“

Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work.

” - Gustave Flaubert

Here are a few handouts that I've put together over the years to provide background information about depression.  The development/maintenance diagram is probably the handout here that I use most - both to explain issues about depression and also for many other psychological disorders as well. 

“

The past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time.  It expands later, & thus we don't have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.

” - Virginia Woolf

Here are a series of forms that I use almost every session with clients, or for screening and orientation at the start of therapy:

“

"Knowledge is only rumour, until it is in the muscle."

 

” - New Guinea Proverb

Making a formal psychological diagnosis can be a mixed blessing. It has several potential advantages. If many of my symptoms can be accurately grouped under a specific psychological diagnosis, it may well help to understand what is happening, to clarify the likely time course of my symptoms, and to choose treatments that have the best chance of being effective. It's worth noting that often people suffer from more than one psychological disorder at the same time - this is called comorbidity and it is common.

The young man sitting in front of me thought he was going mad.