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Mood Disorders
major depressive disorder
It is very common for people to experiences periods of depression, in which they feel down most of the time and/or have trouble finding joy doing things that typically bring them happiness. People experiencing episodes of depression might struggle with sleep, weight loss or gain, fatigue, trouble concentrating, and they sometimes have thoughts of death or suicide. Major Depressive Disorder occurs when depression lasts for at least 2 weeks, has many of these features, and significantly impacts someone’s ability to function in daily life. I typically treat Major Depressive Disorder with a blend of cognitive-behavioral (CBT) and mindfulness-based approaches. We use CBT to identify how some of your thoughts and deep-seated beliefs about yourself and the world are impacting how you’re feeling. We work together to challenge unhelpful thought patterns and come up with alternative ways to look at your experiences. So, for example, perhaps you have a tendency to be a very all-or-nothing thinker. For example, say you make a mistake on a project that you’ve done otherwise very well on, but hone in on the one mistake, identifying the project as a failure because of it (essentially: because it wasn’t 100% perfect, it was a total failure). That’s not helpful, right? It also isn’t really true in this case that the project is a “failure” (or that you are one). So we might come up with an alternative thought like: “While it’s unfortunate x mistake happened, the project was overall a success based on a, b, c.” And we’d likely work on throwing in some very important sprinklings of self-compassion (an important aspect of mindfulness): “Making mistakes is simply part of the human experience. I did my best, I did well, and I bring things of value to the table.” The idea is that thinking more realistically and in a balanced way (acknowledging negatives AND positives) leads to a more positive emotional experience. And, the way we think and feel about things affects our behavior. You’re probably more likely to volunteer for the next project at work (which could energize you and be good for your mood) if you have more positive feelings and thoughts about your last experience. In addition to challenging thought patterns with CBT, we will work in therapy on engaging in activities that might elicit some joy. One hard thing about depression is that when people are depressed, they tend not to want to do the things that could help bring them out of a depressed state. So people often remain stagnant… and depressed. With therapy, I’ll help you through this state of stagnancy. Through mindfulness (which often involves some meditation work), we will work on identifying you and your experiences as greater than the depression that might feel sometimes like it has taken hold of your identity.