Anxiety Depression

Anxiety depression can be caused by many factors and knowing what these factors are will help you to avoid falling into the pit of depression, which can creep up unexpectedly.

Some of the main factors which can cause stress depression are:

Disruption of chemicals in the body such as serotonin, noradrenalin and dopamine by stress.
Lack of self confidence and self esteem
Unable to express yourself properly causing frustration and stress
Negative thinking or incorrect beliefs, causing worry
Learned depressive behaviour from a family member or close friend
Excessive change in life situation
Work pressure
Grief or loss

What is Depression?

depression picture by fakelvis on flickr.com

Although depression is not only caused by anxiety. Stress and depression are linked together quite well and are often experienced together at some time or another.

Describing what depression is, is rather daunting. It can so easily be dismissed as someone just feeling sorry for themselves.

However when experienced there is no doubt that it is a serious medical and recognised condition which needs to be taken seriously and treated like any other medical condition.

Depression is essentially a prolonged period of low mood. We all go through many different moods throughout our days, but they are rarely constant. It is only when a low mood becomes a permanent state that it is classed as depression and feeling miserable or sad for one day is not and should not be called being depressed.

When stress and anxiety are prolonged causing disruption of the body’s chemical balance and causing the persons general mood to be low more often than not, this is when anxiety depression kicks in.

Symptoms of anxiety depression

Here are the most common and important symptoms which constitute a depressed state.

Low mood every day for a long period of time
Do not enjoy anything anymore have lost the sense of pleasure in anything you do
Significant weight gain or weight loss or loss of appetite
Problems sleeping on a regular basis
Feeling tired all the time, have a real lack of energy
Loss of concentration
Feelings of worthlessness

Who is prone to stress related depression?

Basically anyone who experiences high levels of extreme stress for a prolonged period of time can fall prey to depression. However there are groups of people who seem to be more vulnerable to this type of depression.

Students – Figures from a survey carried out in 2001 for the mental health Foundation have indicated that in Britain, 46% of male students and 64% of female students experienced depression.

Possible causes are:

Financial worries,
Poor nutrition,
Lack of exercise
Excessive drug and alcohol use.

Elderly people – Around 1 in 5 elderly people suffer from depression, this is slightly higher for those who live in residential care homes.

Possible causes are:

Loneliness
Boredom
Loss of partner
Health worries
Side effects of medication

Unemployed people – Being unemployed is an extremely stressful period in anyone’s life and in Britain it has been constantly shown that around 40% suffer from depression.

Possible causes:

Financial worries
Feelings of worthlessness
Boredom and lack of stimulation
Pressure from family members

Combat your anxiety depression

Of course tackling the root cause of your stress and implementing stress relief strategies is a major to do if suffering from anxiety depression. However there are certain things you can do to tackle your actual low mood.

Make a to do list for every day. This may only consist of one thing, such as do the washing or call a friend. But forcing yourself to do at least one thing a day will help break your lethargy and will boost your self esteem. I.e. you achieved something and you can put a big tick next to it on your list.
Keep a diary. Write down everything you do and note down how much you enjoyed it or not. Then read back and try to do more of the things that you enjoyed the most.
When thinking negative thoughts, write them down and challenge them. As yourself if they are really true or not.
Never keep your feelings to yourself. Talking through how you feel with someone is the first step on your path to recovery.
Try to keep active, exercise a little more each day. This will help to raise your mood enhancing chemicals in your brain.