When Life Feels Heavy and Joyless
You wake up tired, even after a long sleep. Everything feels like a fight. Showering, making breakfast, or choosing clothes can be hard. What once brought you joy now seems pointless or overwhelming. You might look fine on the outside, but inside, everything feels heavy, grey, and exhausting.
You go through the motions at work, but can’t recall when you last felt excited. Or you lie in bed, scrolling through your phone for hours, knowing you should get up, but feeling too drained to move.
Depression isn’t sadness for a few days. It’s like carrying an invisible weight that makes simple tasks feel monumental. You might feel disconnected, like watching life through a thick glass wall.
You’re Not Lazy – Your Brain is Struggling
It’s crucial to understand that depression isn’t a character flaw or a sign of weakness. It’s not about willpower or being lazy. Depression is your brain’s response to stress, loss, or sometimes, no clear cause at all.
Your brain has shifted into a protective mode to help conserve energy and avoid harm. This mechanism can get stuck. When it does, you may feel trapped in a cycle of low mood, fatigue, and withdrawal.
When you’re depressed, exercising, socialising, and doing meaningful things can be difficult.
How Depression Shows Up in Daily Life
Depression affects every part of your life, often in ways others don’t see:
At Work: You may find yourself staring at your computer, unable to focus on once-easy tasks. Meetings can feel overwhelming, and you worry that others see your struggle. You might call in sick, not due to illness, but because facing another day seems too hard.
In relationships: You may withdraw from friends and family not because you don’t care but because you feel you have nothing to give. You may cancel plans or stop reaching out altogether. Even well-meaning suggestions from others may feel annoying or impossible to follow.
Physical Symptoms: Your body suffers, too. You may feel constant fatigue that sleep can’t fix, and your appetite may change, eating too much or too little. Some feel restless, while others feel completely drained.
Sleep Disruption: If your mind is racing, you may find it hard to fall asleep. You might sleep for more than 12 hours, but still wake up feeling tired. Some find themselves napping often but never feeling refreshed.
Loss of Interest: Things you once loved, like cooking, watching films, or being in nature, now feel pointless or tiring. This isn’t just temporary boredom; it’s a genuine loss of pleasure and motivation.
Negative Thinking: Your inner voice may become harsh and critical. You might dwell on past failures, feel hopeless about the future, or believe things will never improve.
My Approach to Treating Depression
I work with adults ready to challenge their depression and regain their energy and purpose. My clients want practical strategies and genuine collaboration, not just someone to listen.
Understanding Your Unique Pattern
Depression isn’t the same for everyone. Some experience a constant low mood, while others have cycles of feeling okay followed by crashes. Specific events may trigger some, while others can’t identify a clear cause.
We’ll team up to learn your pattern. We’ll find out what triggers low times, what makes them worse, and what helps you feel like yourself for a bit.
Building Momentum Through Action
I’ll help you:
- Identify activities that used to bring you joy
- Start with tiny, manageable steps that feel doable
- Schedule enjoyable activities, even with low motivation
- Monitor how different activities affect your mood and energy
- Build toward a life that feels worth living again
Challenging Unhelpful Thinking Patterns
Depression often comes with a soundtrack of negative thoughts that seem genuine but aren’t accurate. Using evidence-based treatments like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), we’ll work on:
- Recognising when depression distorts your thinking
- Testing the accuracy of negative thoughts and assumptions
- Developing more balanced ways of thinking
- Learning to respond to setbacks without falling into despair
Real-World Application
I know how hard it is to manage depression and still keep up with work, family, and social life. We’ll focus on strategies that fit your real life, not ideal circumstances.
What to Expect in Our Work Together
Initial Sessions: We’ll examine how depression impacts your daily life and create quick strategies to boost your mood and energy.
Behavioural Experiments: Between sessions, you will do small activities. Track how they change your mood. This helps us identify what genuinely helps.
Skill Building: Gain skills to handle depressive episodes, change negative thoughts, and take small steps to engage more in life.
Addressing Underlying Issues: While building immediate coping skills, we’ll also explore underlying patterns or life circumstances that contribute to your depression.
Building Resilience: The goal isn’t just to lift your current depression but to build confidence in your ability to handle future challenges.
Why My Background Helps
I know that sustainable change occurs over time and follows a systematic process. You can’t “think positive” to escape depression, just as you can’t make significant changes instantly.
I’ve felt stress and a sense of being stuck. This helps me grasp what it feels like to be stuck in circumstances and mental habits.
I’ve worked with high achievers, so I understand their unique challenges. Many are used to being capable and in control, but sometimes willpower isn’t enough to solve their problems.
Depression is Treatable
Many clients come to me after months or years of struggling alone. They’ve often tried to “snap out of it” using sheer determination. While their resilience is admirable, depression usually needs more strategic support.
The good news is that depression has effective treatments. A good mix of strategies can help. A regular, deliberate, and achievable practice to combat depression boosts mood, energy, and quality of life for many. Let’s you and I design this practice together.
You don’t have to carry this weight alone.
Ready to Reclaim Your Energy?
If you’re tired of being stuck in the grey fog of depression and want to feel like yourself again, I’d be honoured to help.
Individual sessions available Saturdays at BREED Quakers Hill
“Just as Kintsugi turns broken pottery into art with golden repairs, we can change your depression. It can shift from a defining trait to a source of wisdom, compassion, and inner strength.”