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  • Q&A with Australian Health Practitioners

    How can I shake this depressing feeling?

    Related Topics
    Anxiety Depression Mental Health
    For about a year now, i have been getting this horrible anxious, depressing obsessive feeling, of horrible thoughts and things i could so easily do to hurt myself or someone else. I would never do any of these things but these thoughts and feelings are really taking over my life, i cry all the time, i feel sick just thinking about it, technically in a way i feel like i am not living the best life that i could be… please help me…
    • 2 answers
    • Eva Fera
    • Dr Louise Shepherd
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    Eva Fera

    Clinical Psychologist, Health Psychologist, Psychologist

    I am a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society’s College of Clinical Psychologists and a member of the College of Health Psychologists. I have completed … View Profile

    Since you had these feelings for so long and you have not been able to control them it is time that you see your doctor and get a referral to see a psychologist. Your psychologist will be able to assess if you could be helped with therapy alone or you may need some medication in the interim to ‘kick start’ the process. In the meantime you could start with some early morning exercises. If you find it difficult to start you could just do 10 mins and work up to 30 mins.This might help you to modulate your mood as it will help with anxiety as well as depression. Regarding your obsessive thoughts we all have some of those but we do not act on them. It seems you do not either so do not worry about them at this stage. See a psychologist for aporopriate assessment and she or he will be able to assist you with either short or long term therapy based on your needs.

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  • Dr Louise Shepherd

    Clinical Psychologist, Psychologist

    I am a clinical psychologist with 15 years experience working with all sorts of goals and issues. I love working with people, helping them to … View Profile

    I'd agree with Eva that it is probably a good idea to speak to an appropriate health professional to learn some effective ways to deal with these thoughts and feelings. Sometimes when people have thoughts that they find really awful they end up struggling to get rid of them and this tends to just worsen the problem.

    With Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) the focus is on learning effective psychological skills to use when these thoughts and feelings show up so that you can live the life you want to be living - rather than spending your time feeling bad and trying not to feel bad :-(. 

    Your GP could help you find a clinical psychologist who is convenient for you to see - if you have any other questions or want to speak with us at The Sydney ACT Centre just see our contact details on this profile.

    All the best
    Louise

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