Any emotional health/wellbeing questions?

[psych-Empower]

Hi ladies!

My name is Louise and I own the business psych-Empower (see banner at top of this part of the forum). It is a Brisbane based private psychology practice.

Further to Jude's post, I thought I would introduce myself also. If any of you have any emotional health or wellbeing questions, or even workplace/career questions then I will be happy to help out any way I can.

:waves:

Cheers,
Louise

[MissieK]

My biggest one atm is "How to I know I am over PND?" According to Seven Sunrise this morning I am... ;) But I know that's not a dr's diagnosis :D

Melissa

[Monty]

:hug: to you Melissa. I have never been through PND but you are a brave person for talking about it at all. Take care and I'm sure Louise will have some helpful advice :)

[psych-Empower]

Hi Melissa...

Interesting question and thanks for asking it.

As you can imagine, there is never an easy answer to this. There are so many indicators, variables involved with whether somebody is really "over something" like a mood disorder. But in general, PND is a lot like the other mood disorders, including Major Depression. Therefore, if the primary criteria for a mood disorder are generally non existant, or well under control, then you can safely say that you are "over" the PND. The main criteria are -
*depressed mood
* loss of interest or pleasure

There are additional criteria, and in order to meet a diganosis for PND or Major Depression you will find that at least 5 or more of the following are present all at once -
* disturbed eating and sleeping patterns,
* associated significant weight gain/loss,
* insomnia/hypersomnia,
* fatigue/loss of energy,
* feeling worthless,
* diminished ability to concentrate and
* recurrent thoughts of self-harm/suicide

Generally, without going to see a GP, Psychiatrist, Psychologist, you can establish that you are "over" PND or Depression if these symptoms are no longer present OR aren't significant enough to be having a hugely negative impact on your life. Obviously, there is no "physical test" to take to definitively say that you are no longer suffering from PND, but you can be assured that if most of your symptoms have alleviated, then you are mostly "out of the woods" so to speak.

I say to a lot of my clients that someone with depression is never "cured" of the disorder, but they certainly learn to better cope with it, and therefore it isn't impacting on their life anymore. If you look at it this way, then it brings some relief, rather than "cured or not" kind of scenario :)

I hope that I have answered your question Melissa. You are welcome to reply to this post or even PM me if you want to ask anymore questions! ;)

Cheers,
Louise