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Can Stress Lead To Depression

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Are Stress And Depression Related Exploring The Relationship Between Stress And Depression

Stress, Anxiety, Depression and Cardiac Health

Adrian Drew

Dr. Steven HarveySt. Louis Regional Medical Director

Chronic stress is a prevalent issue in our busy and demanding world. Depression is also a common condition, with 16.1 million American adults experiencing major depression at any given time. But are stress and depression related? Stress is a generally a direct emotional response to what is happening in your life or the world around you.

Depression, on the other hand, is a health condition that develops over time due to a variety of factors, some related to life experiences, and some not. But the difference between stress and depression may not always be clear. In many cases, the symptoms of the two can overlap, and stress may even contribute to the development of depression.

Hospital Anxiety And Depression Scale

Patients are asked to choose one response from the four given for each interview. They should give an immediate response and be dissuaded from thinking too long about their answers. The questions relating to anxiety are marked âAâ, and to depression âDâ. The score for each answer is given in the right column.

Symptoms And Causes Of Depression

Symptoms of depression can be very different from person to person. However, as a general rule, if you are depressed you feel hopeless, sad and lacking interest in things that used to make you feel happy.

Depression symptoms are bad enough to interfere with work, social life and family life, and can persist for weeks or months.

Doctors describe depression in one of three ways, depending on how serious it is:

  • mild depression it has some impact on daily life
  • moderate depression it has a significant impact on your daily life
  • severe depression this makes it nearly impossible to get through your life day to day

A few people with severe depression may have symptoms of psychotic depression.

Below is a list of depression symptoms it’s unlikely that one person would have all of them.

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Can Stress Cause Depression And Anxiety The Long And Short Answers

Clinical Depression : a mood disorder that causes severe symptoms affecting how a person feels, thinks, and manages daily activities . To be diagnosed with depression, symptoms must be present for at least two weeks.

Anxiety Disorders: a group of mental disturbances with anxiety as a central symptom. Although anxiety is common, not everyone who experiences it has an anxiety disorder. Anxiety is associated with a wide range of physical illnesses, medication side effects, and conditions.

How To Prevent Stress From Morphing Into Depression

Can Anxiety Lead To Depression

Understanding the psychological mechanisms of how stress can lead to depression can help you prevent it. This is especially important for people who have had a prior episode of depression and would like to prevent relapse.

Stress has direct effects on mood. Early initial symptoms of lowered mood can include irritability, sleep disruption, and cognitive changes, such as impaired concentration. However, the indirect effects of stress are often what causes depression to take hold.

1. Stress disrupts a persons healthy coping strategies.

When people experience stress, they often stop engaging in some of the healthy coping strategies that usually help keep their mood on track. In other words, when stress triggers a lowered mood, it’s more likely that the person will skip their typical healthy mood regulation strategiesresulting in further mood problems.

Example: Stress at work can lead to overworking as a result, the person doesnt go to yoga class, go running, read before bed, or catch up with close friends as much.

2. Early initial low mood symptoms generate further stress.

When a person is stressed and begins to experience some initial changes in their mood, these symptoms often generate further increased stress.

Example:

  • the person has an irritable outburst at work and gets a complaint
  • impaired concentration results in a mistakeeither a major mistake or just a small mistake, like leaving something important at home

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Getting Help For Depression

If you think you might be depressed, take a depression screening. Print out the results or e-mail them to yourself and then show them to a counselor or doctor.

To get help, start with your student health center or counseling service on campus. Most community colleges provide limited free mental health services and can refer you to local providers for longer-term treatment. You can also talk to your family doctor. Your local Mental Health America affiliate can refer or in some cases provide services as well. To find the nearest MHA affiliate, call 800-969-6642 or go to Find An Affiliate.

Remember, depression and other mental health conditions are nothing to be ashamed of. Depression is not a sign of weakness, and seeking help is a sign of strength. Telling someone you are struggling is the first step toward feeling better. You will need the help of a mental health professional to beat depression. Talk therapy, antidepressant medication or a combination can be very effective.

In crisis? If you or someone you know is in crisis now, seek help immediately. Call 1-800-273-TALK to reach a 24-hour crisis center or dial 911 for immediate assistance.

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Other Causes Of Depression

There are a number of things that can lead to developing depression.

  • Stressful events big changes in your life, like bereavement, the end of a relationship or the loss of a job, can be difficult to deal with. When these things happen, it’s important to keep seeing friends and family instead of trying to deal with problems alone this increases your risk of developing depression.
  • Giving birth pregnancy and birth can make some people vulnerable to depression. Postnatal depression can happen as the result of physical changes, hormonal changes, and the responsibility of taking care of a new baby.
  • Loneliness your risk of depression gets higher if you aren’t in contact or spending time with family and friends.
  • Personality some personality traits can put you at a higher risk of developing depression. These include low-self esteem or a habit of criticising yourself too much. These personality traits can come from your genes, which you get from your parents, or they can be as a result of experiences in your early life.
  • Family history it’s more likely for someone to develop depression if a family member, like a sibling or parent, has experienced it before.

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You Could Potentially Suffer From Tmj Disorders

Frustration and stress can often lead you to clench your teeth. However, if this happens too often, it could actually cause some problems for your jaw and neck! TMJ disorders can be aggravating these jaw muscles that are used to clench your teeth. It can lead to pain in the jaw joint, popping and clicking sounds when you open your mouth or chew, and even difficulties with opening and closing your mouth.

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Brain Regions Involved In Depression

Stressors and the Environment Cause Depression (3 of 11)

Signals from environmental stressors such as danger to life, social stressors and responses to injuries in the body are firstly transduced by sensory nervous systems, and then the sequent information is processed by so-called emotional circuits in the brain . Although so far we have no clear understanding of the neural loops underlying the pathology of depression, the diverse symptoms of depression imply that many brain regions could be involved in the affection disorders . Human brain imaging researches have demonstrated alterations of hemorheology and related parameters in brain regions such as amygdala, thalamus, striatum, hippocampus, prefrontal and cingulate cortex and so on, and many abnormities in those regions have been evidenced by studies on brains of depressive patients on autopsy .

The most frequently reported findings obtained by brain-imaging technology are diminished grey-matter volumes and reduced glial densities of hippocampus and prefrontal cortex in depressive patients , while it is still inconclusive whether these alterations in hippocampus and PFC represent a precipitating factor or are just a result of major depression .

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Treating Depression And Anxiety Without Medication

Major depressive disorder is a very real biological illness and should be treated with the same seriousness as physical illnesses like diabetes. What many people dont know is that antidepressants arent the only option for treating clinical depression. In 2008, the FDA approved Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as a valid option for treating depression without medication.

Today, TMS remains the safest and most effective method for treating clinical depression. TMS was also FDA approved in 2018 for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder . TMS is not to be confused with ECT, which we discuss in our TMS vs. ECT analysis article. TMS uses magnetic fields, similar to those used in MRIs, to stimulate blood flow in the prefrontal cortex and promote neurotransmitters that play a role in symptoms of depression.

According to controlled clinical studies, 83% of Neurostar TMS patients see a positive response using TMS therapy. The clinical trials also showed TMS to have a 11% relapse rate across all patients, which is a lower rate than any other depression treatment.

Only 37% of TMS patients needed additional TMS, and 85% of these patients re-achieved clinical benefits. Unlike antidepressant medications, TMS doesnt subject patients to a long list of negative side-effects.

How effective is TMS as a long-term treatment for clinical depression? Controlled clinical studies with Neurostar TMS machines show that 83% of patients experience positive outcomes from undergoing TMS therapy.

Can Stress Kill You

Whether its work deadlines, debt or even road rage, we all get stressed from time-to-time.

While for most the feeling passes, others become overwhelmed and unable to cope.

In the short term, stress can leave us anxious, tearful and struggling to sleep.

But over time, continuously feeling frazzled could trigger heart attacks, strokes, and even suicidal thoughts.

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In short, yes, stress can kill you, Dr. Diana Gall from Doctor4U told Yahoo UK.

Though its not the stressful situations that kill you, its how you deal with stress that affects your health.

When we encounter a stressful situation, our body produces hormones that send us into fight or flight.

This causes a surge in the hormone adrenaline, which gets our heart pumping and raises our blood pressure, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The stress hormone cortisol also gets released, curbing functions that are non-essential in a fight or flight scenario, like the immune and digestive systems.

Fight or flight can be helpful, with the sudden release of adrenaline giving us the boost we need to get through a big work presentation or even escape danger.

Once the stressful situation has passed, our hormone levels should return to normal.

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Over time, sufferers may endure digestive problems, weight gain, and even heart disease, according to the Mayo Clinic.

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How Is Cortisol Related To Depression

While people often associate cortisol with stress, the hormone also helps regulate metabolism, inflammation, blood sugar, and more.

Experts still dont know exactly what causes depression, but a combination of factors may be involved, including:

  • environmental factors, such as stressful or traumatic events
  • genetic factors, which are largely inherited from your parents
  • biological factors, such as hormone levels

According to a 2015 review, chronic stress can lead to mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. Some researchers believe that this is because chronic stress leads to consistently high cortisol levels, which can affect the brain.

Another 2015 review says that stressful events may cause psychological changes and brain changes, specifically in the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. The HPA axis is the region of the brain that produces cortisol. This review also notes that many people with depression have high cortisol levels.

Does that mean that high levels of cortisol are the main cause of depression? Not necessarily.

Experiencing chronic stress doesnt always mean that youll develop depression. Certain people may be more prone to developing depression in the face of stress.

A small 2020 study found no significant difference in cortisol levels before and after treatment in participants with major depressive disorder , even when treatment was successful and symptoms decreased.

Identify The Cause Of Your Depression Stress Or Anxiety And Address It

Does Stress Lead To Depression

Seek therapy if necessary.

At times you may feel down for a couple of days, but if it goes on for two weeks or more, you may need to seek help. Depression is a problem when it causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease your ability to function at work and at home.

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How To Treat Mouth Ulcers And Canker Sores

So long as they arent constantly being rubbed against or repeatedly bitten down on, ulcers should go away by themselves.

However the pain and interference with eating and talking that mouth ulcers and Canker Sores cause can mean that you want them gone as soon as possible.

Here is how its done:

1) Ulcers will disappear faster if they are not irritated or interfered with.

It therefore may be a good idea to avoid chewing on the side of the mouth where you have an ulcer .

Similarly you should try and to resist the urge to play with your ulcer with your fingers or tongue.

2) You can use over the counter painkillers to reduce the pain of your ulcer or canker sore.

The reduced pain should also decrease your urge to play with your ulcer. This should promote healing further.

Ideally you want to be using painkillers withan anti-inflammatory quality.

Anti-inflammatories fight infection as well as reduce pain, therefore making your ulcer or Canker Sore heal faster.

Ibuprofen and Aspirin are the two most common over the counter anti-inflammatory painkiller.

Paracetamol is not an anti-inflammatory.

Anti-inflammatories are best for reducing most painful oral health issues

3) Inflammation can be reduced by rinsing the ulcer with warm salty water.

This is because salt-water is a mild anti-septic. It can kill the harmful inflammation causing bacteria without doing any damage to the infected tissue itself.

A Saltwater solution will gently disinfect your mouth ulcer

How Can Depression Lead To Death

People living with untreated depression can experience a variety of physical health problems that can lead to death in some cases. In addition, in severe cases, a person living with depression may contemplate suicide. They may also resort to substance misuse for self-medication, which can lead to death.

Depression can make you feel like its not worth investing in yourself for treatment. But because depression can have serious psychological and physical consequences, the faster you start treatment, the sooner youll be able to manage your symptoms.

The following section explores in more detail the primary ways in which depression may lead to death.

of suicides may be related to a mental health condition such as depression.

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Aim To Exercise More And Start Small If You Need To

Though depressive attitudes may make it harder to work out, implementing an exercise routine thats realistic and attainable in your everyday life can ease depression fatigue.

Exercise has the added benefit of improving your sleep, too.

Its OK to start small even just walking for 30 minutes a day will likely boost your energy and mood. Exercise is truly an organic and reliable way to help address your depression fatigue.

Does Chronic Stress Lead To Anxiety Or Depression

How Childhood Trauma Can Lead to Anxiety and Depression In Adults

June 12, 2015 by Dr. Carlo

Stress is part of everyday life for everyonewe all have disappointments, make our mistakes, and endure daily mishaps. Perhaps you lost your keys today and it made you late for workmaybe you let a friend down and are now feeling guilty about itor maybe you are just experiencing a lot of pressure and deadlines at work. We neutralize these stressors by instituting our coping skills and relying on our natural support network. However, the overall goal is not to get rid of stress entirely, as stress is needed in healthy amounts to help us grow, develop, and learn new skills. Stress also helps us to perform optimally, as just the right amount of stress will push us to do better, such as preparing to take an exam, or preparing for a competition.

It does appear that anxiety and depression also share the same neurobiology. It starts with genetic vulnerabilities interacting with environmental triggers , and this interaction leads to abnormal brain processing circuits, which in this case manifests as increased reactivity of the amygdala to stressors and fearful stimuli. This hypothesis has been supported by a recent study by Swartz and colleagues , where study subjects with increased reactivity of their amygdala to fearful stimuli , when combined with a major life stressor, are at increased risk of developing either anxiety or depression up to 4 years later.

Figure 1. Negative Cycle of Anxiety

Figure 2. Negative Cycle of Depression

References:

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What The Expert Says

A depressed person is compromised in dealing with problematic situations, says Stacey Stickley, a licensed professional counselor practicing in Ashburn, Virginia. When a person is dealing with depression, things may seem more negative than they really are. Events that would have been taken in stride may seem more problematic or impossible to handle. The idea of taking action on things may require more of a persons resources, resources that are already compromised due to the depression.

Talk to your doctor about pharmacological options, or go talk to a counselor about evaluating and managing your symptoms, she says. Dont wait. Being proactive is important so you can maybe stop the downward slide sooner. Its easier to climb out of a shallow hole than one you have been slowly digging and tunneling into for several months.

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