Is your low mood impacting your ability to be sociable and productive? Do you find yourself isolating and hitting the self-sabotage button more than usual? Have difficult life transitions made it hard to regulate your emotions and feel good about yourself?
Maybe you have lots of ambitions and goals for your life, but you just don’t have the energy to carry them out. Instead of going to that yoga class you signed up for or joining that new book club, you find yourself curled up in bed, bingeing Netflix, and indulging in self-destructive behaviors. A few hours later, you feel full of self-loathing because you haven’t done anything. But because you have such little motivation, the cycle just keeps repeating itself. The less you do, the worse you feel—and the worse you feel, the less you do. For the first time, you may be thinking it’s time to see a therapist.
Depression Therapy
Are You Struggling With A Lack Of Motivation And Purpose In Life?
One of the hallmarks of depression is profound loneliness. After all, it’s easier to spiral down when you don’t have a supportive community of people to hold you up and help you keep perspective. This is especially the case if you’ve just suffered a major loss like divorce or the passing of a loved one. You may find yourself with few friends, few hobbies, and little sense of purpose. Perhaps old friends have faded out of your life and you feel like you have nowhere to turn for support.
On the other hand, maybe you have a large circle of friends, but they’re all in the same boat as you. They may be struggling with depression as well and engaging in unhealthy behaviors to cope with their sadness. As a result, you might feel like you’re stuck in an echo chamber of depression.
If you want to stop hitting the self-sabotage button and start living a more confident and authentic life, we encourage you to pursue therapy with us. At The Pursuit Counseling, our therapists specialize in helping people overcome depression and feel more connected to themselves and those around them.
For many people, depression arises in the wake of difficult life circumstances like divorce, job loss, chronic illness, financial debt, or becoming an empty nester. Without a sense of greater purpose or pursuit, it’s easy for depression to take hold during such times. If we’re not purposeful about working through our symptoms and counteracting negative thoughts, depression tends to creep up on us until it spirals out of control.
In today’s society, depression is more common than it’s ever been. None of this is surprising when you consider that we live in a culture that’s obsessed with comparison. All over social media, we see other people traveling the world, losing weight, showing off their extreme fitness, and getting into happy relationships. This creates a compare-and-despair culture where we feel like we don’t measure up. The message of hustle culture is that if we’re not keeping up with the Joneses, then we’re not living our best lives. So it’s no wonder so many people struggle to feel good about themselves in our world today.
Depression Is Inevitable In A Culture That’s Obsessed With Measuring Up
Depression Often Goes Hand In Hand With Profound Loneliness
Many people don’t even realize they’re struggling with depression until they’re already “in too deep.” They’ve already distanced themselves from friends, stopped responding to texts and calls, and neglected all their hobbies and passions. It’s hard for them to notice depression gaining strength because it comes about very gradually. Nobody wakes up one day and thinks, “Wow, I’m suddenly depressed.” Instead, depression is a very sneaky evil—you slowly start believing negative messages about yourself, then those beliefs start controlling your mood and behavior, and before you know it depression has thrown your whole world off-balance.
To break this cycle of negative thoughts and emotions and gain control of your depression symptoms, sometimes you simply need extra support. On your own, it’s hard to challenge beliefs and behaviors that you’ve held onto for as long as you can remember.
Depression Has A Way Of Gaining Strength Without Us Even Knowing It
We all want to be happy. We want to live the "and they all lived happily ever after" story that we grew up watching and reading. However, even the heroes and heroines of those stories had to overcome challenges, losses, and adversity to be capable of that fairytale ending. Experiencing highs and lows is a normal part of being human. When our lows get lower than we are capable of handling, that’s when it’s important to seek professional help.
At The Pursuit Counseling, our mission is to provide a safe, nonjudgmental space where you can learn about why depression is affecting you and what you can do to manage it more effectively. Our approach is comprehensive and takes every area of your life into account, empowering you to achieve wellness in your mind, body, and spirit. Our therapists can collaborate with physicians and prescribers to address any underlying medical issues contributing to your depression. We can also partner with shame-free gyms and yoga studios if you want to make physical changes in your life.
Therapy Can Help You Overcome Depression And Experience Lifelong Growth
Therapy often begins by exploring the origins of depression and the painful experiences that have led to where you are today. Together, we’ll take a close look at your symptoms and examine what makes it so hard to let go of them. After all, even the most negative symptoms serve a purpose. Gaining weight serves the purpose of helping you feel unworthy of love or belonging; distancing yourself from friends and family helps you maintain the narrative that no one ever wants to be around you.
Part of depression therapy involves challenging the narrative you tell yourself about your life. We want to help you edit that narrative so that it reflects reality and allows you to see yourself from a clearer and more empowering perspective. That’s why many of our therapists utilize mindfulness to help combat the effects of depression. Mindfulness can help you increase your self-awareness so that you can confront negative beliefs and respond to life from a more thoughtful and non-reactive place. We also utilize Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which is all about putting mind over mood by pouring your energy into tasks that counteract your depression and elevate your mood.
Ultimately, our hope is that the skills and strategies you gain in counseling can help you experience lifelong growth. Depression may be debilitating, but it is highly treatable as long as you have the right tools and support.
What To Expect In Depression Therapy Sessions
What if I become reliant on therapy?
We live in a very individualistic society where self-reliance is seen as the highest virtue. In reality, however, all of us need the support of others—all the greatest athletes have many coaches, and all the greatest entrepreneurs have many advisors. For our mental health to be at its best, we need other people to challenge, motivate, and encourage us. That said, the goal of counseling is to equip you with the skills and strategies to manage depression outside of sessions. Our trusted team is here to help you work toward future growth and success, not just temporary relief.
WHAT IF I BECOME RELIANT ON THERAPY?
Questioning everything is in many ways a symptom of depression, since depression makes you
think that nothing could ever help. So if you’re skeptical about the effectiveness of therapy, that’s
normal. Fortunately, many people have had similar concerns and gone on to experience
incredible, life-changing relief through therapy. Our counselors are well-trained and have
learned to apply effective treatment protocols for addressing depression.
How do i know that therapy will actually help?
How do I know that therapy will actually help?
Questioning everything is in many ways a symptom of depression, since depression makes you think that nothing could ever help. So if you’re skeptical about the effectiveness of therapy, that’s normal. Fortunately, many people have had similar concerns and gone on to experience incredible, life-changing relief through therapy. Our counselors are well-trained and have learned to apply effective treatment protocols for addressing depression.
Perhaps you’ve had a bad experience with a therapist and you’re worried that it will happen
again. Or maybe you’re simply afraid of opening up to a stranger about your deepest struggles.
Regardless of your hesitations, rest assured that our specialists are safe, licensed, and
experienced at what we do. We will not judge you—our approach is gentle, empowering, and
rooted in a desire to genuinely understand you and validate what you’re feeling.
What if counseling costs too much?
Perhaps you’ve had a bad experience with a therapist and you’re worried that it will happen again. Or maybe you’re simply afraid of opening up to a stranger about your deepest struggles. Regardless of your hesitations, rest assured that our specialists are safe, licensed, and experienced at what we do. We will not judge you—our approach is gentle, empowering, and rooted in a desire to genuinely understand you and validate what you’re feeling.
What if I’m judged or misunderstood by my therapist?
Let Us Help You Achieve Long-Term Healing And Relief
At The Pursuit Counseling, we want to set you up for long-term success by giving you skills and tools that can benefit you far into the future. To learn more about our approach to depression treatment, you can email us, use the contact form, or call 404-539-8970 .