Are You A High-Functioning Person Who Nevertheless Battles With A Sense Of Hopelessness And Low Self-Esteem?
Many of our clients at Heights Family Counseling grapple with depression. However, they often don’t realize that they are having challenges with their mental health until gaining insight from a therapist.
Maybe you’re feeling irritable or incapable of controlling angry outbursts. Or perhaps you experience physical symptoms of depression, including insomnia, limited appetite, or physical ailments that have no known cause. If life feels exhausting, unmanageable, or simply lackluster, you may be struggling with depression.
Depression can also create obstacles to cognitive functioning, including difficulty making decisions or feeling “blunted”—as though your speaking and thinking patterns have slowed down. It’s possible that suicidal thoughts or recurrent images related to death have infiltrated your psyche, leaving you feeling hopeless, scared, and alone.
If you are high-functioning—meaning you can socialize and complete the daily tasks that people expect from you—you may still feel regularly sad and depleted of energy.
Inside, you might experience a sense of emptiness and feel incapable of finding any enjoyment. This emptiness likely creates tension in your relationships, resulting in a lack of motivation to engage in your work and the other parts of life that instill you with a sense of purpose.
At Heights Family Counseling, we recognize the toll that depression can take on your life.
Whether you struggle with a clinical depressive disorder or are navigating situational depression due to a traumatic event or change in your life, therapy can give you the relief you’ve been looking for.
Depression Impacts Everyone—Including Those Who Are High-Functioning
Most adults will experience an emotionally difficult period in their life—it’s a painful but elemental part of being human.
In fact, studies have shown that depression affects 40 million adults nationwide, making it one of the leading mental health challenges in the country.¹ Sometimes periods of depression stem from a genetic or biological component that results in a clinical diagnosis. Other times, these periods follow a loss or change that has thrown us off-kilter.
If you are high-functioning in other areas of life, you are probably used to being successful and comparing yourself to others in a culture that is eager to define you based on what you have over who you are. And perhaps when you attempt to address such symptoms of depression with partners, friends, or family, you find that you’re met with toxic positivity or a sense that you should be grateful for all you have and all that you’ve accomplished.
On the other hand, it’s possible that you have not talked about your feelings with anyone else. Maybe you feel the need to maintain a positive outlook for the benefit of those around you, or perhaps you don’t feel comfortable sharing these symptoms of depression with others.
Moreover, work stress and the daily demands of life have likely caused you to feel overwhelmed and uninterested in adding another thing to your plate, like seeking therapy for depression. The world around you has become so increasingly stressful—with a crisis seemingly at every turn—that you may have convinced yourself that you simply need to learn how to roll with the punches.
Though you may have convinced yourself that no one could ever truly understand how you’re feeling or how to help, depression therapy can provide you with the relief you have been looking for.
Therapy Allows You To Understand How Depression Is Impacting Your Life And What To Do About It
We are all unique individuals that cope with adversity in different ways.
As such, depression therapy at Heights Family Counseling is tailored for each client in a way that honors individual challenges, strengths, and goals. Our therapists are committed to creating an environment where there are no expectations so that you can feel free to explore your emotions and navigate your experiences with a sense of unconditional acceptance.
After speaking with our intake specialist, who will match you with the clinician best suited to meet your needs, you will complete paperwork that your therapist will use to inform their counseling approach. From there, you will schedule your first appointment, which will offer you a chance to get comfortable with your clinician and the therapeutic process.
During ongoing sessions, your therapist will draw from a range of evidence-based methods that can aid you in better understanding your depression and developing necessary coping skills so your symptoms can feel more manageable. Though our clinicians maintain a wide range of specialties, depression therapy is likely to include elements of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help you identify the core beliefs that are driving your thinking and behavioral patterns, as well as solution-focused therapy to increase desired outcomes. In addition, resilient therapy will give you the chance to recognize your inherent strengths and inherent ability to overcome depression.
For couples, in particular, therapy can help both of you see the impact that depression is having on your relationship. And because many of our therapists view depression from a relationship lens, we can provide insight into the struggles occurring on an individual level and those experienced as a couple.
With the knowledge you gain in counseling, you can feel confident to identify, address, and learn how to overcome specific symptoms of depression.
Instead of convincing yourself that you need to stay positive or navigate your mental health alone, a therapist can empower you to become more aware of and in control of your emotions.
Life is hard sometimes, but you can feel better.
With depression therapy at Heights Family Counseling, you can rest assured that you are not alone and that a sense of control is within your reach.
Maybe you’re ready to seek counseling for depression, but you still have questions…
Can’t I just take medication to help with my depression symptoms?
Though medication can be beneficial in targeting symptoms of depression, research suggests that medication is more effective when used in conjunction with talk therapy than using medication alone in treating depression. We find that medication can address symptoms while therapy actually targets underlying causes of depression so that you can have lasting relief and skills for coping.
How long does depression therapy take?
Our treatments are tailored to meet the needs of each individual, and we don’t have any set timeline for the length of therapy. While many of our clients report relief even after the first session of depression therapy, we know this is a journey. It may take some time to get a sense of how long therapy will last; some of our clients work with us for a few months while others stay in therapy for years. Ultimately, the length of time spent in therapy will be up to you.
How do I know that what I am saying in depression therapy will remain confidential?
At Heights Family Counseling, our practice is entirely HIPAA-compliant, meaning that everything discussed in therapy will be kept confidential. Our online platform is also HIPAA-compliant, and we would never disclose information shared in therapy without your explicit permission.
You Can Feel Capable And Empowered In Learning How To Overcome Depression
If you’ve been missing a sense of joy, inspiration, and hope from your life, depression therapy at Heights Family Counseling can help you look ahead with optimism. To schedule a free consultation or find out more about how we can help, please use our contact page and we will be in touch.
