Life Coaching For Eliminating Depression

By Bryan J. Sweeney

UNDERSTAND THE CYCLE OF DEPRESSION

MAKE YOUR THOUGHTS AND BEHAVIORS WORK FOR YOU

GET BETTER RATHER THAN FEEL BETTER

BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF REALISTIC THINKING

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 1, 2008
• ISBN: 9781604584004

Book preview

DEPRESSION

Is this book for you?

I feel lost, afraid. I’m scared. I feel like I’m in a black hole, an endless pit, like I’m drowning. I feel that my life is being sucked right out of me. I cannot escape. I’m trapped. I am alone and I am sad. My hope of alleviating this pain is disintegrating by the second. My energy has been zapped, I cannot eat or sleep, when I do sleep waking up is painful. My muscles are tense and I am nauseous. Thinking about facing another day overwhelms me. Nothing good can happen to me. I have no focus, no concentration, and I have been unable to feel pleasure for some time. My world is falling apart and I don’t know why. My life is getting worse and all my joy is gone. The worst part is, nobody understands. Nobody gets me. Nobody cares. I’m all alone. I AM DEPRESSED.

Wow, that sounds terrible. Does that sound like you? Can you relate to this persons’ pain? Do you deal with this daily? Now, you may be thinking that the above paragraph seems pretty extreme, and you are right. Not everybody with depressive symptoms is this desperate. Not all of the people in our world suffering from depression have reached this level. In fact, most people suffering from depressive symptoms function in their daily lives adequately and only relate to some of what the above paragraph describes. The problem is, if it is not taken care of early it can spin out of control into the quiet desperation above. The symptoms tend to get worse if not challenged and disrupted.

If you feel or can relate to even part of this persons’ pain then you, like approximately 20 million other people in our world, are dealing with depressive symptoms. Some major, some minor, but all serious. Notice I did not say depression. What I said was depressive symptoms. The label of depression is nothing more than that, a label. You are not reading this book right now because of a label. You are reading it because of the all too real depressive symptoms that you face, or hide from, daily. Many people with such symptoms choose to isolate themselves from friends and family, allow their house and relationships to fall apart, let their work become severely impaired, and decide to feel sad, angry, scared, and confused while giving up all hope for the future.

Notice the words that were used; choose, allow, let, and decide. These are words that imply ownership, they imply control. I know that when you feel and act in the ways described above the resounding belief is that you have no control. I absolutely do not agree. That’s right, depressive symptoms are chosen and allowed. Although you may not understand what I am saying and may want to put this book down immediately, I promise you that as you read further you will understand my point. What I am telling you is that you can control your depressive symptoms. You can manage them, and you can eliminate them. All that you need is some guidance. Just as you allow the symptoms to occur you can also decide to make them go away. You can control them! You have a say in your life! You have options! You can choose to get better!

I know, I know, there are hundreds of books out there discussing depression. Some educate and some inspire. Some are excellent, and just like anything else, some are not. So why choose this book? Well, what I can tell you is that this book is different. This book is 100% solution-focused. Yes, it will educate and inspire, however, it will not overwhelm you with information that does not specifically affect change. It was not written to read like a dissertation or to show the world how much expertise I have. I am not going to waste your time telling you about the origins of the disease or the science behind it. Because, I honestly don’t think that you care. I think that you want a book that tells you how to get better without boring you. I think that you are reading this book because you want to make your life enjoyable again. I believe you are ready to change and are reading this book to find out how. It will cut through the chase and get to the core issues affecting your life, and more importantly, teach you how to challenge, attack, and transform them. Consider this a straight forward how-to-manual on successful living. You are going to learn fundamental life skills that are going to help you to take back control of your life and to be happy again. You are going to learn specific tools and techniques that, when utilized, will allow you to cope with, manage, and ultimately eliminate depressive symptoms from your life. Not just for today, but forever.

In many ways the process is going to sound elementary. You may have many occasions as you read further that you think, I knew that. Why was I not already doing it? And at other times you’re going to think, How could I have known that? I would’ve never thought that that could work. The ultimate goal of this book, which will become much more apparent as you continue reading, is to teach you to take control.

If you follow the recommendations you are about to read your life will get better. If you read this book with an open mind and choose to enact the guiding principles your life will get better. If you choose not to utilize the tools and techniques to affect change in your life, your life will ultimately stay the same. Why would it change if you are not doing anything to change it? Think of it like this, you can know and understand specific exercise and eating techniques designed to help you lose weight, but if you don’t follow them the inches will not melt away. The same fundamental principle applies here. Just as you choose to lose weight by making life changes, by following the recommendations in the next 175 or so pages, you are choosing to make your life better. You will choose not to be depressed. You will choose to feel content, satisfied, and self-fulfilled. The choice is yours.

Why Should You Listen to Me?

All of this may sound pretty good so far but you may be asking yourself, Why should I listen to this guy? He’s not famous. He doesn’t have a radio show and I’ve never seen him on TV. Anybody can publish a book. I don’t blame you one bit for asking such questions. You should. I would. As you’ve probably learned throughout life everybody thinks that they have the answers and truth be told, most don’t. So, I’m going to take just a few moments to tell you a little bit about myself and my training. So that you know how I know what I know. And I hope that you allow me to teach you what I believe can have a resounding effect on your life.

First of all, let me start with my training before I discuss my experience. I am a psychologist. I earned a Ph.D. in counseling psychology and have worked with and trained thousands of people. I have developed an extremely strong understanding of depressive symptoms and I have seen the damage that they can cause the family, the workplace, and the individual.

I began my training at a university counseling center. While there I learned a lot about that age group. And since it was a commuter school the age group was rather broad, ranging from 17 to 59. I saw a lot of different problems but the problem that I worked with most often was depression. Depressive symptoms seem to run across every other mental health disorder and I saw almost all of them. You can just image the type of clients I had. None were typical. I saw young females that had been raped. I saw relationships come to an end. I worked with people that had experienced the death of a loved one. I even saw people that were dealing with AIDS. Not to mention the typical college student that was simply overwhelmed with school. And through proper training I was able to counsel them all. Most made great changes in their lives.

From there I moved on to the pediatric center at a world renowned cancer hospital. This place was top notch and offered the children and their families all that they could give them. One of their more progressive offerings was counseling on how to cope with cancer. This is where I came in. I worked with children, adolescents and young adults dying of cancer. I also worked with their families. Talk about emotional, but it was also extremely fulfilling. While there I developed an extreme amount of empathy and understanding while learning to help people find hope in what seemed to be hopeless situations. I learned even more about depression and what it can do.

After that I entered an entirely different world. I joined the United States Air Force and learned how to become a first rate clinical psychologist. I worked at the mental health clinic and treated both active duty and civilians. I saw a lot of pain as my tour saw many of the men and women returning from Iraq. They talked about things they saw and how it affected them daily. The spouses missed their husbands or wives greatly. The children were constantly scared that they would lose Daddy or Mommy. As a human being this was extremely trying but very helpful in my development as a psychologist. It was here that I formulated a deep compassion for those individuals who have dealt with trauma.

While in the Air Force