We all experience sadness and grief at certain points in our lives. Feeling sadness is one of the things that make us human. This feeling usually goes away within a few days or weeks, depending on the cause. But if you are feeling profound sadness most of the time and it affects your day-to-day life, you may be suffering from depression.
Depression: Definition, Symptoms & Causes
What is depression? Is depression mental or emotional first?
Usually, depression is defined as a mental health problem that results in people experiencing low mood, low interest, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, low energy, poor concentration, and sometimes, disturbed sleep or appetite, irritability, fatigue, headaches or body aches that do not have a specific cause, suicidal thoughts or actions. You may experience some of these symptoms if you are sad, but they should fade away in less than two weeks. It is important to note that suicidal thoughts are a sign of depression, not sadness.
Depression is often categorized as a mental health issue caused by a chemical imbalance. But research suggests that depression is more than just a result of having too much or too little of certain chemicals in the brain. Rather, there are many factors that lead to depression, such as genetic vulnerability, medical problems, medications, faulty mood regulation by the brain, as well as stressful life events.
Depression can be caused by a lot of things. One cannot be definite about depression being mental first then emotional, or vice versa. It is more accurate to say that several mental and emotional forces interact to lead to depression.
With the complexity involved in the factors that caused depression, it is common to see how two people having similar symptoms of depression can have different problems inside, and thus the treatment that will work best may be completely different. To say that depression is only a mental illness, not an emotion can be too simplistic.
Depression: Levels & Treatments
Not every case of depression is the same. There are different levels of depression, and they are usually classified as mild, moderate, and severe/major. The classification is based on factors such as symptoms you are experiencing, their severity, and how often they happen.
Here are the three different levels of depression and how they may be treated:
Mild Depression
Mild depression is more than just feeling down temporarily. Your symptoms can last for days and are noticeable enough that they can affect your usual routines. It can cause irritability, feelings of hopelessness, guilt, and despair, hating yourself, loss of interest in activities you used to love, lack of concentration and motivation, a sudden disinterest in engaging socially, aches with no seemingly direct cause, changes in sleep and appetite patterns, weight changes, and even reckless behavior such as abuse of alcohol.
Despite being noticeable, mild depression is the hardest to diagnose. It’s easy to overlook the symptoms and dismiss the idea of seeking help. Nonetheless, it is the easiest to treat. A healthy lifestyle such as daily exercise, proper sleep, a balanced diet, and doing activities that reduce stress (meditation, yoga, and journaling) can do wonders. It can boost serotonin levels in the brain to help fight depressive symptoms.
Other ways to treat mild depression include alternative treatments like St. John’s Wort and melatonin supplements. But these cannot be taken with certain medication, thus the need to ask your doctor before taking any.
Mild depression won’t necessarily go away without intervention. It can even get worse if left alone. Forms of talk therapy, such as psychotherapy, coupled with lifestyle changes are more recommended than medication as a treatment for mild depression.
Reiki can also provide further support for psychotherapy treatment. Reiki is the most basic form of channeled energy healing. A Reiki session could serve to calm your energy field, helping you feel more relaxed when other hurdles come along the way. It could help release tension in your body, providing tension relief, preventing or treating ongoing headaches, migraines, and other muscle tension issues.
Moderate Depression
Moderate depression shares similar symptoms with mild depression, but it can also cause feelings of worthlessness, self-esteem issues, reduced productivity, and excessive worrying. The greatest difference between mild and moderate depression is that the latter is severe enough to cause problems at home and work.
This level of depression is easier to diagnose than milder ones since the symptoms can interfere with your daily life. But it is important to talk to your doctor to give the right diagnosis on the symptoms you have.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy such as psychotherapy is also used to treat moderate depression. In some cases, antidepressants may be prescribed and it may take up to six weeks for the meditation to take full effect. To provide a more holistic treatment, psychotherapy can be paired with Reiki and something that many clients do. Reiki has become a popular form of self-care that more and more mental health experts, psychotherapists, and psychiatrists are recommending these days.
Severe/Major Depression
Severe depression comes with mild and moderate symptoms, but the symptoms are severe enough that even your family and friends will notice them. This type of depression can last for six months or longer on average. Sometimes, for some people, it can stop after a while, but it can also recur for some.
Diagnosis for major depression is critical and can be time-sensitive. Severe depression may also lead to delusions, hallucinations, feelings of stupor, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts and actions. For these reasons, this level of depression needs immediate treatment. Usually, your doctor will recommend an SSRI and some type of talk therapy.
Severe Depression And Emotional Energy Healing
For severe depression, Reiki may not be enough support along with psychotherapy and prescribed medications. What you would need is a more potent kind of energy healing. This is where Intuitive Healing, with a particular tool called emotional energy healing, comes in. Intuitive Healing is three to five times more effective than Reiki.
While most experts say that depression is a mental illness, not an emotion, you cannot dismiss the fact that our emotional health can greatly affect our mental state. Emotions affect our subconscious, our day-to-day thinking, the choices, and big decisions we make and vice versa, thoughts affecting our emotions. If someone is suffering from chronic anxiety or depression, one of the common questions we ask is how do you FEEL, that is an emotion-based question. We’re inviting exploration of a person’s emotions. This is why emotional healing is also necessary.
We are often told to toughen up, not show vulnerability, but suppressing tears, wounds, hurts, pains, or emotions such as anger, sadness in our body can have detrimental effects on our well-being. Our body remembers everything. These emotional wounds may find a quiet place at first but there will come a time that your body can’t anymore because it doesn’t have the room or capacity to take on more. No wonder the impact of traumatizing or stressful events when left unchecked can lead to depression.
Through Emotional Energy Healing the negative emotions that are stuck inside a body that can cause or contribute to depression and its accompanying symptoms can be safely and naturally released. Emotional Energy Healing identifies, locates, and releases those negative emotions that affect depressing behavior so you are freed from it. It also helps in tapping the subconscious thought patterns so you are less prone to react the same way if another similar situation arises. Ultimately, this energy healing helps you improve your overall well-being.
And though what I’m about to share may sound controversial, I have also come across cases where clients are super empathetic and have been experiencing symptoms of depression, not realizing that the depression was actually not he/her own, but rather negative emotions transferred from another person then absorbed in my client’s energy field, exhibiting similar signs of depression. It is possible to remove those energy blockages completely through a few Intuitive Healing sessions. The difference made post-sessions for clients with such issues is completely night and day. From gloomy, exhausted, even lifeless to energetic, brighter, and in some cases, optimistic again. This may not be the case for everyone, but for those who are experiencing depression through energy transfer, it is possible to see positive changes more quickly.
For some people with depression, getting out of bed can be a difficult thing to do alone, so meeting for an in-person healing session may sound overwhelming. However, in those cases, Distance Reiki or Distance Intuitive Healing sessions are popular and very feasible options where you’re able to receive the benefits of energy healing remotely from the comfort of your own home. I often facilitate Distance healing sessions for clients all over Asia, in the US, UK, Australia, Europe, and South America. You can learn more about how Distance energy healing sessions work here. Both Distance Reiki and Distance Intuitive Healing sessions work in the same way.
You can learn about in-person or Distance Reiki and Intuitive Healing sessions here, a wonderful option for anyone living anywhere in the world, making this popular form of self-care much more readily accessible.
If you or anyone you know may be experiencing depression, please know that there are many resources, supportive tools, and people who can help you!
