This podcast episode is based on Journey to Recovery: A Comprehensive Guide to Recovery from Mental Health and Addiction Issues by Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes  Read it for free on Amazon Kindle Unlimited.
Journey to Recovery Series
Group and Individual Interventions for Depression
Presented by: Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes Executive Director, AllCEUs
Podcast Host: Counselor Toolbox
CEUs are available for this podcast at https://www.allceus.com/member/cart/index/product/id/924/c/
Objectives
~ Identify the common symptoms for anxiety and depression-based disorders
~ Learn how a positive change in one area or symptom can have positive effects on all symptoms or areas.
~ Explore
~ The function of each of those symptoms
~ The potential causes of each of those symptoms
~ Interventions for each of those symptoms
What are symptoms
~ Symptoms are your physical and emotional reactions to a threat.
~ Symptoms are designed to protect you.
~ They are not bad or good. They just are.
~ Instead of trying to make the symptom go away, it may help to:
~ Understand the function of them
~ Identify alternate, more helpful, ways to deal with the threat
Global Activities
~ Symptom groups
~ Neurotransmitter groups (with handouts)
~ MEEPS Wellness Groups
~ Case studies
Lack of Pleasure
~ Form/Symptom
~ Lack of pleasure in most things, most days for a period of at least 2 weeks.
~ Cause
~ Neurochemical imbalance (insufficient dopamine, norepinephrine?) caused by:
~ Lack of quality sleep
~ Excessive stress
~ Drug or medication use
~ Hormone imbalances including thyroid problems
Lack of Pleasure
~ Causes
~ HPA-Axis
~ Cortisol
~ Increased norepinepherine and glutamate
~ Reductions in
~ Estrogen
~ Testosterone
~ Serotonin
~ Increased anxiety and depression
~ Melatonin
~ Impaired sleep
Lack of Pleasure
~ Function
~ This is your body's way of
~ Signaling that there may be a problem
~ Conserving excitatory neurotransmitters for a “real” crisis
~ Forcing you to address it. After all, nobody wants to be depressed for very long.
Lack of Pleasure
~ How You Cope
~ Think back over a few times when you have been depressed or just haven’t found pleasure in anything, even if it was just for a few hours.
~ What did you do to help yourself feel better?
~ What makes the depression/lack of pleasure worse?
~ What can you do to prevent triggering your depression/lack of pleasure?
Lack of Pleasure
~ Simple-ish Interventions
~ Don’t expect exhilaration, but try to do some things that make you mildly happy. (Alphabet, happiness box, weekly appointment)
~ Get plenty of quality sleep. You need to stabilize your circadian (sleep-wake-eat) rhythms.
~ Think back to when you didn’t feel this way.
~ What was different? (MEEPS sheets)
~ What changed that started you feeling depressed (Review the MEEPS)
~ Remember that depression is a natural part of the grief process and also very normal after a trauma. Be compassionate
Eating Behaviors
~ Form
~ Eating too much or loss of appetite
~ Cause
~ Imbalance in the brain chemicals that help you feel motivated to eat, such a norepinepherine and serotonin.
~ There are five primary causes of over-eating:
~ Your body needing the building blocks (Food diary)
~ Low serotonin
~ Your circadian rhythms are out of whack (HR/energy monitoring)
~ Habit/self soothing (Food diary)
~ Thyroid Issues (Physical)
Eating Behaviors
~ How You Cope
~ In the past when you have just not had an appetite or have been eating to self-s