Your happy place is hidden in your sad place.

Sadness is not depression, but avoidance of sadness is often the mechanism of depression.

Popular advice sometimes suggests that there are positive and negative emotions, and that the secret to a happy life is in figuring out how to attract the positive and how to get rid of the negative.  Individuals are instructed to attract positivity with more gratitude and to block out negativity with less complaining.  While it can lift your mood to exercise gratitude, efforts to block out other human emotions and experiences are often the very forces that maintain depression.  When we supress unpleasant emotion (eg. sadness, guilt, embarrassment, shame, grief, frustration, anger, hurt…), we cut ourselves off from essential parts of our humanity and inevitably experience a depression.   Unpleasant emotions, in themselves, are not responsible for depression.  Sadness, for example, can be a painful emotion, but its effect is eventually positive.  Sadness unlike depression is moving and it is often the birthplace of new sensitivity.  A lack of sensitivity on the other hand is depressing.  Overcoming depression is about learning to incorporate all emotions, even those which are unpleasant and painful.  With this attitude, a person can climb out of depression, and restore movement, clear thinking, and active potential.

What Is Depression?

Depression at its root is about a disconnection with self.  Depression interrupts a person’s connection to basic human experiences and functions like sleep, appetite, interest, thinking, emotion, movement, relationships, and even the desire to be alive.  People get stuck in cycles of depression maintained by a lack of movement, negative thinking, and defeating emotion.  For example, a lack of movement can cause a person to think they are lazy.  The thought of laziness feels defeating.  Defeat steals away motivation, and then a lack of motivation maintains the lack of movement.  When the cycle of depression reaches a certain point, the individual becomes stuck.  Depression can be severe and diagnosed as a mental disorder.   While depression symptoms vary from person to person, there are major symptoms that can be noted when an individual is living through a depressive episode. Common symptoms of depression include:

• Intense feelings of sadness, hopelessness, or emptiness

• A drastic change in eating or sleeping patterns

• Sudden loss of interest in hobbies, relationships, or work

• Abrupt isolation from loved ones and support systems

• Physical ailments: muscle stiffness, backaches, or headaches

• Fatigue and inability to exert energy in crucial situations

• Trouble concentrating on tasks or objectives

• Lack of motivation to work through overwhelming emotions

• Thoughts of suicide and death

How Can Therapy Help?

Therapy is a great resource for those seeking personalized support to overcome depression.  A non-judgemental environment helps those stuck in depression to explore the experience and figure out what is needed to restore movement, correct self-defeating thoughts, and integrate unpleasant emotion.  Therapy can also support those whose depression originates from emotional pain, relationships stress, general stress, physical injury, and traumatic experience.  Reflective conversations bring clarity and honesty to the recovery process and encouragement and voluntary accountability furnish motivation.  An emotionally safe environment allows clients to work through painful and upsetting emotion that would be unmanageable to experience alone.  Liminal Space is committed to providing a personalized client-centred approach that will support individuals working to overcome depression and to reclaim their strength, their motivation, their confidence, and their lives. 

You Can Take Your Life Back

The depths of depression can feel so despairing.  At Liminal Space we understand how difficult it is to be stuck in depression.  The depression itself sometimes makes the prospect of starting therapy feel overwhelmingly exhaustive.  We have designed our intake process with this in mind.  It will take about 2 minutes to fill out the contact form below to get started.  Our goal is to respond and setup your initial appointment within 24 hours.  Therapy begins with a free 30-minute online consultation to discuss your concerns and answer any questions you may have.  Reach out now with the motivation that has gotten you this far.  We’ll help to carry you forward through the process.