Depression symptoms can vary from mild to severe and can include:
- Feeling sad or having a depressed mood
- Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed
- Changes in appetite — weight loss or gain unrelated to dieting
- Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
- Loss of energy or increased fatigue
- Increase in purposeless physical activity (e.g., inability to sit still, pacing, handwringing) or slowed movements or speech (these actions must be severe enough to be observable by others)
- Feeling worthless or guilty
- Difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions
- Thoughts of death or suicide

Symptoms must last at least two weeks and must represent a change in your previous level of functioning for a diagnosis of depression. Also, medical conditions (e.g., thyroid problems, a brain tumor or vitamin deficiency) can mimic symptoms of depression so it is important to rule out general medical causes.

Depression affects an estimated one in 15 adults (6.7%) in any given year. And one in six people (16.6%) will experience depression at some time in their life. Depression can occur at any time, but on average, first appears during the late teens to mid-20s. Women are more likely than men to experience depression. Some studies show that one-third of women will experience a major depressive episode in their lifetime. There is a high degree of heritability (approximately 40%) when first-degree relatives (parents/children/siblings) have depression.

Do not despair if you are recognizing these symptoms in yourself. You are here and in the right place! 80-90% of those who receive help for depression respond well to treatment. Treatment can consist of a variety of resources. It can include medication (however not all who are depressed need to take this route), exercise, meditation, deep breathing, self care, mental health therapy

EMDR is used to treat depression by targeting the negative beliefs and self-talk that trigger depressive symptoms. EMDR is based on the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, which is a theory stating that the things that happen to us are what lead to our internal dialogue and nervous system response to life events.

Due to the limited information our brain has to utilize when something negative happens, we might jump to certain conclusions about ourselves or the world. Alternatively, due to the heightened activation of our emergency processes when something traumatic happens, it may become stuck in overdrive. The mind will use that same limited data to inform us of current or future events and our emergency response may be sensitive to activation.

Studies confirm EMDR as an evidence-based practice for treating depression. Although more research is needed for specific types of depression, evidence demonstrates significant improvement in symptoms of depression for EMDR participants. One study showed that patients with depression achieved a significant reduction of symptoms after six to eight sessions. Not only did it treat their symptoms, but it improved their overall quality of life.

See sources below: (Gauhar, Yasmeen (2016). The efficacy of EMDR in the treatment of depression. Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 10(2), DOI: 10.1891/1933-3196.10.2.59Malandrone, Francesca; Carleton, Sara; Hase, Michael; Hofmann, Arne & Ostacoli, Luca (2019). A brief summary of randomized controlled trials investigating EMDR treatment of patients with depression. Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 13(4), DOI: 10.1891/1933-31.4.302Wood, Emily & Ricketts, Thomas (2013). Is EMDR an evidence-based treatment for depression? A review of the literature. Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 7(4), DOI: 10.1891/1933-3196.7.4.225

Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure.

People with anxiety disorders usually have recurring intrusive thoughts or concerns. They may avoid certain situations out of worry. They may also have physical symptoms such as sweating, trembling, dizziness, or a rapid heartbeat.

Anxiety is not the same as fear, but they are often used interchangeably. Anxiety is considered a future-oriented, long-acting response broadly focused on a diffuse threat, whereas fear is an appropriate, present-oriented, and short-lived response to a clearly identifiable and specific threat

- Feeling nervous, restless or tense
- Having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom
- Having an increased heart rate
- Breathing rapidly (hyperventilation)
- Sweating
- Trembling
- Feeling weak or tired
- Trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry
- Having trouble sleeping
- Experiencing gastrointestinal (GI) problems
- Having difficulty controlling worry
- Having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety

1. Slow breathing. When you’re anxious, your breathing becomes faster and shallower. Try deliberately slowing down your breathing. Count to three as you breathe in slowly – then count to three as you breathe out slowly.
2. Progressive muscle relaxation. Find a quiet location. Close your eyes and slowly tense and then relax each of your muscle groups from your toes to your head. Hold the tension for three seconds and then release quickly. This can help reduce the feelings of muscle tension that often comes with anxiety.
3. Stay in the present moment. Anxiety can make your thoughts live in a terrible future that hasn’t happened yet. Try to bring yourself back to where you are. Practicing meditation can help.
4. Healthy lifestyle. Keeping active, eating well, going out into nature, spending time with family and friends, reducing stress and doing the activities you enjoy are all effective in reducing anxiety and improving your wellbeing.  
5. Take small acts of bravery. Avoiding what makes you anxious provides some relief in the short term, but can make you more anxious in the long term. Try approaching something that makes you anxious – even in a small way. The way through anxiety is by learning that what you fear isn’t likely to happen – and if it does, you’ll be able to cope with it.
6. Challenge your self-talk. How you think affects how you feel. Anxiety can make you overestimate the danger in a situation and underestimate your ability to handle it. Try to think of different interpretations to a situation that’s making you anxious, rather than jumping to the worst-case scenario. Look at the facts for and against your thought being true.
7. Plan worry time. It’s hard to stop worrying entirely so set aside some time to indulge your worries. Even 10 minutes each evening to write them down or go over them in your head can help stop your worries from taking over at other times.
8. Get to know your anxiety. Keep a diary of when it’s at it’s best – and worst. Find the patterns and plan your week – or day – to proactively manage your anxiety.
9. Learn from others. Talking with others who also experience anxiety – or are going through something similar – can help you feel less alone. Visit our Online Forums to connect with others.
10. Be kind to yourself. Remember that you are not your anxiety. You are not weak. You are not inferior. You have a mental health condition. It’s called anxiety. (https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/anxiety/treatments-for-anxiety/anxiety-management-strategies)

EMDR treatment works by directing eye movements while imagining distressing scenarios and shifting your attention toward more positive thoughts, causing anxiety to dissipate.

During this process, the therapist asks the client to notice the sensations, images, and emotions that they experience and slowly begin to shift attention away from negative thoughts toward more positive ones. In doing so, anxiety begins to lift and the client is able to regain control over their emotional state. The creator of EMDR, Shapiro herself notes that dozens of randomized controlled trials have found EMDR to be an effective treatment that produces “rapid decreases in negative emotions and/or vividness of disturbing images. Numerous other evaluations document that EMDR therapy provides relief from a variety of somatic complaints” associated with anxiety disorders.

One of the benefits of EMDR treatment is that you don’t necessarily have to talk about painful memories, making the therapy particularly inviting for those who have trouble verbalizing their experiences or for whom those experiences remain too painful to talk about. Rather, using EMDR for anxiety can be a largely internal process during which you are guided by a therapist who seeks to lead you out of a place of anxiety toward one of safety and inner tranquility. This process can allow you to access parts of yourself that traditional talk therapy may not be able to reach.

It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal.  EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma.  When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound.  If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain.  Once the block is removed, healing resumes.  EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes.  The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health.  If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering.  Once the block is removed, healing resumes.  Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR therapy training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes.

More than 30 positive controlled outcome studies have been done on EMDR therapy.  Some of the studies show that 84%-90% of single-trauma victims no longer have post-traumatic stress disorder after only three 90-minute sessions.  Another study, funded by the HMO Kaiser Permanente, found that 100% of the single-trauma victims and 77% of multiple trauma victims no longer were diagnosed with PTSD after only six 50-minute sessions. In another study, 77% of combat veterans were free of PTSD in 12 sessions. There has been so much research on EMDR therapy that it is now recognized as an effective form of treatment for trauma and other disturbing experiences by organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization and the Department of Defense. Given the worldwide recognition as an effective treatment of trauma, you can easily see how EMDR therapy would be effective in treating the “everyday” memories that are the reason people have low self-esteem, feelings of powerlessness, and all the myriad problems that bring them in for therapy. Over 100,000 clinicians throughout the world use the therapy.  Millions of people have been treated successfully over the past 33 years.

EMDR therapy is an eight-phase treatment.  Eye movements (or other bilateral stimulation) are used during one part of the session.  After the memory has been decided to target first, the client holds different aspects of that event or thought in mind and track the therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth across the client’s field of vision, tap back and forth, etc.  As this happens, for reasons believed by a Harvard researcher to be connected with the biological mechanisms involved in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, internal associations arise and the clients begin to process the memory and disturbing feelings. In successful EMDR therapy, the meaning of painful events is transformed on an emotional level.  For instance, a rape victim shifts from feeling horror and self-disgust to holding the firm belief that, “I survived it and I am strong.”  Unlike talk therapy, the insights clients gain in EMDR therapy result not so much from clinician interpretation, but from the client’s own accelerated intellectual and emotional processes.  The net effect is that clients conclude EMDR therapy feeling empowered by the very experiences that once debased them.  Their wounds have not just closed, they have transformed. As a natural outcome of the EMDR therapeutic process, the clients’ thoughts, feelings and behavior are all robust indicators of emotional health and resolution—all without speaking in detail or doing homework used in other therapies.

Source: https://www.emdr.com/what-is-emdr/