Depression is intense feelings of sadness, hopelessness, helplessness or worthlessness. These feelings can last for many days, weeks or even months and interfere in your everyday living. These intense feelings can even prevent you from doing what you used to love to do.

How can you benefit from therapy? Therapy helps you take an active role in your treatment. In therapy you can learn what your depression looks like to you. Everyone is different in their symptoms and the therapist will work on helping you understand the symptoms that you are displaying. Together you and the therapist will explore different coping skills and practice how to use these skills. These skills will help you manage symptoms of depression, which can help you enjoy the activities you once loved. Continue to learn more here.

Anxiety is the reaction a person has both mentally and physically to circumstances in life that are stressful, dangerous, or unknown. Stress can even come from positive things in a person’s life, for example – a new job or relationship. People often benefit from having some low levels of anxiety, helping to motivate them and allowing them to get things done. For some, the anxiety becomes too much and disproportionate to the stressor – this can be unproductive, unhealthy, distracting, and even debilitating. This is when anxiety becomes a disorder. People can feel like they are worrying too much about things, feel restless and pent up, may have difficulty sleeping or slowing their minds down, and might even be irritable. They may avoid places, things or certain people to prevent feelings of anxiety. Physical sensations such as muscle tension, stomach aches, restlessness, and panic might be present. These symptoms are common for people with anxiety and they can be helped.

It can be useful for a person with uncomfortable anxiety to see a therapist to help manage that anxiety better. This can be done through developing and practicing coping skills to counteract the anxiety. Mindfulness and calming strategies can be quite helpful for those suffering with out-of-proportion anxiety. Sometimes cognitive strategies can be used to adjust our perceptions and thoughts about the stresses in our lives. Also, anxiety can feel very isolating and contribute to people feeling alone. They  may feel unable or reluctant to share these emotions with family and friends – at these times they might just need someone who will listen. A therapist can do just that. A therapist will work with you to ensure your goals and needs are being met along the way in a competent and compassionate matter.

To read more about anxiety disorders, click here.

To learn more about anxiety symptoms, click here.

Trauma is defined in many was these days. IT can defined by the mental health field by an event that has occurred that which can result in an emotional response to an extremely negative event (as defined by the APA). While trauma is a normal reaction to a negative event the effects can be so severe that it can interfere with a person ability to function.  Living through the last 6 months we have seen and heard many traumatic events. Based on our past life experiences and current life stressors these may all have an impact on how well we can manage trauma and this current Pandemic.

Part of managing trauma is being able to recognize our ability manage the trauma/stress on our own if we can, some signs and symptoms of trauma are: recognizing when someone is starting to struggling, they may become more depressed or isolate more, more irritable, may be triggered by things that never bothered them before, changes in personalities, serious health problems, these are just a few of the many symptoms that may occur. These could be just some of the signs that family or friends could benefit from professional support from counseling to help with managing all that there are struggling with. Some people are able to manage their trauma on their own and never need to seek professional help. These people have strong resiliency skills and appear less impacted by the trauma.

The best thing we can do as family, friends and community members and is be supportive and understanding that this is a very difficult time for all of mankind. We want to keep grace and kindness at the front lines and remind everyone that we are here for each other and that we are resilient human beings that can make it through this difficult time hopefully a stronger and more loving society.

psychguides.com@2020 http://www.psychguide.com/trauma/

Loss is a natural though painful part of our existence.  What constitutes Loss ranges from the physical to the more abstract, and is more likely a combination of the two.  When we lose a job there is the tangible measurable loss of income, yet there is also the loss of our identity.  How often is it that when we meet someone, introductions include not only our names, but allows what we do for a living.  Just the phrase “for a living” highlights how integral our job is with our identity and self-worth.  Grief is the emotional, physical and cognitive responses to loss.  Bereavement is a type of grief, which literally means; “deprived by death”.

Psychologist J. W. Worden identified Four Tasks of Mourning, which lays out the challenges the Bereaved needs to navigate to move beyond simply surviving their grief to balancing their grief with a life worth living.   These tasks start with an acceptance of the reality of the loss of a loved one, involves experiencing and expressing one’s grief, adjusting to new demands and learning new skills and ends with finding a way to remember the deceased while creating a new, meaningful life without them.  Although the 4 Tasks typically progress in order, they should be seen as fluid, as the Bereaved may experience new insight with the completion of one Task that causes them to re-think an earlier completed Task.  There is no right or wrong way to experience or work through the challenges of these tasks, the manner in which one expresses their grief and most certainly no set time frame by which one should be done grieving.

Grief and Bereavement, in particular, is a painful process for someone to experience and as family and friends of the Bereaved we want to help.  However, we often don’t know how, are afraid to say or do the wrong thing, or may be dealing with our own grief.  Below are some ideas for ways to be supportive of someone whose loved one has died.

1. The most important thing is to acknowledge the loved one’s death, especially if it was under difficult, unexpected circumstances such as suicide, murder or loss of a child.
2. If the nature of the relationship or circumstances of the death are the same as the bereavement you experienced and you are able to, say so.  Simply and briefly stating that can convey to the bereaved they are not alone and opens the door to them if they would like to talk with someone who has experienced a similar loss.
3. Check in with the Bereaved, especially after the funeral/memorial has past.  This can be a particularly lonely time for the Bereaved who can feel forgotten as life moves on (understandably) for everyone else.  As the shock of their loss diminishes and the reality of what their loss involves, it can become a very overwhelming time.
4. It’s ok to say “I don’t know what to say, how you may be feeling or what you might need.  What is important to see is “I am here for you”.  The Bereaved needs to know and feel their loss is significant, their grief is valid and there are no judgments or expectations to talk, be “strong”, or especially “begin to move on”.
5. Your support is not a “one and done effort”.  Just as grief is not a linear process, the Bereaved’s need to talk, be alone, or be engaged socially will fluctuate.  Respect their wants and needs at the time, yet check back in with them in a week or two, as it may have changed.

Most of all, be patient.  There is no right amount of time that one grieves.  However if you become concerned about increased or prolonged depression or anxiety, deterioration in their self-care, or an excessive focus or desire to be with the deceased, then encourage them to seek additional help or support.  This could be in the form of talking with their clergy, joining a support group, or a mental health professional.

References

1. “Grief: Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia” July 2019
2. Maclejewski, P.K., Ahang, B, Block, S.D., Prigerson, H.G. (2007). “An Empirical Examination of the Stage Theory of Grief”. The Journal of the American Medical Association. 297 (7):716-723.
3. Williams, Litza, Haley, Eleanor. “Understanding The Two-Track Model of Bereavement”. What’s Your Grief. December 2017.
4. William Worden. “Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy: A Handbook for Mental Health Practictioners – 4^th Edition”. Springer Publishing Company (2008).