Tell me if I'm on the right track here.
Does everything during the day seem to be one thing or the other? By this, I mean are things simply in black or white, all or nothing? No middle ground, which we'll call grey? And what about your actual feelings? Feel exhausted one minute, then the next you're agitated? Not excited, more jumpy is what I'd suggest? The great advantage that the therapist should be achieving here is to show the patient that depression is understood.
That there's a pattern to it.
Following this, you can re-assure your patient that probably the first thing they'll feel when the condition begins to lift, is an increase in energy and the first 'tickle' in your mind that you may actually want to do something.
Don't rush it.
Don't force it.
Just enjoy the feeling! (Okay so far? If you had a therapist like this, don't you think you'd feel rather more confident about their understanding of how you feel? I know I would.
From what I can remember, psychiatrists have simply asked obtuse questions without any explanation).
Teach The Patient To Relax This is vital.
Study all the relaxation techniques you can lay your hands on so that you're able to help with alternatives.
If the patient doesn't like one method, you have another one up your sleeve.
Remember that as a depressive, the patient's brain is stressed.
You can come up with the world's most wonderful treatment, but if the patient's poor old brain is a heaving mass of anxiety and exhaustion, you aren't going to go very far.
Set Satisfying Tasks.
Ask the patient, gently, if there's any little job or chore that they've been putting off doing.
Nothing big.
Stress this.
But perhaps writing a letter, even changing a light bulb, but something that has a definite beginning, middle and end.
Suggest they accomplish this task and on their next visit, ask them to tell you how they felt when they'd finished.
(This does make a lot of sense, actually.
Think back to how you felt when you accomplished doing something you'd been dodging for a while.
A sort of warm, relieved feeling, I'll bet.
That's the serotonin kicking in, giving you a free 'fix!').
Many other interventions may be necessary, but these three we've covered should set the patient on the road to recovery
I know we touched on this in the previous article on depression, but now we should dig a little deeper.
If the therapist asks the following questions, I think you'll agree you'd start to have some confidence in them by way of their understanding your problems.
When you wake in the morning, do you still feel tired, even exhausted? And how do you feel if you have even more sleep? If you turn over and drop off again.
Do you feel even worse when you wake up? Tell me if I'm on the right track here.
Does everything during the day seem to be one thing or the other? By this, I mean are things simply in black or white, all or nothing? No middle ground, which we'll call grey? And what about your actual feelings? Feel exhausted one minute, then the next you're agitated? Not excited, more jumpy is what I'd suggest? The great advantage that the therapist should be achieving here is to show the patient that depression is understood.
That there's a pattern to it.
Following this, you can re-assure your patient that probably the first thing they'll feel when the condition begins to lift, is an increase in energy and the first 'tickle' in your mind that you may actually want to do something.
Don't rush it.
Don't force it.
Just enjoy the feeling! (Okay so far? If you had a therapist like this, don't you think you'd feel rather more confident about their understanding of how you feel? I know I would.
From what I can remember, psychiatrists have simply asked obtuse questions without any explanation).
Teach The Patient To Relax This is vital.
Study all the relaxation techniques you can lay your hands on so that you're able to help with alternatives.
If the patient doesn't like one method, you have another one up your sleeve.
Remember that as a depressive, the patient's brain is stressed.
You can come up with the world's most wonderful treatment, but if the patient's poor old brain is a heaving mass of anxiety and exhaustion, you aren't going to go very far.
Set Satisfying Tasks.
Ask the patient, gently, if there's any little job or chore that they've been putting off doing.
Nothing big.
Stress this.
But perhaps writing a letter, even changing a light bulb, but something that has a definite beginning, middle and end.
Suggest they accomplish this task and on their next visit, ask them to tell you how they felt when they'd finished.
(This does make a lot of sense, actually.
Think back to how you felt when you accomplished doing something you'd been dodging for a while.
A sort of warm, relieved feeling, I'll bet.
That's the serotonin kicking in, giving you a free 'fix!').
Many other interventions may be necessary, but these three we've covered should set the patient on the road to recovery