Therapy for depression in Manhattan, NY
Has life lost its meaning? Does nothing matter?
Depression can change everything. A relationship, a job, a life that seemed meaningful before, now feels insignificant, or empty. You can feel distant from your partner.. your partner can feel distant from you. You can wait and hope you snap out of it... but therapy can help.
"The tragedy of life is that it must be lived forwards, but can only be understood backwards"
Depression is among the most common and most debilitating mental health conditions. Sometimes it slowly creeps up on you - gradually you stop feeling excited about things, stop enjoying being with people, start trying to spend more time asleep, and get used to telling yourself very negative things. Other times it falls on you without warning and you cant think clearly, you feel separated from other people, and cry easily.
Depression is extremely heterogenous - people experience depression very differently based on who they are and their circumstances. However, for every person, depression is a miserable and painful experience... sometimes one that they have just gotten used to.
Many people only get depression treatment in Manhattan because their partner or a friend has mentioned that something is wrong. When depression sneaks up or the feeling becomes normal - sometimes even identified with - people can lose sight that it is abnormal. In these situations, it is only when someone else explains that something seems off, or that they have been down for longer than they need to, that people seek treatment for depression in Manhattan. ​
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You don't have to wait for life to become unbearable or for it to affect your relationships, however, before you get the treatment you need. Therapy for depression is extremely effective and so if you aren't enjoying things that you used to, avoiding spending time with friends, or just feeling miserable for longer than you need to, give us a call.
The Depression Cycle
Therapy famously has a cyclical quality to it: you feel so depressed that you stop spending time with friends and doing things you enjoy, and because you're not doing things you enjoy you stop taking care of yourself, and because you stop taking care of yourself you feel worse, and so you continue to not spend time with friends and doing things you enjoy.
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Because depression has such diverse manifestations – and often overlaps with anxiety, grief, and trauma – it is crucial that therapy for depression be flexible to address the various issues that arise in the course of treatment.
This can sometimes be difficult because depression combats its own treatment: the very things that can help – getting out of bed, meeting friends, making plans, going to work/school, finding a better job – are the things that feel the hardest to do.
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Depression therapy is all about interrupting that cycle. That can seem easier than it is. People often try to brute force an interest in things in order to jump start feeling normal again, but that often just leads to feeling like you are faking it and people who really know you know that something is off.
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The Banality of Depression
People are very good at convincing themselves that they are "fine" or that feeling "this way" is normal - even deserved - when they are in profound pain. All of us are invested in maintaining the systems that we have developed, far past the point where they have become maladaptive. If you grew up learning that you were valued when you could make other people happy you might become an adult who is extremely people-pleasing but who is chronically overlooked and undercared for; though it may feel terrible to be in that position, even then you may not want to give up making people happy as that is the only tool you have to be told you matter. As a result, depression can occur in people who seem the happy without friends or family ever noticing.​ Because of the pressures to be 'OK' all the time, teenagers and new mothers are particularly good at hiding these feelings.​
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Lexington Park Psychotherapy Depression Therapy
At Lexington Park Psychotherapy, we approach depression therapy integratively - we use a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), psychodynamic psychotherapy, internal family systems (IFS), emotion focused therapy (EFT), and others. The reality is that depression also often interferes with important relationships and so depression treatment sometimes includes family therapy or couples therapy. Whatever it is, Lexington Park Psychotherapy has you covered.
