If Medicines Aren't Doing It for You, Can Hypnosis Be a Possible Depression Cure?
Is there a way to approach the curing of a depression without help from drugs? That was the question I had in mind when I approached a new psychiatrist last year. I'm 25, and I've suffered from clinical depression ever since I was 15. If you have ever read up on depression, did you ever come across the list of 20 or so possible symptoms they give you? They tell you that if you experience at least five of them, if you've just proven yourself depressive. I actually answered in the positive to eight of them. I had anhedonia - the inability to be hedonistic - I couldn't much enjoy food, friends or sex; I had a problem with a loss of positivity in life, I had a lot of trouble making up my mind about anything, and for some reason, guilt was the dominant feeling I felt. The only time I felt any burst of energy was when I was irritable, which was a lot of the time. I either slept too much or too little, and of course, I put on weight. To some people like me, a depression cure for symptoms such as these can be elusive.
Psychiatrists and their ideas about depression cure are hardly new to me. And it isn't new either, that no doctor usually seems interested enough in someone like me who's case runs on for years. All they ever want is to dole out prescriptions for the same old thing, and not think afresh about a problem. Well, I had had enough of it; enough of being depressed, and enough of being overweight and on medication. What I wanted was an alternative depression cure, that could think out of the box. Because much as some of my psychiatrists wanted me to, I just couldn't snap out of it at will.
That was when I learned of hypnosis as a depression cure. Hypnosis, they said to me, could work because fundamentally, it could help me change the way I saw myself. Anyone who is depressed, doesn't see herself as a worthwhile person; I didn't see that I had any control over the things that happened to me, I didn't believe that I was valued, and I didn't feel that I could actually change things. While it is true to a certain degree that it's the chemicals in my head that made me feel this way, it is a valid approach to finding a depression cure to think that you can make a person better by not going to the source, to the chemicals; that you can cure someone by simply addressing the way they feel.
My hypnosis sessions were aimed at creating a whole new belief system - belief in myself. In a way, hypnosis is the ultimate way to use to snap out of it. It goes directly to the way you see things, to the way you see life. It can help you cope with stress, and make you motivated enough to do things well that can help you feel good about yourself. It took no more than three months for hypnosis to change me in these ways. However, as much as I had lost hope in medication as a possible way to a depression cure, I didn't abandon medication or psychotherapy. My doctor put together a well coordinated plan with hypnosis as a catalytic agent; I was one of the lucky ones; hypnosis doesn't work for some people. The doctor says that it only works with highly intelligent people; and that is something to feel good about.