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Dr Linda Edwards

SELF-HELP FOR DEPRESSION
By
Dr Linda Edwards
Art of Living Psychology & Hypnotherapy

The word 'depression’ is used to refer to a wide range of moods and
behaviours from those linked with the normal sadness of life to suicidal
despair. However, clinical depression is distinguished from normal grief and
sadness by its severity, duration or persistence, and effects on day to day
functioning. Ten to twenty percent of the population experience serious
depressive episodes at some point in their lives. Depression is generally
considered to be a chemical imbalance that creates real deep psychic pain over
which the person has no control and treatment is generally by medication.
However, my experience has taught me that depression causes chemical
imbalances rather than the other way around and that self-help techniques aimed
at dealing with the real cause of depression can bring peace and healing. These
techniques are based on sound principles of emotion and trauma from the fields
of psychology, hypnotherapy and various somatic psychotherapies.

Psychologists’ experiments have repeatedly shown that it is
impossible to detect a physiological difference between a strong positive
emotion and a strong negative one. From this it has been concluded that emotions
are bodily sensations to which we attach a mental interpretation according to
the context in which they occur. Because most psychotherapies involve
interpretation and our minds can deliver complicated interpretations ad
infinitum, working with body sensations is a more direct, simple and effective
way to heal our difficulties.

You have probably noticed that when mild feelings occur, sensations
arise to a gentle peak intensity and then dissipate in the same way as happens
with other forms of energy, such as sound waves and electromagnetic radiation.
However, this doesn’t happen with intense emotions. The reason for this stems
from the period before, during and after birth. During this time we were like
‘emotional sponges’ soaking up the feelings around us. Unfortunately our egos
couldn’t comprehend what was happening and we consequently developed defences
that prevented us feeling the full intensity of the sensations. The energy that
could not dissipate then became locked in the musculature of our bodies. Of
course, accidents, crime and war may add to this normal load of infant trauma.
For existing views on this trapped energy and ways of releasing it, see the work
of Wilhelm Reich, the bioenergetics of Alexander Lowen, Janov’s primal therapy,
and the Holotropic Breathwork and bodywork of Stan Grof.

Unfortunately, every time our mind associates anything with past
trauma, we compulsively repeat the behaviour patterns developed to prevent us
from fully feeling it in the first place. No amount of rational thinking and
logic can prevent this. Eventually we reach a limit where we have suppressed so
many emotions that we suffer the classical symptoms of depression. This may
happen through a single painful event such as a marriage break-up, the death of
a loved one, or the loss of a career. In this case, it is called reactive
depression. If it follows childbirth, an event which triggers our unresolved
infant and birth trauma, it is called postnatal depression. However, if there is
a slow build-up of many things that we have suppressed over the years, then
there is no obvious single cause and it is called major depression or endogenous
depression. Finally, bipolar depression occurs when the need to escape the pain
and discomfort of normal reality is so great that the psyche uses an immense
amount of energy to generate manic periods of unrealistic perceptions such as
delusions of grandeur which then collapse back into periods of endogenous
depression when the energy runs out.

The more serious forms of depression usually persist or get worse
unless we engage in a deep experiential healing process or there are dramatic
changes to our life circumstances. Anti-depressants are not a cure. They simply
suppress the bothersome emotions for us, and in so doing, often take away our
ability to feel joy or sorrow, so life becomes meaningless.

Instead of trying to talk ourselves out of thoughts, feelings and
behaviours that bother us, we need to release the trapped body sensations from
our early life which are being triggered by events in our lives today but which
are actually not appropriate to today’s events. When this happens, the mental
defences (conscious and unconscious attitudes and beliefs) fall away because
there is no longer a bad feeling to avoid.

To release blocked feelings, we need to briefly feel their full
intensity. This is possible because an intense brief pain is much more bearable
than a slightly less intense chronic or intermittent pain (in fact, it’s the
latter rather than the former that is the cause of re-traumatisation). We can
develop the trust to do this by practising with a small discomfort first,
provided we are not already experiencing a bad feeling or numb. In this case, we
have no option but to work with the existing feeling. If this is too
uncomfortable or overwhelming, we need to get help from someone experienced in
this method.

Think of a minor issue that bothers you. Notice the feeling. Locate
it in your body. Notice what shape, size and intensity it is. If you are unaware
of a feeling, use the hypnotic technique called revivification (Hypnotherapists
have learned that if you vividly imagine something, the mind does not know the
difference between what is vividly imagined and what is real. For example, if
you imagine seeing and feeling a piece of lemon in your fingers, holding it to
your lips, smelling it, and tasting the sour flavour as you hear yourself
sucking it, your saliva is likely to run. To use revivification for this
exercise, you must pick a particular occasion when your issue bothered you
because you cannot imagine a generalisation and then engage as many of your
physical senses as possible in the recall. If a future event is bothering you,
make up the details. The mind will make the necessary associations whether it is
real or imagined. Now notice the feelings in your body. Where are the
sensations? How big are they? What shape are they? How intense are they? It is
important to become as fully aware of them as you can.)

Now take a few breaths to circulate some oxygen and carbon dioxide
around the body. Oxygen gives you energy and carbon-dioxide helps bring
unconscious feelings and thoughts into consciousness. This is the basis of the
breathwork therapies. Also, because we block ourselves from experiencing intense
emotions by holding our breath, it is important to breathe consciously and
continuously.

Now tense up the muscles in the area of the body where you can feel
the sensations. If you are feeling numb or aren’t sure where the sensation is,
tense up the whole body. Doubt, confusion and numbness are defensive patterns
that can be worked with and released in the same way as feelings like fear,
grief and anger. Let go, and keep your breathing going afterwards. Notice what
has happened. Sensations may have become more obvious, larger or smaller, more
or less intense, shifted to another part of the body or dissipated altogether.
If you are feeling anything other than complete relaxation, tense up the
non-relaxed parts again, remembering to keep breathing. Continue intensifying
the energy wherever it moves in your body until it dissipates.

Some people will find this happens on the first or second attempt
and others will have to persevere for half an hour or more. Then when your whole
body is relaxed, think of the bothersome circumstances again and notice if you
are still relaxed. This is the test. If you are not completely relaxed, continue
to intensify the body sensations until you can recall the issue and it no longer
produces unpleasant feelings.

If you tensed up your whole body because you were not sure where the
sensations were and you still cannot feel anything, do it again, harder if you
can. The intensity is important. Sometimes people have to do it six times before
they feel any sensations. Once you get a sensation, work with that in the way
already described.

If you tensed up your body and the sensations didn’t change, do it
again, harder if you can. Also remember that you are trying to make them worse.
If you hold the intention of ‘getting rid of them’, you delay the process. The
paradox is that you have to be willing to accept and experience whatever is
there, forever if necessary, and then the release can happen quickly.

Often people experience a sudden warm glow or pleasant tingling.
Enjoy it. The energy has moved and you have healed something. Another indication
of healing is a sense of deep peace. When a seemingly unbearable feeling
explodes into bliss, deep serenity, euphoria or the like, you have experienced
an ego death-rebirth (see the work of Stan Grof for more details).

A common obstacle in the above process occurs when a person
experiences an intense point of pain they are unwilling or unable to physically
intensify even for an instant. The pain might be in a sensitive or physically
damaged part of the body. If this occurs, keep your breathing consciously
connected and imagine the intensity in the centre of the pain spreading
outwards. If you notice that the middle is still more intense, just start
spreading it out from the middle again. Persevere. Some people may need to
imagine spreading it out to fill the whole of Australia, the planet or the
Universe. Sooner or later it will dissipate because, if your mind gives a
limited amount of trapped energy permission to move beyond its current boundary,
it must get weaker as it gets bigger. Some people notice it weakening as they
imagine it expanding. Others notice it suddenly transform into something
pleasant when they have been willing to let go and drown in the pain: the
necessary attitude that permits healing.

Another obstacle to developing trust in this process can occur if
you accidentally pick a big first issue rather than a small one. If this
happens, you may feel that the pain is getting so intense it might annihilate
you. The more intense it is the more real it feels and this makes it hard to
believe that it is just an ‘old feeling’ coming up for release. It is easy to
feel overwhelmed when this happens. So, it is best to find a smaller issue to
work with initially to develop confidence in the approach.

However, eventually you will need to face the bigger issues, and I
know from personal experience, as well as from working with others, that if you
can develop enough trust to totally surrender to being swallowed up by the pain,
that a very significant breakthrough is likely to occur. This does not mean you
should do it alone. It can be extremely beneficial to have assistance from
someone who has experienced those horrible places. The fact that they have gone
through the process and survived can be very comforting and even necessary to
enable us to trust that we can feel these sensations without being destroyed by
them.

However, for many people the trapped feelings are not all that bad,
and remembering to do the process is a bigger problem. It is easy to get caught
up in what is happening and forget that you have this tool at your disposal. The
only answer is practice. The more you do it, the more naturally it will come to
you. Persevere, and if you have trouble, seek assistance.

Another occasion when we need assistance is when we prefer to talk
about our bothersome experiences rather than re-experience them. Talking can be
useful if the listener provides the safe space for us to open up further and we
experience our feelings more deeply as we speak. However, talking is more often
used as a defence against feeling. In this kind of talking, we speak from the
mind, rather than from our present experience, and this removes us from feeling
intense emotions.

The biggest difficulty occurs if someone feels the process is
endless because there is ‘always’ another horrible sensation to release. This is
frequently the case with people who suffer from major depression. Even with
appropriate help, they can doubt the very real progress they are making. So it
is important for the facilitator to record and point out the changes. It also
helps enormously if the helper has travelled an equally difficult journey and
can say, ‘I know you can do it because I have done it’. In addition when
something we are unwilling to face arises in someone we are assisting, we will
instinctively steer them away from what they need to experience for their
healing. If this is happening, find yourself another mentor for the journey into
freedom from depression.

For those who would like further assistance with this technique,
personal coaching is available face to face or by telephone consultation from
Art of Living Psychology and Hypnotherapy in Melbourne.


The factual information on Hypnosis was compiled by: Dr Linda
Edwards
If you would like more information on psychologists that practice
Hypnosis in your area, please contact Lou



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