Counselling helps in dealing with situations which cause emotional stress or problems which make you feel very uncomfortable. By having counselling sessions, you are able to attend to your problems better. It will help you to:

• Make you feel more confident about yourself
• Deal with depression and sadness and help give a better outlook on life
• Help you cope with work related stress
• Confront your feelings in a particular situation

Every person has their individual level of stress and has different ways of dealing and coping up with stress. So there are no predetermined techniques to deal with stress.  Some methods which you can try and inculcate are :

• Do something that interests you -  As busy as you are, try and take out time to pursue something apart from work and which you enjoy doing like some hobby, playing with your pets, volunteering work etc
• Meditate – Meditation really helps you in clearing your mind and you are able to focus on the things that are happening right now. It also helps in dealing with stress effectively.
• Exercise – Exercising helps you in focusing on other aspects of your body to develop which contributes to tackling stress. Regular exercises like walking, jogging or even doing household jobs can help fight stress
• Getting the right amount of sleep – Overworking or over burdening yourself is one of the major factors which adds to stress levels and eats up our sleep time. Not getting enough sleep will not give you the energy to deal with the existing stress or more that may pile up later on. Ensure that you get atleast 8 hours of sleep for your brain and body to get enough rest and deal with the situation as and when they come.

Many people confuse sadness & depression, as the primary emotion attached to depression is being sad. However, these are 2 very different emotional states and must be understood as such.

Sadness is a normal emotional state, triggered by an event or act that is difficult, hurtful, fearful, or disappointing. Basically, sadness implies there is a cause to be sad about, an outside catalyst that brings about distress. Resolution of this event leads to the person going back to a happy state.

Depression is an abnormal emotional state, where one feels sad about everything. There is a lack of event that may trigger depression; in fact, depressed people often have seemingly perfect lives. A person in a depressed state is not able to enjoy anything, is often irritable, feels fatigued, feels isolated and worthless, is having disturbed sleep, can’t concentrate, and in chronic cases, may have thoughts of suicide.

If you or anyone you know is experiencing any of these above symptoms, consult a mental health professional immediately.

Bipolar disorder (Manic Mood disorder) is an unusual mood disorder where a person’s mood fluctuates, thereby affecting mood, energy levels, activity levels and day-to-day tasks.

Bipolar disorder has two main phases – a manic phase & depressive phase. The manic phase is an extremely happy, elated ‘up’ phase whereas the depressive phase is a sad, down-trodden ‘down’ hopeless phase.

Person having an ‘up’ phase will be irritated, feel jumpy, will have excess energy, will try to do multiple activities, be more active than usual, have too many thoughts, be reckless in their behavior.

Person having a ‘down’ phase will be sad, hopeless, have little energy, decreased appetite, disturbed sleep pattern, thoughts of suicide.