Depression Counselling
Depression usually shows up as flatness. Getting through the day takes everything you've got, and there's not much left over to feel anything with.
Getting up is a decision. Replying to a message is a task. The things that used to matter are still there and you can't quite reach them.
And you probably can't explain why, which is exhausting in its own right, especially when your life looks fine from the outside.
What depression does to your judgement
This is the part worth knowing before you read anything else.
Depression produces the belief that nothing will help. That belief is a symptom of it, the same way the tiredness and the broken sleep are symptoms.
So when you find yourself thinking there's no point ringing anyone, or this is just who I am now, or other people have it worse, that's the condition talking about itself. It's the only thing I work with that argues against its own treatment.
You don't have to believe therapy will work in order to start. You only have to be willing to test it.
How it tends to show up
Sleeping far too much, or waking at 4am and not getting back to sleep
Eating much more or much less than usual
No interest in things you used to love
Everything taking more effort than it should
Snapping at people, or feeling nothing much at all
Drinking more than you'd like to
Trouble concentrating or holding onto things
Feeling like a burden to the people around you
If several of those have been true most days for a couple of weeks, it's worth talking to someone.
If you're having thoughts of suicide or hurting yourself
These thoughts are more common in depression than most people realise, and having them doesn't mean you'll act on them. It does mean you shouldn't be carrying this on your own.
If you need to speak to someone right now:
Lifeline — 13 11 14, 24 hours. Or text 0477 13 11 14.
Mental Health Emergency Response Line — 1300 555 788 (Perth metro), 1800 676 822 (Peel), 1800 552 002 (country WA)
Suicide Call Back Service — 1300 659 467
13YARN — 13 92 76, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
In an emergency, call 000
I'm not a crisis service and I can't always answer straight away, so please use these numbers if you need someone now. When you're ready to start ongoing work, I'm here.
What we'd do
We start with what's keeping you at the bottom. Sleep, the basic mechanics of your day, and whatever you're furthest behind on.
Then we look at what's feeding it. Depression usually has something underneath. A loss you never got to grieve, years of pushing something down, a situation you can't see a way out of, or a way of speaking to yourself you learned so long ago that it sounds like the truth.
Where there's something older driving it, I use EMDR to work at that level.
What changes
It comes back in pieces, and usually not the ones you'd expect first.
Sleeping better. Wanting to see somebody. Laughing at something without having decided to. Noticing you've had a whole hour where you weren't monitoring how you felt.
Starting
The first session is a working session. We'll start on what's happening now, and I want you leaving that first hour with something you can use.
I've been doing this for twenty years and I see clients in person in Joondalup or by video anywhere in Australia. With a mental health treatment plan from your GP, Medicare rebates part of each session.
Making the call is the hardest part, and I know that's a big ask of someone with nothing in the tank. If it's easier to send a text first, do that. My number is 0410 461 588.