Depression
Anxiety
Transitions and Losses

Depression

Depression is more than a feeling of sadness that does not go away. Although it is considered ‘the common cold’ of emotional disorders, depression does not always get better by a few days of rest and attention. Like the common cold, depression can develop into something more serious. When depression affects your mood, behavior, thinking and health, you need professional care.

Symptoms:

•	Sadness, anxiety, guilt or feelings of emptiness much of the time
•	Don’t care about things like you used to, like people, eating, or activities
•	Feel tired and lethargic, poor sleep or too much sleeping
•	Changes in appetite and weight
•	Wish to be left alone, withdrawing from others
•	Memory and concentration lapses, have trouble completing work
•	Feel as though no one cares or could understand all your problems
•	Cannot make decisions, even small ones
•	Complains of aches and digestion problems without physical origins
•	Feel worthless, helpless, pessimistic and hopeless
•	Thinking that your life will never change, and thinking that maybe you’ll end it.

Article by Patricia Reed on Dealing with Depression

Help from the Scriptures

 

Anxiety

You live in a very uncertain world, and hurry and worry constantly press in on you. Usually rest and reassurance are sufficient to relieve one’s tension and the return to a state of ‘relative peace’. If, however, you experience an ongoing sense of overwhelming and unrelenting physical and emotional discomfort-- referred to as ‘being on the brink’, ‘having a nervous breakdown’ or ‘losing it’, counseling can help.

Symptoms:

•	Feel excessive anxiety, pressure or worry
•	Overreact to everyday events as though they are catastrophes
•	Have difficulty concentrating, or mind goes blank
•	Are easily irritated, cannot tolerate frustration
•	Cannot calm yourself
•	Difficult or impossible to stop worrying
•	Feel keyed up, on edge and tense
•	Trouble falling or staying asleep, and don’t feel rested after sleeping

Help from the Scriptures

 

Transition and Loss

‘Bad things happen to good people’ is a phrase sometimes used to explain why difficulties are ‘allowed to happen’. But when you suffer a significant, unexpected or uncontrollable event, your emotional resources, support system and underlying beliefs can be so stressed that you can’t cope. If you are experiencing excessive distress following a loss, or are concerned that you are not functioning adequately, counseling can help.

Adjustment and Change. Symptoms follow or are in response to an identifiable stress, change or loss. You may feel:

•	Depressed, tearful, hopeless, or devastated
•	Anxious, worried, unsettled emotionally and physically
•	Behaving in dangerous, risky or inappropriate ways
•	Impulsive

Bereavement or Grief, is a normal reaction to loss. Symptoms of
grieving, are dependent on such factors as culture, beliefs, life stage and relationship to the departed. It is not the passage of time that heals,
but the passage through the experience of healing and you may find processing your feelings and thoughts through counseling helpful.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Persons exposed to events that involved serious injury, threatened or actual death or catastrophe may experience PTSD. The symptoms are seriously disabling, often co-occurring with anxiety, depression, behavior problems and/ or substance abuse. Counseling can help you work through your trauma, reduce symptoms and recreate a sense of the meaning of life.

Symptoms include:

•	Feeling like you are re-experiencing the trauma
•	Flashbacks, hallucinations, or dissociative experiences
•	Inability to recall or avoiding important parts of the traumatic experience
•	Sleep disturbances and vivid, terrifying dreams
•	Radical changes in behavior and self-esteem
•	Unable to feel emotions or over-emotional
•	Sense of having no future and loss of goals, interests and relationships
•	Difficulty concentrating, feel like you wake up and have been out of contact with reality

Help from the Scriptures