Photo: givingbirthwithconfidence.org
All people experience feelings of sadness. In most cases, these feelings last for a few hours or days. Up to one-fifth of the people in the world, however, are diagnosed with major depression, in which these moods last several days, weeks, or months. These feelings result in impaired functioning in work, family, or interpersonal interactions, which can become severe.
Women who exhibit symptoms of depression after they become pregnant may be diagnosed with perinatal depression. This problem may begin at any point after a woman becomes pregnant, and up till the infant is a year old. Most commonly, however, those who develop this problem after the child is born are diagnosed with postpartum depression.
Perinatal depression or postpartum depression is linked with a number of causes. These causes can be physiological. For example, females with a previous or familial history of severe depression or other mental health problems are very likely to experience perinatal depression or postpartum depression. Furthermore, alterations in hormone levels after childbirth, like decreases in estrogen and progesterone levels, can precipitate depression. Postpartum thyroid malfunctions can lead to signs of depression such as exhaustion, irritability, and despair.
At times, mental depression is a result of emotional issues. Mothers may feel tired and overwhelmed as they learn to juggle the needs of the new baby. Such feelings are often made worse by a lack of assistance from family, friends, or significant other. Money issues may also help to cause postpartum depression.
Perinatal depression and postpartum depression often have serious results for both the mother and her infant. Anxiety and depression may prevent a mother from connecting completely with her child or being capable of meeting her infant's physiological and emotional needs. This may worsen the woman's emotions of worthlessness, self-blame, and low self-worth.
The baby is also harmed by the new mother's condition. An inability to bond with his or her mom may result in the child to experience trust issues in personal relationships throughout life. Moreover, children who do not have their physiological or emotional needs met often do not grow and develop properly. This condition, described as "failure to thrive," may be quite harmful or even fatal to the baby.
Perinatal depression or postpartum depression can harm everyone in the family. The spouse or significant other may feel ignored or unable to relieve the woman's depression symptoms. This can severely damage the relationship. Older children in the family may experience related feelings, and develop academic or peer difficulties as well.
Depression affects the whole family. For this reason, mothers experiencing perinatal depression or postpartum depression ought to get depression treatment as quickly as possible. Many treatments can be used, like talk therapy and medication therapy. Medications, however, are sometimes risky for nursing infants, and may have erratic results because of the tremendous hormone variations a woman experiences during these tumultuous months. Moreover, traditional counseling approaches can be time-consuming and expensive.
Two approaches for dealing with depression that do not involve medications and often rapidly show incredibly effective results are hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Traditional Hypnotherapy is most effective for persons who can be effortlessly entranced or can accept ideas without needing to analyze or understand them. Ericksonian hypnosis is quite effective for persons who often overanalyze. These techniques encourage people to unwind and eliminate tension.
For people who tend to be more critical or analytical individuals, NLP is often more effective. With NLP, trained professionals offer people depression help by assisting them to restructure their thought processes. This method can, quite literally, assist a client think beyond the depressive state and overcome it.
Clients can overcome depression by learning NLP strategies like anchoring. They learn to think of moments when they were happy and controlled their circumstances. Recalling the memory renews these feelings. Individuals are coached to touch two fingers together while experiencing these emotions. The unconscious mind associates the touch of the two fingers with the feelings. Hence, the finger touch becomes an "anchor."
Then, when the client begins to become overwhelmed, he or she triggers the anchor by putting these same two fingers together again. This elicits feelings of self-control and results in empowerment.
By using another technique known as the Flash, people learn to think away harmful emotions. They instruct their unconscious minds to instantly exchange positive thoughts for negative ones. As negative thoughts develop, the brain instantly substitutes them for positive responses. After developing this strategy, people find it almost impossible to conjure up negative thoughts!
Summary: Perinatal depression and postpartum depression often have harmful effects for a mother and her new child. The rest of the family may also be profoundly affected by these conditions. Due to the potential gravity of the results of this illness, new mothers with depression ought to get treatment as soon as signs develop. Two quite effective strategies that do not require medication or huge investments of time and money are hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
Alan B. Densky, CH specializes in depression and stress related symptoms as a certified hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner. During his 30-year career he's helped thousands of clients. He offers self-hypnosis depression therapy CDs. Visit his Neuro-VISION self-hypnosis site for the hypnosis article index, or watch his free video hypnosis collection.
Source: ArticleTrader.com
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