Does councelling help???

I have finally decided that I am depressed and have probably been so for some time. )crying a lot , thinking of death in general a lot, no sense of why I am here or why any of us are here type of thing) . I also thing its an age thing as I know I am going through the menopause which doesnt help.

I dont want to take any medication but have got some st johns wort. I can talk about it for ages like this but know as soon as i actually talk to someone I will just cry cry cry. I have been thinking of talking to a professional councellor person but when I looked the weekend not only are they quite costly (£40 an hour) but there are so many different forms it just confused me.

if anyone has been and its clarfied things and helped in any way I would be glad to hear from you.

Hey

I dont know exactly how you feel but I do a little.
My mother is going through a tough time right now - she is a very strong independent woman who never believed that depression was a disease even though her own daughter had it (me).
So after finally admitting that she needed help, she is now seeing a psychotherapist...and is feeling much better - although she never wanted to be on meds she is - that way she justifies it is that depression IS in fact a disease, basically your brain is not producing enough seratonin (not sure of spelling) so the drugs they put you on (depending - there are different kinds) basically give you back that seratonin that you normally naturally should produce.

The thing I find I love about seeing a psychotherapist is that he is genuinely concerned - you got to a walk in clinic and they dont care, they're not willing to try different drugs, at least that was my experience...it took my mother 4 different drugs before she found the right one, but now they are finally kicking in and she has told me she would never go back to the way she was feeling!

So I definetely think seeing a counsellor would help you.
Go once, feel it out, everyone is different.
Goodluck - email if you need someone to talk to.