Depression

The misery and hopelessness depression causes can make life seem unbearable. If you or your child feel overwhelmed by depression, visit Leon Sankofa, Sr., MSW, at Family & Youth Foundations in Hampton and Danville, Virginia. Leon and his team use effective hypnotic techniques and therapy to lift your mood and restore life’s pleasures. Call Family & Youth Foundations today or book an appointment online for compassionate depression treatment.

What is depression?

Depression causes intense, long-lasting sadness, worthlessness, despair, and other negative emotions. It can affect anyone at any age.

As the depression gets worse, your thoughts become increasingly bleak, and your behaviors change. However hard you try, nothing makes depression go away. Symptoms vary, so while some people develop insomnia, others sleep excessively (hypersomnia). Some people lose their appetite, and others eat more, turning to high-fat, high-sugar comfort foods.

Children and teens with depression usually show different symptoms from adults. Younger children can be more irritable, cry more, and become clingy. Older children might be withdrawn, moody, and secretive.

Without treatment, depression can lead to self-harm — deliberately cutting or hurting yourself. Severe depression can make every day so unbearable that you consider suicide. Sadly, people of all ages take their lives every year because of severe depression. Suicide is the second most frequent cause of death among children 10-14 in the US.

What causes depression?

Depression doesn’t happen for a single, easily identifiable reason. Many things influence your risk, including:

• Experiencing grief and loss
• Money worries
• Relationship difficulties
• Poor health
• Long-term pain
• Pregnancy and childbirth
• Trauma
• Major events like moving
• Sexual, physical, and emotional abuse
• Excessive stress
• Family history

While these can trigger depression, they don’t cause it in everyone. The likeliest explanation is that a combination of things makes you vulnerable to depression.

One common link between people with depression is a neurotransmitter imbalance. Neurotransmitters are chemicals your brain uses for nerve cell communication. When you have depression, your brain’s mood center doesn’t produce enough neurotransmitters. This can cause depression, result from it, or both.

How is depression treated?

Antidepressant medication reduces depression by restoring your neurotransmitters to healthier levels. Talk therapy (psychotherapy) has several forms. Some examine the problems or memories that triggered depression so that you can process them.

The Family & Youth Foundations team specializes in using hypnosis to create a state of deep relaxation in adults and children with depression. This enables them to identify and process trauma and other triggers. They’re also better able to learn techniques that help change unhealthy or flawed thinking.

Hypnosis is safe, and you remain in control — your therapist simply puts you in a relaxed state. This makes you open to suggestions that encourage trauma processing and positive thinking.

Call Family & Youth Foundations today or book an appointment online to learn how hypnosis can ease depression.