What You Can Do To Feel Better
When youre depressed, it can feel like theres no light at the end of the tunnel. But there are many things you can do to lift and stabilize your mood. The key is to start with a few small goals and slowly build from there, trying to do a little more each day. Feeling better takes time, but you can get there by making positive choices for yourself.
Reach out to other people. Isolation fuels depression, so reach out to friends and loved ones, even if you feel like being alone or dont want to be a burden to others. The simple act of talking to someone face-to-face about how you feel can be an enormous help. The person you talk to doesnt have to be able to fix you. They just need to be a good listenersomeone wholl listen attentively without being distracted or judging you.
Get moving. When youre depressed, just getting out of bed can seem daunting, let alone exercising. But regular exercise can be as effective as antidepressant medication in countering the symptoms of depression. Take a short walk or put some music on and dance around. Start with small activities and build up from there.
Eat a mood boosting diet. Reduce your intake of foods that can adversely affect your mood, such as caffeine, alcohol, trans fats, sugar and refined carbs. And increase mood-enhancing nutrients such as Omega-3 fatty acids.
Seek Out Positive Relationships
Like seeking out support in groups, seek out positive relationships in your life that do not judge and rather support you as you get better.
These can be friends, family and even past coworkers who offer support and a shoulder to learn on when you need it.
These positive relationships can enable you to heal as well as help you as you move forward in life.
What Are The Causes Of Depression Here Are 14 Surprising Triggers You Should Know About
Depression is one of the most common mental health conditions in the US. Its estimated that one in six people will experience depression at some point in their lives, according to the American Psychiatric Association. Depression might negatively affect the way you feel, think, and act. It can cause feelings of sadness, a loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed, or an inability to function at work and home.
Experts think multiple factors cause depression, including genes, changes in brain chemistry, personality, and environment. Many times, its a combination of two or more of these factors that bring on depression or make it worse. Going through trauma, grief, financial troubles, job loss, and major life transitions can also trigger depression. While those triggers might be more well-known, there are others that are less obvious. Here are some depression triggers to keep in mind.
Seasonal affective disorder is a type of depression that’s related to changes in seasons. SAD begins and ends at about the same times every year, typically lasting four to five months per year, the National Institute of Mental Health reports.
About 5% of people in the US have SAD, according to the American Psychiatric Association. While the disorder is most commonly associated with the winter season, some people do experience it during the warmer months.
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Why Are So Many People Lonely And Depressed In Todays World
In fact, anxiety seclusion is a lot more typical than you might think. There remains in reality an epidemic of isolation in many societies today.Lets check out why some individuals live a lonesome life and experience anxiety seclusion and why it has actually ended up being an epidemic.It might resemble everybody else is continuously getting welcomed to go to amazing celebrations.You might question why you are left out if everybody else other than for you has lots of social activity.This might impress you at why a lot of around the world appear to have a lonesome life. A lot of numerous excellent individuals the modern-day world are jammed close together in big breaking cities.Do you typically feel lonesome? If you do, you may invest a lot of time questioning whats incorrect with you.And it may appear like youre the only one who is left in your house. You understand, awaiting the phone to ring, questioning why no one ever calls you to welcome you out.Sure, as an outcome, we have at hand all the technological advantages that are expected to bring people together. I indicate like, e-mail, telephones, faxes, and the Internet.
How Stress Affects The Body
Stress can be defined as an automatic physical response to any stimulus that requires you to adjust to change. Every real or perceived threat to your body triggers a cascade of stress hormones that produces physiological changes. We all know the sensations: your heart pounds, muscles tense, breathing quickens, and beads of sweat appear. This is known as the stress response.
The stress response starts with a signal from the part of your brain known as the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus joins the pituitary gland and the adrenal glands to form a trio known as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which governs a multitude of hormonal activities in the body and may play a role in depression as well.
When a physical or emotional threat looms, the hypothalamus secretes corticotropin-releasing hormone , which has the job of rousing your body. Hormones are complex chemicals that carry messages to organs or groups of cells throughout the body and trigger certain responses. CRH follows a pathway to your pituitary gland, where it stimulates the secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone , which pulses into your bloodstream. When ACTH reaches your adrenal glands, it prompts the release of cortisol.
The boost in cortisol readies your body to fight or flee. Your heart beats faster up to five times as quickly as normal and your blood pressure rises. Your breath quickens as your body takes in extra oxygen. Sharpened senses, such as sight and hearing, make you more alert.
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The Top 6 Reasons Why People Get Depressed
It is normal to feel lonely, blue or sad occasionally, as these reactions are often short-lived and may pass within a day or two. However, if such feelings already interfere with your daily life, causing pain on both yourself and the people who care for you, depression may be on the way. While this psychological condition is common, it is serious. Sadly, many people with depression dont seek treatment.
If you are feeling depressed, it is not simple to figure out why. Oftentimes, depression does not emerge from a single cause, but rather, results from a combination of factors, perhaps past traumatic events, your present circumstances, your genes, and other things. Below are reported as the top six causes of depression in todays society.
What Is Clinical Depression
Depression or clinically known as major depressive disorder, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders, is a serious mood disorder where people affected by it experience persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness.
Apart from these emotional distress, people with depression can also experience physical symptoms such as chronic pain, or changes in their behaviour such as social withdrawal or slowed movements.
For someone to be diagnosed with clinical depression, symptoms must be present for at least two weeks. Let us look at the various symptoms that must meet the criteria for a diagnosis of depression.
The Diagnostic and statistical manual of Mental Disorders DSM-V outlines the following criterion to make a diagnosis of depression.
The individual must be experiencing five or more symptoms during the same 2-week period and at least one of the symptoms should be either depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure.
These symptoms should indicate change from normal functioning.
To be diagnosed with depression, these symptoms must cause significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
These symptoms should also not be the result of substance abuse or another medical condition.
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Depression: Facts Statistics And You
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Sadness and grief are normal human emotions. We all have those feelings from time to time but they usually go away within a few days. Major depression, or major depressive disorder, however, is something more. Its a diagnosable condition thats classified as a mood disorder and can bring about long-lasting symptoms such as overwhelming sadness, low energy, loss of appetite, and a lack of interest in things that used to bring pleasure.
Left untreated, depression can lead to serious health complications, including putting your life at risk. Fortunately, there are effective treatments for depression through options like therapy, medication, diet, and exercise.
Specific circumstances can trigger other forms of depression or subsets of the condition.
Mild And Moderate Depression
These are the most common types. More than simply feeling blue, the symptoms of mild depression can interfere with your daily life, robbing you of joy and motivation. Those symptoms become amplified in moderate depression and can lead to a decline in confidence and self-esteem.
Recurrent, mild depression
Dysthymia is a type of chronic low-grade depression. More days than not, you feel mildly or moderately depressed, although you may have brief periods of normal mood.
- The symptoms of dysthymia are not as strong as the symptoms of major depression, but they last a long time .
- Some people also experience major depressive episodes on top of dysthymia, a condition known as double depression.
- If you suffer from dysthymia, you may feel like youve always been depressed. Or you may think that your continuous low mood is just the way you are.
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Depression Symptoms In Teens: Why Todays Teens Are More Depressed Than Ever
After a decline in the 1990s, the number of young people that commit suicide has been increasing every year. While no one can explain exactly why, many experts say adolescents and teens today probably face more pressures at home or school, worry about financial issues for their families, and use more alcohol and drugs. This is a very dangerous time for our young people, Kathy Harms, a staff psychologist at Kansas Citys Crittenton Childrens Center, told the Portland Press Herald. Were seeing more anxiety and depression in children of all ages.
Chronic Pain And Illness
Depression is common in people living with chronic illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, type 2 diabetes, and migraines. Research has shown that chronic pain conditions may cause biochemical changes that lead to symptoms of depression.
A person with chronic pain and illness may become depressed due to their situation, especially when they are facing a loss of quality of life, a reduced level of day-to-day functioning, prolonged pain, and/or death.
Its also been shown that people who are diagnosed with one mental illness are more likely to develop another. Conditions such as anxiety and depression commonly co-occur. While different mental health conditions may be diagnosed at the same time and can influence one another, they may need to be treated in different ways.
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Why Are Rich People Depressed
Todays blog post answers the question, Why Are Rich People Depressed? We begin with understanding the rich. This is then accompanied by a detailed understanding of the various reasons that answer the question, why are rich people depressed? Lastly, we discussed the various strategies that the rich people apply or can further apply to keep depression at bay.
Risk Factors For Depression
Depression can affect anyoneeven a person who appears to live in relatively ideal circumstances.
Several factors can play a role in depression:
- Biochemistry: Differences in certain chemicals in the brain may contribute to symptoms of depression.
- Genetics: Depression can run in families. For example, if one identical twin has depression, the other has a 70 percent chance of having the illness sometime in life.
- Personality: People with low self-esteem, who are easily overwhelmed by stress, or who are generally pessimistic appear to be more likely to experience depression.
- Environmental factors: Continuous exposure to violence, neglect, abuse or poverty may make some people more vulnerable to depression.
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Whats The Difference Between Normal Grief After A Loss And Mdd
When you experience a loss of someone close to you, its normal to grieve and feel down and empty for a period of several weeks or more, but it should get better, says Dr. Murrough. If youre starting to feel worse instead of better as time goes on, thats a red flag. Perhaps, more critically, a typical grief reaction isnt: My life is not worth living anymore. Consider seeking treatment if you or someone experiences this.
What Is The Number 1 Cause Of Depression
There is no number 1 cause of depression, but most depressive disorders are a result of a combination of psychological, environmental, and genetic factors.
There can be multiple causes of major depression such as genetic vulnerability, severe life stressors, substances, and medical conditions can affect the way your brain regulates moods.
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Why Are There Such Wide Variations
The stark contrasts between countries have led some to dub depression as a first world problem or a luxury. The logic is that if you are staring down the barrel of a gun or you dont know where the next meal is coming from, you have no time for such introspection.
Recent research points to myriad reasons, many overlapping: in particular less developed countries often lack the infrastructure to collect data on depression, and are less likely to recognise it as an illness. Also, people in these countries are more likely to feel a social stigma against talking about how they feel, and are reluctant to ask for professional help.
Statistics are also less simplistic than rich = depressed and poor = not depressed.
A paper in the journal Plos Medicine argues that, extremes aside, the majority of countries have similar rates of depression. It also found that the most depressed regions are eastern Europe, and north Africa and the Middle East and that, by country, the highest rate of years lost to disability for depression is in Afghanistan, and the lowest in Japan.
What Is The Link Between Smoking And Mental Health Conditions
Smoking is much more common among adults with mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety, than in the general population.6 About 3 out of every 10 cigarettes smoked by adults in the United States are smoked by persons with mental health conditions.6 Why smokers are more likely than nonsmokers to experience depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions is uncertain. More research is needed to determine this. No matter the cause smoking is not a treatment for depression or anxiety. Getting help for your depression and anxiety and quitting smoking is the best way to feel better.
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How Common Is Depression
Major depression is one of the most common mental illnesses in the country. An estimated 17.3 million adults in the US reported having at least one major depressive episode over the course of a year, a 2017 report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration shows.
Thats 7.1% of all adults ages 18 and older. Women have a higher prevalence of experiencing a major depressive episode than men .
Depression is especially crushing for the workforce: Its the number one leading cause of disability worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. The total economic burden of MDD is estimated to be $210.5 billion per year in the United States alonea figure that reflects costs associated with missed days, reduced productivity, treatment for depression, and suicide.
Depression Is Different From Sadness Or Grief/bereavement
The death of a loved one, loss of a job or the ending of a relationship are difficult experiences for a person to endure. It is normal for feelings of sadness or grief to develop in response to such situations. Those experiencing loss often might describe themselves as being depressed.
But being sad is not the same as having depression. The grieving process is natural and unique to each individual and shares some of the same features of depression. Both grief and depression may involve intense sadness and withdrawal from usual activities. They are also different in important ways:
- In grief, painful feelings come in waves, often intermixed with positive memories of the deceased. In major depression, mood and/or interest are decreased for most of two weeks.
- In grief, self-esteem is usually maintained. In major depression, feelings of worthlessness and self-loathing are common.
- In grief, thoughts of death may surface when thinking of or fantasizing about joining the deceased loved one. In major depression, thoughts are focused on ending ones life due to feeling worthless or undeserving of living or being unable to cope with the pain of depression.
Grief and depression can co-exist For some people, the death of a loved one, losing a job or being a victim of a physical assault or a major disaster can lead to depression. When grief and depression co-occur, the grief is more severe and lasts longer than grief without depression.
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Reasons Why Millennials Are So Depressed
Poppy is the author of A Bard’s Lament and the Black Diamond series. She lives in Enoshima with her husband and young son.
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It seems that everyone is depressed lately. In particular, millennials seem to be suffering from some kind of depression or lack of will to live. Millennials are accused of being lazy, unmotivated, and negative about life in general.
Of course, we see way more cases of depression in the 21st century because we, as a society, can recognise and understand mental health issues a lot more. But that can’t be the only reason. The rise of depression cases, young people taking medication such as Prozac, and even the spike in dark depression and suicide memes indicates there is something more than an increase in diagnosis.