© 1996 All Rights Reserved.
Bristol Hypnotherapy Clinic in residence at the
Greenway Community Practice
Greystoke Ave, Southmead
Bristol BS10 6AF
Tel: 0117-968-6886, Mobile: 07811-373703
International 44117-968-6886
USA Cell phone 248.635.3726
USA email: academy@gmx.us
Anti-depressant Medication & Therapy
Depression has gone from being one of the least to one of the most understood of
the many emotional disorders. It can effect any one of both sexes and at any age,
has many causes, and as a result has many viable avenues of treatment. Mildly and
severely depressed client’s find themselves in situations that are enormously painful
and who need help to find a way out. It can effect you physically, causing problems
such as eating, sleep disturbance, a lowered sex drive, fatigue and anxiety. Cognitively,
depression can effect your ability to think clearly, making it difficult to focus
attention, poor memory, causing someone depressed to make errors in judgement and
decision making.
If they think about the future, they tend to project into the future the same kind
of negative thought processes, anguish and anxiety suffered in the past.
At the Bristol Hypnotherapy Clinic the treatment for depression is cognitive behavioural
therapy CBT and interpersonal approaches. Utilizing psychotherapy and CBT within
hypnosis show greater therapeutic outcomes than drug therapy. Although medication
may have an effect, it has distinctively more side effects and habituation. They
can also produce undesired thought and feeling processes, which in turn can prevent
new learning abilities. Anti-depressant agents have been found to have a high incidence
of relapse into depression. Sometimes anti-depressant medication can work well, certainly
for short term use, and in acute sudden onset stage, or a major depressive illness.
It would be unfair to say that all people do not get relief from medication, and
in some instances, are definitely required.
Drugs can often suppress underlying problems, only to find when the patient stops
taking the anti-depressant drug, they become depressed. There is a higher relapse
rate from medication than therapy. Anti-depressant medication cannot teach coping
skills, problem solving skills, resolve interpersonal issues, or protect against
reoccurrence of depressive episodes.
CBT provides and creates skill building, problem solving, goal achieving skills and
a greater degree of empowerment and perception. These are behaviours an anti-depressant
agent cannot accomplish. Relapse rate is significantly reduced as these techniques
provide effective preventative skills. Clinical hypnosis creates effectiveness of
CBT and interpersonal related skill therapy, creates and enables unique specific
positive changes to take place in the depressed individual. People that have been
depressed for a long time, sometimes from their childhood days usually have difficulty
being positive on a day to day basis. By using the extraordinary resources of the
subconscious mind one has the ability to make choices, that will bring about the
kind of things that you want to have happen tomorrow, and in the future, creating
ways for you to think differently, act differently, and eventually feel differently.
The use of hypnosis significantly reduces therapy sessions. Brief therapy is important
as elongated therapy causes the client to believe they are more ill than they are,
and also become more reliant on a therapist over long term therapy. The idea is to
become more reliant upon themselves.
Virtually all CBT sessions are recorded onto a CD for the client to play during the
week between each session. Self-help assignments are provided, so the client can
obtain a better approach to behaviors. My aim is, to teach the individual to become
their own therapist.
For further information on depression
go to my depression-therapist site
