Dealing with Depression
Life is undoubtedly a roller coaster ride. It is normal to feel blue or become sad when things don’t work the way we expected which leads to disappointments. Day-to-day events and the way we react to them sometimes gate crash our state of well-being and contentment. Most people experience sadness that’s linked with inevitable life events like loss, death of a loved one, a layoff, or change of job. Depression is experienced over a triggering event and one can get past it with time. However, if these feelings of sadness and depression linger for a longer period, one should consider taking equine therapy.
What is depression?
Depression is a medical condition that impacts a person’s way of thinking, behaviour, and functioning. It is one of the leading causes of illness in the world.
It is beyond simply feeling sad or numb every once in a while. Depression influences our day-to-day emotions, activities, and mental health.
Depression can bring down personal satisfaction, cause loss of interest in daily life chores, and even invoke suicidal thoughts.
What causes depression?
Depression is a mental health problem that is an outcome due to numerous life changes. The causes can be genetic, environmental, or emotional.
When a person suffers from depression, it will be beyond his ability to understand the reason for sadness. It gets hard to control those feelings. It could be genetic, where depression might be running in the family, or it could be due to work.
Feeling devastated after the loss of a loved one is inescapable in bereavement depression. Feeling numb post a breakup in a relationship is expected. Moving to a different city or changing schools sure causes feelings of sadness. However, prolonged depression could be a sign of clinical depression that needs to be treated.
Depression in children
More often than not, kids get bullied at schools or end up having no friends. This can make them isolate themselves from others and make it hard for them to cope with life.
Depression in children can be an outcome of several factors such as environmental change, strict parenting, or isolation, all of which could lead to loss of interest, irritable mood, and other clinical problems.
Is depression a mental illness or a state of mind?
Depression is a complex, multi-faceted mental condition, that impacts people in different ways. It is not just about feeling blue. The symptoms of major depression range from insomnia to suicidal thoughts, loss of interest to fatigue, anxiety to irritability. Whilst some suffer from a few, others might suffer from them all. The severity of depression is solely limited to an individual.
Mental health is a foundation for emotions, thinking, communication, learning, and self-esteem. It is also a key to relationships, personal and emotional wellness. Depression can disrupt living, relationships, and work-life.
Sometimes, it simply gets better on its own. Other times, one might seek medication to restore their usual outlook on life. Be it a short-term or long-term depression, many people respond best to equine-assisted therapy.
What is equine therapy?
Equine therapy is a therapeutic healing process that leverages distinctive dynamics associating with a patient and a horse. The therapy involves equine-assisted activities that help the patient overcome mental instabilities, social anxiety, or lack of confidence.
Equine therapy allows people to spend time around horses to enhance their mood and promote relaxation.
Fruitful commitment with a horse is undoubtedly a physical, and emotional challenge. That is the reason why it is considered optimal for treating patients with mental and emotional health issues. Under the guidance and watch of mental health experts, patients can attempt to build better skills and foster healthy ways of dealing with their symptoms by working through the art of horsemanship.
How can equine therapy help people overcome depression?
Equine-assisted therapy is considered to be a healing therapy for over centuries now. The bond and the relationship between a patient and a horse are beyond words.
Depression can lead to total isolation with the fear of being judged or misunderstood. Horses are extremely empathetic and sensitive to human emotions. Unlike humans, they are unbiased and non-judgemental.
The therapy includes working with horses and performing tasks related to horses such as haltering, grooming, and feeding them.
Bonding with a horse can be a slow process. They react to human energies and emotions.
The session allows the person struggling with depression to interact with the mental health professional to gain perception. And people of all ages connect with these intuitive and highly sensitive animals to learn how to use their feelings as insights, all while being guided by a qualified equine-assisted therapist.
What can you expect during equine-assisted therapy?
The therapy is performed on an open farm surrounded by greenery, empathetic, and trained horses. The session heals the biorhythm of the patient, whilst the horse helps the patient calm down and gain perspective.
One can delude a person in verbal communication due to the fear of judgment. However, horses are capable of sensing any fake emotion or behaviour and react accordingly.
Say for example, if a person is angry, the horse may seem mulish and react likewise. If a person is anxious or nervous, the horse is likely to get skittish.
Horses give quick feedback based on the human body language and energies. They provide a sense of safety and comfort. Being around a horse helps a person struggling in the darkness of depression feel comforted, loved, and secure.
There is a lot we can learn from the horses. Equine-assisted therapy is ideal for people seeking a holistic approach to overcome depression and sadness.
At Healing Hearts and Minds, the therapy sessions help people cope with their emotional struggles and lead a healthier, happier, and more fulfilling life.
