All people experience moments of sadness. In most cases, these times last for a few hours or days. Nearly one-fifth of the people in the world, however, are diagnosed with major depression, which causes depression that lasts for weeks, months, or longer. These moods cause the person to develop difficulties performance in career, family, or interpersonal relationships, which can become disabling.
Women who have symptoms of depression when they become pregnant are sometimes treated for perinatal depression.
This illness can develop at any point after pregnancy begins, and up till the baby is one year old. Typically, however, those who develop this problem after childbirth are diagnosed with postpartum depression.
Perinatal depression or postpartum depression is linked with many causes. These causes may be physical. For instance, females with a personal or familial history of severe depression or other mental health problems are very likely to experience perinatal depression or postpartum depression. 
Furthermore, hormonal changes after childbirth, like drops in estrogen and progesterone levels, can cause this condition. After childbirth, thyroid problems sometimes result in symptoms of depression such as tiredness, irritability, and hopelessness.
Often, mental depression is a result of psychological factors. Mothers may are tired and stressed as they learn to cope with the demands made by the new infant. Such feelings are sometimes magnified by the absence of support from family, friends, or spouse. Money problems can also help to cause postpartum depression.
Perinatal depression and postpartum depression can have serious results for both the woman and her infant. Worry and depression can hinder a woman from bonding completely with her baby or being capable of meeting her baby’s physical and psychological needs. This can worsen the woman’s sense of insignificance, self-blame, and self-doubt.
The baby is also stressed by the woman’s issues. Failure to bond with his or her mother can result in the child to develop trust problems in personal attachments throughout life. In addition, babies who do not have their physical or psychological needs met may fail to grow and develop normally. This condition, described as “failure to thrive,” can be very serious or even deadly to the baby.
Perinatal depression or postpartum depression can harm everyone in the family. The spouse or partner can feel ignored or powerless to decrease these depression symptoms. This may irreparably wound the partnership. Other children in the family may experience related feelings, and exhibit school-related or peer problems as well.
Depression damages the whole family. Therefore, women experiencing perinatal depression or postpartum depression should seek depression treatment as quickly as possible. Many approaches can be used, like talk therapy and medication treatments. Medications, however, may be dangerous for nursing infants, and often have erratic outcomes due to the great hormonal fluctuations a mother experiences during these hectic months.
Moreover, typical counseling approaches are usually lengthy and expensive.
Two techniques for dealing with depression that do not involve medications and often rapidly show dramatically effective outcomes are hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Traditional Hypnotherapy is best used with persons who can be effortlessly entranced or are capable of accepting suggestions without needing to critique or comprehend them. Ericksonian hypnosis is quite effective for those who tend to overanalyze. These strategies allow clients to unwind and eliminate tension.
For those who tend to be more critical or analytical individuals, NLP is often more effective. 
Through this technique, trained practitioners offer people depression help by assisting them to restructure their thought processes. This method can, quite literally, assist an individual think past the depressive mood and overcome it.
Clients can overcome depression by learning NLP tools like anchoring. They learn to think of times when they were happy and controlled their situations. Recalling the event revives these feelings. Clients are taught to put two fingers together and remember these emotions.
The subconscious mind connects the touch of the two fingers with the feelings. Thus, the finger touch becomes an “anchor.” Then, when the individual starts to become stressed, he or she sparks the anchor by touching these identical two fingers together again. This elicits feelings of self-control and creates empowerment.
Through another strategy known as the Flash, clients discover how to reason away negative emotions.
They program their subconscious minds to instantly substitute positive thoughts for negative ones. When negative thoughts develop, the brain instantly exchanges them for positive thoughts. After developing this approach, clients find it almost impossible to think negative thoughts!
Summary:
Perinatal depression and postpartum depression often have disastrous results for a woman and her new baby. The remainder of the family is also profoundly affected by these problems. Because of the probable gravity of the results of this disorder, women with depression should seek help as soon as symptoms begin. Two quite effective strategies that do not require medication or great outlays of time and financial resources are hypnosis and NLP.
Alan B. Densky, CH specializes in depression and stress related symptoms as a certified hypnotist and NLP Practitioner. He has helped thousands of clients since 1978. He supplies self-hypnosis therapy for depression CDs. Visit his Neuro-VISION NLP website for the hypnosis article repository, or watch his free video hypnosis collection.
