047: The Many Faces of Depression

For so many, the experience of "depression" is actually the experience of getting "stuck." When we get stuck and feel like we have no options, we can fall into hopelessness and helplessness. Emotions like these are ones we want to run from and numb out.

When the body experiences an emotion, the mind says STOP! This may kill you! Go get a vice! Numb that out! My clients often tell me that they address their own negative emotions, flatness, or depressed experience, with something that will numb them and mask the feelings with a quick solution or dopamine rush. Find a glass of wine. Go get chocolate. Gamble. Shop. Create drama with those around you to hide from your own. All these things numb your experience of negative emotions, suppress the depression just a bit, and this cycle continues until we resolve these feelings more fully.

Today on the show we're going to talk about the techniques we can use to help us become more aware of our negative emotions, how to move them through the body, and make that feeling of stuckness evaporate!