depression - Dalia Anderman, LMFT

When You Are S.A.D.

Couples Therapy, Emotional Focused Therapy (EFT), Hold Me Tight® Workshops

Dear Reader

I don’t know about you, but for me, I find myself enjoying summer, the long days and the warm evening, feeling it will stay that way forever and WHAM!!!, with little notice, it suddenly becomes dark and cold.

Don’t get me wrong, I do love fall, when the trees and leaves change into brilliant colors and it looks like an artist took over the landscape; It is truly beautiful. But as the days get shorter, the temperature drops, and we move the clocks back, I am reminded of the shift many of us feel to our moods and that S.A.D. is real.

As fall leads into the darker portion of the year in the northern hemisphere, some of us will experience mild or even sever changes in our emotional states. Even if you’ve never suffered from depression, you can experience symptoms of S.A.D.

It’s important to be aware of S.A.D. so that if you, or someone with whom you’re close is impacted, you can take steps to find the support you need. Don’t brush off those feelings as simply a case of the “winter blues” or a seasonal funk that you have to tough out on your own.

Take steps to keep your mood and motivation steady throughout the year. Treatments for S.A.D. can include light therapy (phototherapy), psychotherapy, warm long bath, exercise (of course), and at times supplements such as Vitamin D, or medications.

According to the Mayo Clinic, Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that’s related to changes in seasons. If you’re like most people with S.A.D, it begins and ends at about the same time every year with symptoms starting in the fall and continuing into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody.

Please do not feel that you have to “just get over it,” or hunker down until it passes. Please ask and reach out for help and support.

According to WebMD, while we don’t know the exact causes of S.A.D., some scientists think that certain hormones made deep in the brain trigger attitude-related changes at certain times of year. Experts believe that S.A.D. may be related to these hormonal changes. One theory is that less sunlight during fall and winter leads to the brain making less serotonin, a chemical linked to brain pathways that regulate mood. When nerve cell pathways in the brain that regulate mood don’t function normally, the result can be feelings of depression, along with symptoms of fatigue and weight gain.

You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light…
Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

Hold Me Tight® Costa Rica

Sometimes when experiencing winter S.A.D, it can help to go south and be in a place of warmth and light. If that is something you consider, here is an invitation…

Many of you have followed my Hold Me Tight® Couples Workshops journey. You have seen me offer, facilitate, and lead successful Hold Me Tight® Couples Workshops here in Nevada City, CA over the past ten years. Early last year, I decided to take a leap and push a new edge for myself; I pre-booked a Hold Me Tight® Couples Retreat at the beautiful Imiloa Institute in Costa Rica. I’ve scheduled this Hold Me Tight® Couples Retreat for Valentine’s Day ’25 (February 11-16)!

At this Hold Me Tight® Couples Retreat, you and your partner will have the opportunity to take a deep dive into your relationship:

• Affirm strengths in the relationship through understanding, communication, and bonding.
• Address negative cycle patterns; Learn why they show up and how to get out of them.
• Learn how to repair and forgive injuries and become vulnerable with each other.
• Enhance emotional, physical, and sexual closeness and intimacy.

This is not group therapy!! Processing and working through the issues in your relationship is done in the privacy of the couples, and when we connect as a group, sharing is optional.

What’s Included

• Accommodations – five nights and six days at Imiloa Eco-luxury Retreat Center
• Charter Flight from SJO (San Jose Costa Rica), airport to a small airport close to the retreat center
• IMILOA Shuttle Service All-inclusive luxury SUV ground transportation
• Plant-based, organic, locally sourced, gourmet meals, created each day by a master 5-star chef
• A campus devoted to our retreat, tucked in the Costa Rica jungle
• Access to a private waterfall, miles of nature paths, incredible flora and fauna, and an ocean view infinity pool
• Yoga classes taught by the local instructors
• Access to an online resource library
• A workbook full with conversations and communication exercises, skill building toolkit, and much more
• Special excursions
• Magical surprises

Retreat Co-Facilitator

Owen Marcus, MA, author, workshop facilitator, co-founder and creator of the EVRYMAN Method, co-founder of MELD, and TEDxTalk presenter on Masculine Emotional Intelligence, will once again be co-leading this workshop with me. (Owen’s TEDX talk)

With a rich background in leading men’s groups and trainings across the country, Owen specializes in guiding men to embrace vulnerability. His expertise extends to working with couples, and he has shared his methods with a diverse audience, including therapists, NGOs, and major tech firms like Google. Owen’s deep experience and innovative approach, honed through co-founding EVRYMAN and now co-leading his latest venture, MELD, promises to significantly enrich the dynamics of the workshop.

Epidemic of Loneliness, Depression and Suicide

Couples Therapy, Emotional Focused Therapy (EFT), Hold Me Tight® Workshops, Individual Therapy

Are we Facing an epidemic of Loneliness, Depression, and Suicide?

Even though our awareness to the loneliness and suicide epidemic becomes more acute when celebrities like Kate Spade, and Anthony Bourdain, take their own lives, it has become an epidemic, that has inflicted our culture in such proportions, that some experts are calling it a health epidemic and crisis.

From a recent Forbes article:

“..with new data released in the U.K. and global efforts garnering traction in the most wide-ranging geographies in the world, it is time to take a step back and refocus on the global epidemic that is suicide. Especially among the world’s young people.”

Every day, as a psychotherapist, I face that issue with my clients. A pervasive feeling of loneliness, helplessness, and being left out. Loneliness is at an epidemic levels in the US and could rank alongside smoking and obesity as a major threat to public health. Of 20K adults surveyed, nearly 50% said they sometime or always felt, lonely, alone, or left out, and 43% said their relationships weren’t meaningful. The survey found that the worst affected were young American between 18 and 22. (from the Health & Science section of The Week).

In his editorial in The Week, William Falk writes:

“Every year, about 45,000 people commit suicide in the U.S. — twice as many as are killed in homicides. Each of these deaths has its own circumstances, but as Kirsten Powers says this week in USA Today, the steadily rising toll of despair tells us “something is wrong with our culture.” Family and community bonds are disintegrating; loneliness is rampant. At the heart of human experience is a paradox: We are each trapped inside the boundaries of our flesh, alone with our histories, our wounds, our brokenness. Yet our isolation is an illusion — a constriction of perception. All the great spiritual traditions teach the same truth: We are connected in a fundamental way to everyone and to everything”

The scope of this blog can not even begin to cover such a wide, serious, and deep topic of loneliness and suicide. As a child, suicide touched my life, I know that the trauma of someone close to you, choosing to end their life, resonate forever in our lives. Depression and loneliness that leads to suicide thoughts, can be so overwhelming that we may feel that there is no other where to go.

We live in a time when the stress levels are extremely high, the fast pace of our lives leaves us little time for self care, and combine with the sense of disconnection, division, polarity, and alienation, the margin from the edge is at times too narrow. And even though mental health is widely available, and more accessible and acceptable, yet, the sense of alone and loneliness is ever so acute. Asking for help may still seem impossible and unreachable. At times we feel there is no where to turn to.

But as William Falk said at the end of his editorial about Bourdain’s suicide:

“If this master storyteller left us a lesson, it is this: You are not truly alone. People care about you more than you realize. Please don’t leave us. Reach out.”

From my blog: When living hurts – you do not need to do it alone ‘At times, we do not even know why we are feeling anxious, depressed, lonely, alone. It is just there, weighing heavy on our heart. We feel we just want the pain to stop. We want it to go away. We need HELP.’

When Living Hurts, you do not need to do it alone. Reaching out to a friend, someone in the family, a tribe or a community member, can help us carry the load of the grief, the loss, the sadness. Reaching out reminds us that we are not alone. We need to master the courage to say ‘I need HELP’.

At times of troubles we need to be able to turn to our loved ones. Loneliness can intensify helplessness and hopelessness feelings. We can not do life alone.

In my blog, Loneliness: The Silent Epidemic I wrote that It is important to understated that loneliness is not the same as being alone. A person will always have time when they choose to be alone. Rather, loneliness is the feeling of being alone and feeling sad, hopeless and helpless about it. All of us feel lonely some of the time. It is only when we seem trapped in our loneliness that it becomes a real problem.

“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.” —Kurt Vonnegut

Also from my blog: ‘For many, social media has provided a pseudo escape from the feeling of loneliness. At any time we can reach out to that smart phone, tablet, iPhone, in our purse or pocket, and know we are not ‘alone’, but are we really connecting or are we such ‘scrolling’. wishing for something out there to make us feel good. We scroll mindlessly and aimlessly, only to find out all the things that we are missing… and of course, that will increase loneliness. It seems that the ‘whole world’ is connecting and connected and having fun… ‘except for us’… We feel left out. It is especially serious with teens, where that pressure can add layers of loneliness that leads to depression and anxiety.’

We need to belong, that is one of our most basic needs. We use to exist in tribes, where we knew those around us, and we trusted them to have our back. Now we live in tribes of two, at best. Many or us live in tribes of one.

As Dr. Sue Johnson points out:

‘when we feel isolation and loneliness in our close and intimate relationships, we get scared. When we feel that primary panic and fear of the disconnect from loved ones, our primal need for secure connection becomes alarmed. We then start to act out, protest, and fight for the connection. Isolation and loneliness are danger cues for our primary survival. Our DNA is wired into that connection as a basic safety cue for survival’.

Our DNA codes loneliness and isolation as a threat to our survival.

As a couples therapist, I know that at times the most loneliness we can experience is in a pair bond, that is not working. Stuck in the lonely, cold, isolated, numb, place in a relationship, can be one of the toughest moments couples encounter on a regular basis. There is ‘my person’ ,and I can not reach them…we both feel alone and afraid and we can not talk about it or reach to each other.

In the despair of endless fights and escalated conflicts there is an alarming sense of loneliness that couples experience, bringing them at times to the edge of feeling so hopeless and helpless that at times, the unthinkable solution of leaving for ever, crosses their mind.

What I found helpful for couples in my work as a couples therapist, is learning how to be vulnerable with each other, and reach to each other at times of panic, despair, and loneliness. When a relationship get stuck is when we feel we can not reach to our partner. I try to help couples understand that even when they are fighting, they are protesting for connection. In my practice, and at my Hold Me Tight® Couples Workshops, I help couples risk turning towards each other, with vulnerability and accessibility.

At our Hold Me Tight® Couples Workshop you will learn and experience how to:

Affirm strengths in your relationship by developing understanding, communication, and bonding.
Address negative cycle patterns, and learn why they show up, and how to get out of them.
Learn how to repair and forgive injuries, and become vulnerable with each other.
Enhance your emotional, physical, and sexual closeness, and INTIMACY

You will also be able to:

Make sense of your own as well as your partner’s emotions.
Forgive injuries that keep you from really opening up with your partner.
Communicate your emotional needs for connection.
Establish a secure and intimate bond for one another.
Restore commitment and hope.
Decrease isolation, distance and loneliness.
Learn to manage intense and negative emotion.
Rebuild safety and trust (where there has been trauma).

I am excited to announce that Owen Marcus, MA, author, workshop facilitator, and TEDxTalk presenter on Masculine Emotional Intelligence, will once again be assisting me leading the workshop. Owen brings with him the width of decades of leading and facilitating men’s groups all over the country, helping men access their masculine vulnerability. Owen’s presence, and his work with couples and men, will enhance this upcoming Hold Me Tight workshop.

Owen’s TEDX talk: What 10,000 Years Of Progress Has Cost | Owen Marcus | TEDxSpokane.

We welcome people of all backgrounds, ages, faiths and sexual orientations.

We keep the workshop small and intimate, with no mandated ‘group work’, and with lots of time to work as a couple with the help of myself and Owen (who is a master in the work he does with men, helping them to open up to their vulnerability, and connect with their partner).

Please FORWARD the information to anyone you think will benefit from this work, and please call or email me with any questions or for more information.

Please sign up ASAP as space is limited and we are Sold-Out at every workshop.

Note: “Hold Me Tight®” is a registered trademark to Sue Johnson

With Warm Regards and Love,

Dalia

(530) 692 0680

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What is SAD, and Why is it Important to Not Ignore it!

Hold Me Tight® Workshops, Individual Therapy

S.A.D: Seasonal affective disorder

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

I love hearing the Sandhill Cranes as they migrate overhead high in the autumn skies. The Sandhill Crane’s call is a loud, rolling, trumpeting sound. For me that is the sound of longing, as those amazing birds answer that innate ‘call’, and fly long distance on their migration journey.

I love Autumn, it is a time of change; shedding, closing, going inward, ending, preparing for the winter and the end of the year, it is also such a beautiful and special time to slow down and reflect.

“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.”
― Lauren DeStefano, Wither

In the Jewish traditions, fall is a time of beginning and renewal, that is when the Jewish New Year, ‘Rosh Hshannah’ is celebrated. Autumn is when you harvest the field and prepare for winter. Yom Kippur, is also part of the high holidays of Autumn, Yom Kippur is the day of Atonement and it is about pardon and forgiveness. It is a tradition to go to the river and throw away ‘the old’, and invite the new for the New Year. Another tradition of the New Year is to eat an apple with honey to invite the new year to be as sweet as honey…

“You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light…”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

I often talk to my clients around this time of year about a certain kind of sadness that starts to show up in Autumn. According to the Mayo Clinic ‘Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that’s related to changes in seasons — SAD begins and ends at about the same times every year. If you’re like most people with SAD, your symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months, making you feel sad and moody. Less often, SAD causes depression in the spring or early summer.’

It is important to not overlook S.A.D., as it can be debilitating and cause worrisome symptoms. Don’t brush off that yearly feeling as simply a case of the “winter blues” or a seasonal funk that you have to tough out on your own. Take steps to keep your mood and motivation steady throughout the year. Treatment for SAD may include light therapy (phototherapy), psychotherapy and medications.

According to a Psychology Today article, The cause for SAD is unknown. One theory is that it is related to the amount of melatonin in the body, a hormone secreted by the pineal gland. Darkness increases the body’s production of melatonin, which regulates sleep. As the winter days get shorter and darker, melatonin production in the body increases and people tend to feel sleepier and more lethargic.

Besides ‘Light Therapy’, Self-Care to deal with SAD may include:

Monitor your mood and energy level
Take advantage of available sunlight
Plan pleasurable activities for the winter season
Plan physical activities
Approach the winter season with a positive attitude
When symptoms develop seek help sooner rather than later
Do not overlook S.A.D, it can be more serious if not treated.

For those reading my blog for the first time, I am happy to announce that our October 14-15 Hold Me Tight® Couples Workshop is Sold-Out!

Please SIGN UP to our waiting list, by filling out the registration form, or get on our mailing list to get notified about our next workshop and also to receive my blog and newsletter FULL with helpful information about life, connections, relationship, parenting, attachment, and so much more!

At our Hold Me Tight® Couples Weekend Workshop, in an effective, safe, supportive, and validating environment; we hold space for couple to explore their relationship. Most importantly, the weekend is positive, proactive and FUN! The tools you learn will continue to serve your relationship long after this weekend.

At our Hold Me Tight® relationship enhancement Workshop you will learn and experience how to:

• affirm strengths in your relationship by developing understanding and bonding
• address negative cycle patterns, and learn why they show up, and how to get out of them
• learn how to repair and forgive injuries, and become vulnerable with each other
• enhance your emotional, physical, and sexual closeness and INTIMACY

I’m delighted to announce that Fiachra Figs O’Sullivan will be joining me for my next Hold Me Tight® Couples Workshop in Nevada City, CA on October 14-15, 2017.

Husband, dad, wounded-healer and reformed Biz Dev guy, Figs (as heard on NPR’s All Things Considered) is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, certified in EFT. He’s passionate about helping couples feel more connected. Learn more about Figs’ counseling and coaching practice by visiting TherapyWithFigs.com

This is a great opportunity to have a deeper and vulnerable look at your relationship, develop new skills to recognize the cycle and patterns that inflict the relationship and keep you separated and apart, and It is also a beautiful time to connect and highlight the strengths of your relationship, and built on the positive that already exist.

Please do not hesitate to call me with any questions or for more information. Looking forward to sharing the workshop with you.
To sign up please click here.

Warm regards,

~ Dalia

(530) 692 0680
dalia@daliaanderman.com
http://daliaanderman.com/workshops

https://www.facebook.com/DaliaAndermanMFT

*Hold Me Tight® is a registered trademark to Sue Johnson.

When living hurts – you do not need to do it alone

Couples Therapy, Hold Me Tight® Workshops, Individual Therapy

“We’re taught to be ashamed of confusion, anger, fear and sadness, and to me they’re of equal value to happiness, excitement and inspiration.” ~ Alanis Morissette

There are times in our lives when ‘Living Just Hurts’…

We know those days when it is hard to think of getting out of bed in the morning, getting dressed seems an unreasonable task, and the need to interact with others is overwhelming. It is hard to see any light at the end of the tunnel, and hope seems to be just another four-letter word.

Whether we are feeling sadness, anxiety, depression, grief, loneliness, hopelessness or helplessness, there are times when every step in the journey of life can be excruciating.

“Some days, 24 hours is too much to stay put in, so I take the day hour by hour, moment by moment. I break the task, the challenge, the fear into small, bite-size pieces. I can handle a piece of fear, depression, anger, pain, sadness, loneliness, illness. I actually put my hands up to my face, one next to each eye, like blinders on a horse.” ~ Regina Brett

Then there are those times when our heart breaks. When we experience rejections, disappointment, abandonment, or betrayal by a loved one, it can be so painful. It feels like we are dying. We imagine that anything would be better then feeling that pain.

We all know that rejection hurts, but neuroscience has concluded that it does in fact, literally, hurt. While the brain does not process emotional pain and physical pain exactly the same, MRI studies show that the the reaction and cascading events are very similar, and a natural chemical (painkiller mu-opioid) is released during both events. We now know this same experience occurs when an individual feels slighted or rejected by others.

Maia Szalavitz writes, ‘Sticks and stones may break your bones, but names can hurt just as much. Indeed, according to converging evidence reported in a new review in Current Directions in Psychological Science, physical and social pain are processed in some of the same regions of the brain’.

In the Brain, Broken Hearts Hurt Like Broken Bones

So yes, when we say that ‘our heart is hurting’, we actually are translating those excruciating emotional feelings as real pain. No matter, heart-breaks are so hard and devastating that it can make us feel that we can not take it any more.

Grief and bereavement can be so overwhelming, that it does feel that ‘living hurts’. At times of grief we go through waves and cycles of denial, anger, depression, hopelessness and helplessness. Grief can bring feelings of shame, blame, guilt, regret, and depression.

“The five stages – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance – are a part of the framework that makes up our learning to live with the one we lost. They are tools to help us frame and identify what we may be feeling. But they are not stops on some linear timeline in grief.” ~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Coping with losing a loved one is one of life’s great difficulties. If you have experienced the pain of mourning, you know that any way to ease the loss is welcomed. While our knowledge and study of grief continues to evolve, it’s important to note that not everyone grieves the same way: we have individual patterns and outlets for grief.

We feel so alone in our loss, that it is crucial to be reminded that we do not need to do it alone. At times it feel that no one can understand us.

Life’s transitions, can also bring a sense of emotional devastation and overwhelming stress and sorrow.

It can happen with aging; sometimes we lose our health, we realize we have to learn to slow down. At times retirement can be scary and anxious with a loss of identity; when the kids leave home and go to college or they just move away, we feel the empty nest.

Those events can result in unbearable emotional pain, and at times we lose our sense of meaning in our life.

At times, we do not even know why we are feeling anxious, depressed, lonely, alone. It is just there, weighing heavy on our heart. We feel we just want the pain to stop. We want it to go away. We need HELP.

We need to master the courage to say ‘I need HELP’.

At times of troubles we need to be able to turn to our loved ones. Loneliness can intensify helplessness and hopelessness feelings. We can not do life alone. Our DNA codes loneliness and isolation as a threat to our survival.

Few weeks ago, the Oroville Dam was being compromised and it forced emergency widespread evacuation. It was tense and scary. One of the couples in our January Hold Me Tight workshop was affected by the evacuation. They wrote me this testimonial:

“Thank you for your email. We live above the Dam so we were safe, however trying to get all of the family up here in one hour was extremely stressful.
We were very grateful that the turn of events turned out better than anticipated. Thankful for the work we did at the workshop, we found that in this extreme situation we both turned to one another for support, comfort and strength. We would like to thank you once again for the powerful, uplifting and life-changing weekend. It has done miracles for our relationship and we continue to grow from it daily.”

Our March Hold Me Tight workshop is Sold-Out!!! We will offer another one soon, please go to our contact me page on the website and join our mailing list to be notified about our next Hold Me Tight Couples Workshop event.

Blessings for the upcoming spring…

with warm regards,

~ Dalia

(530) 692 0680
dalia@daliaanderman.com
http://daliaanderman.com/workshops
https://www.facebook.com/DaliaAndermanMFT

When Living Hurts – Signs you’re battling with depression

Hold Me Tight® Workshops, Individual Therapy

… and when do we need to seek help?

As a child of a parent that suffered from depression, I know what it is like ‘when living hurts’, and also how devastating it can be for the close and loved ones of the depressed person. It is an experience full of sadness, chaos, fear, loneliness and despair.

Almost everyone has had some encounter with ‘depression’. It could be a family member, a close friend, or oneself, at some time in our life. We all get sad, depressed, in the dumps… Whether it is flunking a midterm, failing a test, missing a deadline, being late for a flight, breaking up with a loved one… shit happens, right?

Yes, we all know that sinking feeling of being down, having a rock on our chest, not wanting to get up in the morning, or out of bed, and just not wanting to face the normal everyday chores of living.

BUT — it is when that feeling doesn’t go away; when it stays around for a long time; when that rock on our chest down not light up, when the sense of doom and dread and hopelessness and helplessness settles into a daily occurrence — that is when it becomes worrisome!

The normal ups and downs of life mean that everyone feels sad or has ‘the blues’ from time to time. But if emptiness, despair and loss of hope have taken over your life, and won’t go away, you may have depression. Depression makes it tough to function and enjoy life like you once did. Just getting through the day can be overwhelming.

In her article on MindBodyGreen (a website dedicated to health), Kathi Moorhead writes: “I suffer from depression. I don’t just feel blue on bad days. I don’t just have so-so days that improve with yoga or time with friends. My depression is physiological, relentless, and unforgiving. When it strikes, even the simplest of tasks — like getting dressed or taking a shower — seem insurmountable.”

Understanding the signs, symptoms, causes, and treatment of depression is the first step to overcoming the problem.

What is depression? How do we know it is depression?

Sadness or downswings in mood are normal reactions to life’s struggles, setbacks, and disappointments. Many people use the word “depression” to explain these kinds of feelings, but depression is much more than just sadness. Some people describe depression as “living in a black hole” or having a feeling of impending doom. However, some depressed people don’t feel sad at all—they may feel lifeless, empty, and apathetic, or men in particular may even feel angry, aggressive, and restless. Whatever the symptoms, depression is different from normal sadness in that it engulfs your day-to-day life, interfering with your ability to work, study, eat, sleep, and have fun. The feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, and worthlessness are intense and unrelenting, with little, if any, relief.

Are you depressed? If you identify with several of the following signs and symptoms (from WebMD.com), and they just won’t go away, you may be suffering from clinical depression:

you can’t sleep or you sleep too much
you can’t concentrate or find that previously easy tasks are now difficult
you feel hopeless and helpless
you can’t control your negative thoughts, no matter how much you try
you have lost your appetite or you can’t stop eating
you are much more irritable, short-tempered, or aggressive than usual
you’re consuming more alcohol than normal or engaging in other reckless behavior
you have thoughts that life is not worth living (seek help immediately if this is the case)

Depression can be situational. When a stressful situation is particularly hard to cope with, we react with symptoms of sadness, fear, or even hopelessness — a type of reaction that’s often referred to as situational depression. Unlike major depression, when you are overwhelmed by depression symptoms for a long time, situational depression usually goes away once you have adapted to your new situation.

Depression can also be seasonal, related to change of season and the light pattern. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that’s related to changes in seasons — SAD begins and ends at about the same times every year. If you’re like most people with SAD, your symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody. Less often, SAD causes depression in the spring or early summer. Treatment for SAD may include light therapy (phototherapy), psychotherapy and medications. Don’t brush off that yearly feeling as simply a case of the “winter blues” or a seasonal funk that you have to tough out on your own. Take steps to keep your mood and motivation steady throughout the year.

Depression and suicide risk
Depression is a major risk factor for suicide. The deep despair and hopelessness that goes along with depression can make suicide feel like the only way to escape the pain. If you have a loved one with depression, take any suicidal talk or behavior seriously and learn to recognize the warning signs. Warning signs of suicide include:

Talking about killing or harming one’s self
Expressing strong feelings of hopelessness or being trapped
An unusual preoccupation with death or dying
Acting recklessly, as if they have a death wish (e.g. speeding through red lights)
Calling or visiting people to say goodbye
Getting affairs in order (giving away prized possessions, tying up loose ends)
Saying things like “Everyone would be better off without me” or “I want out”
A sudden switch from being extremely depressed to acting calm and happy

If You Are Feeling Depressed or Suicidal…
When you’re feeling extremely depressed or suicidal, your problems don’t seem temporary—they seem overwhelming and permanent. But with time, you will feel better, especially if you reach out for help. If you are feeling suicidal, know that there are many people who want to support you during this difficult time, so please reach out for help! Read Suicide Help or call 1-800-273-TALK in the U.S. or visit IASP or Suicide.org to find a helpline in your country.

If Someone You Love is Depressed or Suicidal…
If you think a friend or family member is depressed or considering suicide, express your concern and seek professional help immediately. Talking openly about suicidal thoughts and feelings can save a life!

HOPE – is there help for depression? Do not give up!! There are many ways to treat depression.

Depression Treatments

Depression Medicines
There are many types of depression medicines today. Learn about antidepressants — the effects and side effects — and work with your doctor to select the best depression medicine for your symptoms.

Psychotherapy
Sometimes we don’t want to “talk about it.” Find out how talk therapy works to lift mood and help patients with depression improve coping skills and bring hopefulness back. There are many other forms of depression such as post-partum depression, post-traumatic stress depression, teen depression and others which are not covered in this blog post. All forms of depression are serious and need attention.

How can I help? When living hurts, you don’t need to do it alone. I offer confidential, cognitive, behavioral and experiential individual therapy sessions in Nevada City and Sacramento.

Call me for a free consultation at 530-692-0680
Visit my website

~ Dalia Anderman, MFT