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Depression
If you are depressed, you may not be suicidal,
but your life may be full of suffering. You may feel worthless
and hopeless, and you may get no pleasure from the activities
you used to enjoy. However, if you are having suicidal thoughts
or have a plan to kill yourself, you must get help right now.
Call the San Diego Crisis Hotline at 1-800-479-3339, and
link to this excellent
page about suicide and read it. You should also go to a hospital
emergency room and tell them you are suicidal so they can make
you safe, possibly by hospitalizing you.
Depression is an illness of the body. It changes
the biochemistry of your brain. If you are depressed, your judgment,
thinking, memory, concentration, and insight can all be badly
disrupted. I stress the point about depression being an illness
because there is still a powerful myth in our culture that people
who are depressed are just being lazy, or feeling sorry for themselves,
or trying to get attention. None of these is true. There are many
ways psychotherapists treat depression. The important thing to
know is that depression is treatable, and you can feel better.
Anger
Many people feel poisoned by their anger, and
some create pain and conflict in their lives by acting on their
anger. I differ from many people who specialize in anger in that
I don't think "management" is the most useful tool. I believe
strongly that you can change dramatically by observing and learning
about yourself from your anger; and by learning to soothe yourself
so you can choose not to respond in anger. Self-awareness and
compassionate self-reflection are far more powerful tools to quench
the fire of your anger than counting to ten to "manage" yourself
can ever be.
Anxiety
There are two sides to anxiety in therapy. On
one hand, you may be coming to therapy because you have painful
anxiety in a few, or in all, life situations. Some people are
anxious or fearful about just one or two things, like heights,
crowds, snakes, etc. Others are anxious all the time and can have
anxiety or panic attacks. Therapy is the best method to treat
both these kinds of anxiety. There are medications that can be
very helpful in stopping the symptoms of anxiety, but research
has shown clearly that psychotherapy can get to the roots of anxiety
and you can really be finished with being anxious.
On the other hand, therapy itself will probably
stimulate anxiety and you may have times of emotional discomfort.
One of the skills you can learn in therapy is to soothe and contain
your anxiety so that it becomes a catalyst for change rather than
a hurdle in your life.
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