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May 12, 2008, 2:09 pm
We are here on Earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don't know. W. H.
Auden
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Life CoachingBuilding Focus, Energy & Courage - to Make a Better Life for You |
Is Depression
Flattening your Life?
The World Health Organisation estimates that by the year 2020 depression will be the world's second (2nd) most burdensome illness - beaten only by AIDS. That's astonishing, and shows reflects the fact that our modern lives are more difficult than ever to cope with.
The word "depression" is often misused. My dictionary says depression is "a mood of hopelessness and feelings of inadequacy". Clinical depression is a medical condition - actually it's an umbrella term for a whole raft of conditions. I'm not a clinician - you can read more about clinical depression here.
Most of us will feel low from time to time as life events jostle us up and down. This is normal. Quite a few of us will feel consistently having "feelings of inadequacy" or hopelessness in light of the fact that our lives are not turning out the way we had hoped and dreamed, and we're seemingly unable to do what's necessary to move things in the right direction.
Modern drugs are increasingly effective at managing the symptoms of depression, and if the causes are chronic imbalances in brain chemistry, then this is a sensible course of action.
But if you are depressed because your life isn't working out the way you want, then taking drugs is not going to address the root cause of the problem.
So what is?
Well here are some things that are not likely to work:
- Pulling yourself together
- Drinking more
- Burying yourself in work
- Trying harder
The mark 1 Human Being doesn't work that way.
To make permanent structural changes in our lives, we must make permanent structural changes in our minds. That's a tough thing to do, but it's possible to do it, and it's easier to do it with professional help.
A life coach can help you to move your life in the right direction in the following ways:
- Your coach will work with you to define an area of your life to work
on, and a goal or goals clarifying where you want to end up in that
area.
- Your coach will provide regular doses of friendship, energy and realistic
optimism to counter any tendencies you have to drag things down.
- Each Coaching session is an opportunity to re-focus on the new
you. Your daily pressures will still be there initially, but each
week, your coaching session will set you back squarely on your chosen
path, making progress along it.
- Your coach is professionally trained to listen with a coach's ear.
He will hear what you say and what you don't say. With you, he will
explore what this says about your beliefs, values and feelings - about
yourself and about the world.
- Given this new understanding, you'll work together on removing unhelpful
ways of thinking and replacing them with new, shiny, productive ones.
- As you tread the road to your new life, your coach will be there to
celebrate your victories and provide support when those victories seem
illusive.
- Throughout your special and completely confidential coaching relationship, your coach's single focus is to bring all of his skills to bear on helping you to move towards your new life goals.
Whilst I can't give medical advice, it's a definite fact that most of us are not clinically depressed. For most of us, regular doses of life coaching are a far more sensible approach than regular doses of medication. You'll enjoy them far more, and there are no dangerous side effects.
Read more about life coaching via the links to the left. If you like what you read, then contact me for your free first session, or an informal chat.
I look forward to hearing from you.