Depression

Like walking through mud. So slow. Slogging through.

Wanting to stay in bed. To cover up and hide. It’s all too much, I think I’ll stay here.

If you’re depressed, everything can feel slowed down, difficult.

You go through the motions, but you’d rather not. You’d rather lay down and hide. You’d rather not have to deal with people. You’d rather…not.

It feels dull and gray. When it doesn’t just feel…sad.

It’s one or the other. There’s fatigue, no motivation. And then there’s the hating yourself for not feeling motivated to do anything. You wish you wanted to do things.

You wish you didn’t think so negatively
You wish you had energy
You wish you had some motivation
You wish you exercised
You wish you could enjoy some things
You wish you could enjoy the people in your life
You wish you could stop isolating so much
You wish you were less irritable
You wish you wish you wish

If you’re suffering from depression you’re not only feeling down, you’re also likely pretty mad at yourself. We’re sorry that it is so hard right now. We know that you likely are feeling kind of hopeless and that you want to feel better but don’t know how. So you blame yourself, and the cycle continues.

It is understandable to be struggling with depression in complicated times like these. The world is particularly challenging lately.

What is depression, anyways?

We think it is a feeling, as in “I feel depressed.” And yet depression is not really a feeling at all, but a state. We may be aware of one feeling, that of sadness, and yet sometimes we’re not even aware of that. We may feel like everything is gray and dull and that we aren’t really feeling much of anything at all. In reality, depression is actually a storm of feelings that has gotten so big and overwhelming that we can no longer identify the feelings.

In the state of depression, we may be sad, fatigued, irritable, overwhelmed, and often, excessively guilty or ashamed.

Many people believe that medications are the answer, and they are indeed helpful for some people. At Life Counseling Institute, we believe depression is frequently a problem of feeling excessively guilty and ashamed, a problem of delivering some really critical messages to ourselves. Frequently we learned to do this to ourselves in our childhood, or we have become overwhelmed by the demands placed upon us, and our inner resources are depleted.

Counseling can help.

When we learn more about ourselves in counseling, we can stop beating ourselves up, become more kind and compassionate toward ourselves, become empowered, and find our way out of our pattern of depression.

We’ve seen people make amazing changes through counseling. They leave feeling positive, empowered, and unashamed. Their mood improves and they feel energized and motivated again.

For counseling depression, we use the forms of therapy that are scientifically shown to be the most effective. With acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), we help you learn to distance yourself from your negative thought patterns and refocus on your life in the present moment, on the things that you value the most. With cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), we help you recognize thinking patterns that can negatively impact your feelings, so you can learn to think more realistically, in ways that will improve your mood.

Most importantly, in our work with you to heal your depression, we will help you take a kinder, more compassionate approach to yourself. What would it be like—what would you be like—if you were more self-accepting and kinder to yourself? We suggest you would likely be not only less depressed, but more the person you were meant to become. The you who lives fully, joyously, confidently, and completely.

If you’d like to find your way out from your depression, please call (630) 269-2886 or email us to get started. We have locations in both Park Ridge and Willowbrook.