Articles about Health Information

All people experience feelings of sadness. In most cases, these feelings last for only hours or days. Almost one-fifth of the people in the world, however, are diagnosed with clinical depression, in which these moods last several days, weeks, or months. These emotions trigger the development of impaired performance in work, family, or interpersonal interactions, which can become disabling.

Females who have signs of depression when they become pregnant are sometimes diagnosed with perinatal depression. This problem can develop at any point after a woman becomes pregnant, and up till the baby is a year old. Typically, however, women who encounter this condition after childbirth are diagnosed with postpartum depression.

Perinatal depression or postpartum depression may be caused by several causes. These causes may be physical. For example, women who have a personal or familial history of major depression or other mental health problems are more susceptible to developing perinatal depression or postpartum depression. Moreover, alterations in hormone levels after childbirth, like drops in estrogen and progesterone amounts, can cause this condition. After childbirth, thyroid disorders sometimes lead to signs of depression such as exhaustion, negative moods, and hopelessness.

Sometimes, mental depression is a result of psychological issues. Mothers often feel fatigued and overwhelmed as they learn to juggle the needs of the new family member. These feelings are sometimes made worse by a lack of support from family, friends, or significant other. Financial problems can also help to cause postpartum depression.

Perinatal depression and postpartum depression can have serious consequences for both the mother and her new child. Worry and depression can hinder a mother from connecting fully with her baby or being capable of meeting her child's physical and psychological needs. This can further compound the woman's sense of insignificance, guilt, and low self-worth.

The child is also stressed by the new mother's condition. An inability to bond with his or her mother can result in the child to experience trust problems in personal relationships throughout life. Moreover, babies who do not have their physical or psychological needs met typically fail to grow and develop properly. This condition, called "failure to thrive," can be quite harmful or even fatal to the child.

Perinatal depression or postpartum depression can affect the entire family. The spouse or significant other often feels ignored or unable to relieve the woman's depression symptoms. This may severely hurt their relationship. Other kids in the family often have comparable feelings, and develop academic or peer problems as well.

Depression affects the whole family. Therefore, women experiencing perinatal depression or postpartum depression ought to seek depression treatment as soon as possible. Many techniques can be used, such as counseling and medication treatments. Medicines, however, are sometimes harmful to nursing babies, and may yield unpredictable results because of the great hormonal fluctuations a woman has during these hectic times. Furthermore, traditional counseling therapies can be time-consuming and costly.

Two therapies for dealing with depression that do not use medicines and may quickly yield incredibly effective results are hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP. Traditional Hypnotherapy is most effective for persons who are effortlessly entranced or can accept ideas without needing to analyze or comprehend them. Ericksonian Hypnotherapy is quite effective for individuals who often overanalyze. These techniques assist clients to unwind and get rid of tension.

For clients who are more critical or analytical individuals, NLP is typically more effective. With NLP, trained professionals offer clients depression help by coaching them to reprogram their mental processes. This strategy can, quite literally, aid a client think through the depressive mood and conquer it.

Clients can conquer depression by learning NLP strategies like anchoring. They are taught to think of situations when they were happy and in control of their circumstances. Recalling the memory renews these feelings. People are coached to touch two fingers together and remember these feelings. The unconscious mind relates the touch of the two fingers with the feelings. Thus, the finger touch becomes an "anchor."

Then, if the client begins to feel overwhelmed, he or she activates the anchor by putting these identical two fingers together again. This brings back feelings of self-control and creates empowerment.

Through another method known as the Flash, clients discover how to reason away negative feelings. They instruct their unconscious minds to automatically exchange positive thoughts for negative ones. When negative thoughts arise, the brain automatically substitutes them for positive thoughts. After developing this method, clients find it nearly impossible to think negative thoughts!

Summary: Perinatal depression and postpartum depression may have disastrous effects for a mother and her new baby. The rest of their family is also deeply affected by these problems. Because of the potential gravity of the consequences of this illness, women with depression ought to seek treatment as soon as signs develop. Two quite effective treatments that do not require medication or enormous expenditures of time and money are hypnosis and NLP.

Alan B. Densky, CH specializes in depression and stress related symptoms as a certified hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner. He has helped thousands of clients since 1978. He offers hypnosis therapy for depression CDs. Visit his Neuro-VISION hypnosis for self development website for the hypnosis article repository, or watch his free video hypnosis collection.