Depression In Stress Management

Posted March 25th, 2015 by Melody Taylor-Fliege & filed under adversity, Life Coaching, Stress Management.

Great achievements bring a fulfilling sense of completeness that can feed us by giving us energy and enthusiasm to move forward onto the next thing, a sort of rejuvenation. Another thing that happens with completion is a kind of death and morning of the end of something. The intensity of the achievement process; i.e. how long it took, the amount of physical, emotion, and mental effort required, or how clear the end date was; can all play an important role in the manifestation of the death and morning part of completing any achievement. It can manifest through solemnly remembering parts of the journey. Maybe it manifests as a feeling of melancholy. On the extreme side, it might manifest as an acute depression in need of medical or psychological help. Most people don’t usually associate these depressive feelings with achievement, and may feel ashamed about feeling this way as they now have so much. They might start beating themselves up with destructive self-talk like, What’s wrong with me? I shouldn’t feel this way!

The role that coaching plays in depression is different than psychiatry, psychology, and medicine in that it works more with right now and helping the individual find, listen and understand the answers that are inside of themselves. Coaching does not replace these respected fields, especially in extreme cases, and most coaches have connections to refer clients to that need professional help other than coaching.

Feelings and emotions are part of being human. Depression is one of the many emotions that we all experience and need not be feared within reason. The extreme of anything including emotions should be handled with care, and extremes are not what I am referring to right now. In my experience, I have found that acknowledging my feelings of depression moves me through the process the fastest, not that there is a time limit at least I haven’t found one. I have found that by focusing on time, like, how it’s taking too long or how now is not a good time, only make the emotional situation last longer or grows the anger and resentment of other stuffed emotions deep inside of me. Acknowledging depressive emotions for me has meant really being present with an emphasis on noticing and feeling whatever comes up in my body. It’s not about trying to do or fix anything. This is where coaching is helpful because you don’t have to be alone with emotions that seem to pull you in, so you forget that you were only noticing your emotions and not becoming your emotions. I know from my experience that depressive emotions can feel scary, and all-consuming at times making me want to run away from them. I also know from my experience that after having allowed some of my depressive emotions to cycle through me, there comes a lighter feeling of relief, like after a good cry.

Although depression is on the darker side of stress management, it’s one that is often out of balance, and as stress management is about finding balance, depression cannot be left out.

What is your personal definition of depression?