All people experience moments of sadness. In most cases, these times persist for a few hours or days. Nearly one-fifth of the world's population, however, are diagnosed with clinical depression, which causes depression that lasts for weeks, months, or longer. These moods cause the person to develop impaired functioning in career, family, or social interactions, which can become severe.
Women who have symptoms of depression when they become pregnant may be diagnosed with perinatal depression. This condition may begin any time after a woman becomes pregnant, and up till the baby is one year old. Typically, however, those who encounter this illness after the child is born are diagnosed with postpartum depression.
Perinatal depression or postpartum depression may be caused by several factors. These factors may be physiological. For instance, mothers with a previous or familial history of severe depression or other mental health problems are very susceptible to developing perinatal depression or postpartum depression. In addition, hormonal changes after childbirth, like decreases in estrogen and progesterone amounts, can result in this illness. Postpartum thyroid problems may lead to symptoms of depression such as tiredness, irritability, and despair.
At times, mental depression is caused by psychological issues. Mothers may are fatigued and overwhelmed in learning to cope with the needs of the new family member. Such feelings are sometimes made worse by a lack of assistance from family, friends, or spouse. Money problems may also contribute to the development of postpartum depression.
Perinatal depression and postpartum depression may have grave results for both the woman and her new child. Worry and depression may prevent a woman from bonding fully with her child or being capable of meeting her infant's physiological and psychological requirements. This may increase the mother's sense of worthlessness, guilt, and low self-worth.
The baby is also harmed by the woman's condition. An inability to bond with his or her mom may result in the baby to develop trust problems in emotional relationships throughout life. Moreover, infants who do not have their physiological or psychological requirements met often do not grow and develop normally. This problem, known as "failure to thrive," may be quite harmful or even deadly to the baby.
Perinatal depression or postpartum depression can damage the entire family. The spouse or significant other may feel neglected or powerless to decrease the woman's depression symptoms. This may severely wound the partnership. Other children in the family may have comparable emotions, and have academic or peer difficulties as well.
Depression affects the whole family. Therefore, mothers who have perinatal depression or postpartum depression ought to get depression treatment as quickly as possible. Several techniques are available, like counseling and medication therapy. Medications, however, may be risky for nursing babies, and often yield unpredictable outcomes because of the tremendous hormone variations a mother experiences during these hectic months. Furthermore, typical counseling approaches are usually lengthy and expensive.
Two
therapies for dealing with depression that do not involve medicines and may quickly yield dramatically beneficial outcomes are hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Traditional Hypnotherapy is best used with persons who are easily hypnotized or able to accept ideas without feeling a need to critique or comprehend them. Ericksonian Hypnotherapy is very effective for people who often overanalyze. These strategies encourage clients to relax and get rid of tension.
For clients who are more critical or analytical individuals, NLP is often more beneficial. Using this technique, trained practitioners give people depression help by teaching them to restructure their mental processes. This approach can, very literally, allow a person think past the depressive condition and conquer it.
People can
conquer depression by mastering NLP strategies like anchoring. They learn to remember occasions when they felt happy and controlled their situations. Recalling the memory revives these emotions. People are coached to put two fingers together while experiencing these feelings. The unconscious mind relates the touch of the two fingers with the emotions. Thus, the finger touch becomes an "anchor."
Then, when the person begins to become overwhelmed, he or she triggers the anchor by touching these same two fingers together again. This brings back emotions of self-control and results in empowerment.
Through another strategy known as the Flash, clients discover how to reason away negative feelings. They teach their unconscious minds to instantly substitute positive thoughts for negative ones. When negative thoughts arise, the mind instantly substitutes them for positive responses. After learning this approach, clients find it nearly impossible to think negative thoughts!
Summary:
Perinatal depression and postpartum depression may have disastrous effects for a woman and her new child. The rest of the family may also be deeply affected because of these problems. Due to the probable gravity of the results of this condition, new mothers with depression ought to get treatment as soon as signs develop. Two very beneficial strategies that do not require medicine or huge investments of time and financial resources are hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
Alan B. Densky, CH specializes in stress and depression related symptoms as an NGH certified hypnotist. During his 30-year career he has helped thousands of clients. He offers CDs for
hypnosis depression therapy. Visit his
Neuro-VISION hypnosis website for the
hypnosis article repository, or watch his free videos on hypnosis.
