Stress and Depression - Symptoms and Management

Stress and depression is prevalent in all age groups and in people belonging to all walks of life. The level of stress that you take upon yourself and the events that cause stress basically depend upon your response to the various situations in life and the manner in which perceive them.

Life throws up many situations and not all of them are favorable. Everyone perceives and reacts to these situations differently. Unfortunately, some of us are not equipped to handle changes and adverse situations adequately. While some embrace adverse situations with positive emotions others react with negative emotions like anger, fear, frustration and sadness.

Many people find it difficult to adapt to changed situations or accept realities. The result is that stress overwhelms such people. Stress, in modern times, is understood to be the single largest contributor to depression. Depending upon the personality of an individual, depression may stem from even minor stress.

Some of the more common causes of depression can be found in workplace stress, strained familial relations, midlife crisis and chronic stress.

Symptoms

Stress induced depression may manifest as symptoms that include but may not be limited to:

• Extreme sadness - Stress related depression leads to a continuous feeling of being overwhelmed. Some may also experience apathy and a feeling of emptiness accompanied by anxiety.
• Lack of interest in normally enjoyable activities - Activities that were enjoyable suddenly seem uninteresting and stress related depression leads to a situation of inaction. The very activities that were appealing earlier seem too tough, difficult or impossible to try out.
• Loss of libido - With a sad mental frame of mind, a large proportion of people actually experience a drop in their sex drive. This leads to marital strain and can cause further stress.
• Oversleeping or sleeplessness - Another common symptom of depression, disturbed sleep patterns result in a disruption in life. It becomes virtually impossible to enjoy a good night's sleep. The mind races, wondering how the obstacles, real or imagined, will be overcome.
• Overeating or loss of appetite - Changes in dietary patterns results in causing havoc in the digestive system too. Food does not taste good any longer. Sometimes it becomes difficult to eat due to the bottomless feeling in the pit of the stomach. On the other hand, some people tend to overeat out of frustration or anger.
• Lethargy and low energy levels - Depression causes slowness. There is a reduction in reaction times, movements are slow and there is a feeling of general fatigue.
• Hopelessness - People experiencing depression fail to see light at the end of the tunnel, they lose all hope that things will ever get better.
• Thoughts of suicide - If there is no relief from depression for a long time, depression induces thoughts of death and suicide seems to be the only way out.

Although difficult to recognize in children below the age of eight, depression can also be observed in juveniles. Stress related depression is likely to surface when children start growing up. Puberty brings with it the stress of hormonal changes, peer pressure and social expectations. These changes bring about mood swings and sometimes social withdrawal. Without proper guidance and counseling, teenagers are often confused about what is happening to them and may fall victim to depression.

It is often said that women are more susceptible to depression than men. This may simply be an assumption based on the fact that men are prone to express their stress through anger while women are more likely to say that they are depressed.

Management of Stress and Depression

It is of utmost necessity that stress is managed to avoid anxiety disorders or depression. Just as depression has many faces, the road to recovery too has many facets. If you are undergoing harrowing experiences of stress, the first step is to make a firm decision that you will get rid of stress. And it is not as difficult as it sounds.

• The first thing to understand is that there is no need to panic in any situation. Irrespective of the task at hand, you alone can handle the stress and depression that you are facing and fight it off. Remember that helpless and hopelessness in you are not a reality but a symptom of depression. Seek help if you are not able to convince yourself. A strong support system will start you on the road to recovery from depression. Do not remain isolated as it fuels depression. Reach out to others, seek help and let your friends and family know what you are going through.
• Make changes in your lifestyle. These are not always easy to make but simple lifestyle changes can mitigate the affects of depression.
  • Go out of the way to cultivate new and supportive relationships.
  • Maintain an active lifestyle. Exercise regularly. Exercise releases feel good hormones that elevate moods.
  • Learn yoga, meditation and other relaxation techniques.
  • Avoid negative thoughts and adopt a positive attitude to life. Life situations look adverse only when you think negatively. If you look hard enough you will find that even situations that look extremely unfavorable have a positive to side to it.
• Seek professional help if these two do not work. A mental health professional will create a personalized treatment plan on the basis of the severity of your symptoms. A well constructed plan teaches you skills that you can employ to combat depression. Cognitive behavioral therapy, for example, works at the root of your depression and helps to reframe negative thinking and helping you understand why you feel the way you do.

Antidepressant medications have safety concerns as they are beset with side effects that can cause more problems than what you may already be combating with. Avoid medication unless it is prescribed by your mental health caregiver.

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