How Can i Help?
Approaching a psychologist to ask for help is no small thing. Quite the opposite, it requires courage and honesty to acknowledge you can’t do it on your own. I hope to help you feel supported, understood, accepted, and validated throughout your therapeutic journey.
Depression:
Depression affects different people in many different ways and impacts many people every day. It can be a numbness or emptiness where you don’t feel happy, sad or angry. Sometimes, depression can feel like irritation or frustration. Small issues suddenly feel big. Sometimes you might lose enjoyment in things that would normally make you happy. You might feel like there’s nothing to look forward to.
If any of these examples feel familiar, or if you just don’t feel okay, it’s worth talking to someone. Depression is treatable with the right support.
Grief:
Grief can be difficult and stressful, and nearly everybody goes through it at some point in their lives. Despite this, it can be very difficult to predict how we might react to a loss, as it is a very individual process. After a loss you may experience any of the following:
Sadness or depression: This can be brought on at the realisation of the loss and may cause you to isolate yourself whilst reflecting on things you did with your loved one or focusing on memories from the past.Shock, denial or disbelief: It is natural for our minds to try to protect us from pain, so following a loss some people may find that they feel quite numb about what has happened. Shock provides emotional protection from becoming overwhelmed, especially during the early stages of grief, and it can last a long time.Numbness and denial: You may find that you feel numb after a loss. This is natural and helps us to process what has happened at a pace that we can manage, and not before we are ready. It is natural and can be a helpful stage - the only problem being if numbness is the only thing we feel, and none of the other feelings associated with grief, as this can cause us to feel 'stuck' or 'frozen'.
Panic and confusion: Following the loss of someone close to us we can be left wondering how we will fill the gap left in our lives, and can experience a sense of changed identity.Anger or hostility: Losing somebody is painful and can seem an unfair thing to happen. You may find that you feel angry or frustrated and want to find something or someone to blame for the loss, so that you can try to make sense of it.Feeling overwhelmed: Grief can hit people immediately and with full force, potentially causing them to cry a lot or feel like they are not coping. People can worry that their feelings are so overwhelming that they don't know how they can live with them. But over time feelings of grief tend to become less intense and people find a way to live with them.Relief: You may feel relieved when somebody dies, especially if there had been a long illness, if the person who died had been suffering, if you were acting as the main carer for the person, or if your relationship with the person was difficult. Relief is a normal response and does not mean you did not love or care for the person.Mixed feelings: All relationships have their difficulties and you may think that, because you had a difficult relationship with the person, that you will grieve less or cope better. Instead you may find that you feel a mix of emotions like sadness, anger, guilt and anything in between.
Anxiety:
Anxiety can be normal and helpful when it’s related to a particular event or situation. However, if the anxiety you feel is overwhelming, sticks around after the event or situation has passed, or gets in the way of your daily life, you might be experiencing a mental health problem.Anxiety might be a problem if:Your feelings of anxiety are very strong or last a long timeYour fears or worries are bigger than the stressor itselfYou avoid situations that might cause you to feel anxiousYour worries feel very distressing or are hard to controlYour anxiety continues after the stressor has passedYou find it hard to live your life to the fullest or do things you enjoy.Anxiety is treatable, and many techniques and strategies have been proven to help, both with feeling better in the moment when anxiety arises, and as long term strategies to minimise anxious thoughts and feelings.
- Anger: We all feel angry at times – it's part of being human. Anger is a normal, healthy emotion.
- There are many different reasons why we might feel angry. We may feel anger at having been treated badly or unfairly by others. Our anger may be a reaction to difficult experiences in our daily life, our past, or in the world around us. Or it may be a way to cope with other emotions. For example, we may feel anger alongside feeling attacked, powerless, embarrassed or scared. We may not know why we feel angry, and that's okay too. We don't always need to justify or explain why we feel a certain way.
- Sometimes anger can be a helpful emotion. But sometimes it can be difficult to manage and make our lives harder. How can anger be helpful?
- Feeling angry can sometimes be useful.
- For example, feeling angry about something can:
- # Help us identify problems
- # Help protect us from things that are hurting us
- # Help us feel more energised or focused on a task
- # Motivate us to push for changes in the world or to help others who are being treated badly.
- # Help us to challenge and stand against injustice or discrimination.
- # Help us stay safe and defend ourselves in dangerous situations by giving us a burst of energy as part of our body's natural response to threats.
- How can anger be unhelpful?
- Anger can be a difficult emotion to cope with. And we all have times where we may struggle with anger.
- Sometimes, anger can:
- Distract us from what we need to do
- Make us say or do things we regret
- Make it harder for us to express ourselves clearly or calmly
- Lead to arguments or conflicts with others
- Make us feel guilty and ashamed
- Stop us from recognising or dealing with other emotions
- Make it harder for us to take care of ourselves
- Impact our self-esteem
- Have an effect on our bodies, for example, impacting our sleep
- Lead to people making judgements about us
Let's Work Together!
I look forward to helping you on your journey to overcome feeling stuck in life to
achieving mental well-being.