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The Main Reasons For Depression
The Main Reasons For Depression
There are very different beliefs as to what really causes depression. Some are understandable, while others are either far out or deny the existence of a such condition. Here is a closer look into the main reasons for depression.
Getting it straight
Before going through the various causes of depression it is important to understand just how serious this illness is. It affects millions of people around the world, including teenagers and children. If not picked up and treated early the consequences can be dire. Treatment is usually based on the cause, and since there are various causes there are also various treatment methods.
Biological
There are very real biological causes of depression. Studies have shown that there are imbalances in certain neurotransmitters. This is what the antidepressant drugs try to fix by blocking or stimulating certain neurotransmitters. Then there is the issue of family history. If you have a first degree relative with depression or mood disorder you are at increased risk of developing depression.
Psychological
People can be exposed to the same situations and not all of them will become depressed. This is where the mind comes in. There are a number of psychological aspects that increase your risk of getting depression. This includes a pessimistic personality, chronic and painful medical conditions, a personal history of depression, as well as other psychiatric disorders like anxiety disorders, eating disorders and substance abuse.
Environmental
If somebody has a genetic or biological predisposition to depression then any environmental stressor can push them over the edge and eventually result in a depressive disorder. This could happen as one big event or a culmination. The big event usually involves death of a loved one or injury, or stressful life changes like divorce or emigration. These are usually easy to pick up when compared to the combination events.
Signs of Acute Anxiety
Acute Anxiety Signs & Symptoms
Acute anxiety is a particular type of anxiety disorder that is noted for the panic attacks that people experience along with changes in their behavior. The panic attack may only last for a few minutes but they may also last for hours and when the individual is coming out of the attack, they may experience mood changes and become irritable. Many people have experienced at least one panic attack in their life but for those with a panic disorder, they experience many more than that and are usually triggered by specific things for each person. This condition generally starts in the individual sometime before their mid-twenties and is often caused by some sort of trauma such as an accident or illness. While more women suffer from acute anxiety, there are many men who also suffer from it as well. In America alone, almost two percent of the population is diagnosed with acute anxiety.
The panic attack is brought on by an intense fear or intense worry about something in particular for that individual. They may feel like they are losing control and have the urge to leave the place where they are. Someone sitting next to the person who may have a panic attack coming on may notice that the individual is short of breath or fidgeting. The individual who is suffering from the attack may have chest pain, having trouble catching their breath, feel dizzy and a number of other symptoms. This generally comes from the reaction of the sympathetic nervous system with the well-known ‘fight or flight’ response that is normal for when the body is in danger.
There are four general categories of symptoms for acute anxiety including physical, perceptual, emotional and mental. The first include those already mentioned plus sweating, stomach pains, exhaustion and a rapid pulse. The second includes tunnel vision or a dream-like reality. The third includes terror, fear and flashbacks, and the fourth includes a loss of control, extreme nervousness and hearing loud dialogue inside the mind. Anyone experiencing these attacks or that knows someone who does is urged to get professional assistance with the matter.
Major Depression Symptoms, What to Look For
Major Depression Symptoms, What to Look For
Depression can affect everyone from all ages and walks of life. Here are the 9 key major depression symptoms that you should look out for if you are suspecting depression.
Depressed mood – People with depression have a depressed mood for most of the day most days of the week for at least two weeks. This may be noticed by themselves or by others around them.
Lack of interest – A very common sign of depression is the loss of interest in activities. This means that what somebody may have found pleasurable once does not get any pleasure out of it now.
Weight loss – People with depression lose their appetites, which eventually leads to weight loss. On rare occasions someone may actually eat more, and gain weight.
Insomnia – This is another common symptom associated with depression. People often stay up at night and can’t sleep because of an array of psychological and physical reasons. Some people may sleep more often, and that would then be hypersomnia.
Fatigue – This is a very common symptom that people complain of and depression is just one of the hundreds of causes.
Psychomotor agitation or retardation – This may be described as restlessness or a sense of being slowed down respectively. It is usually something that is observed by others rather than the depressed person themselves.
Guilt – People with depression often have feelings of worthlessness and guilt. The guilt in this case is excessive and inappropriate, meaning that it is blown out of proportion to the actual factor making an individual feel guilty.
Impaired concentration – Some people with depression have a diminished ability to concentrate and feel that they can’t think clearly.
Suicidal ideation – This is one of the more serious symptoms of depression where a person may have recurrent thoughts of death, is contemplating suicide or has already attempted suicide.
What is Chronic Anxiety
What is Chronic Anxiety
Everyone experiences anxiety at some point in their life and it can be due to any number of reasons. This is normal for life. There are also some people who tend to worry much more than the average person but this still may not be considered an anxiety disorder or as being a chronic problem. Chronic anxiety is when a person is constantly experiencing high levels of anxiety and stress. This stress and anxiety when left without treatment can lead to depression, social phobias and panic attacks. Many times the person is unable to function as they would normally because of this anxiety. This inability to function affects their work, work relationships, home life and personal relationships.
The symptoms of such a disorder include sweating, chest pains, rapid pulse, amongst other things such as headaches. As one can imagine, anyone experiencing these symptoms will have difficulty in many types of everyday activities. Although many people who suffer from chronic anxiety feel that they are the only ones experiencing this, about five percent of the population has been diagnosed with this disorder.
For an individual who has chronic anxiety, it is quite the opposite to those without it. As an example, most individuals can feel stressed out over an incident at work or by having a bad day but they can get away from it by reading, watching the television or doing something else to relax. Most of the time, these individuals can switch off the anxiety at some point. With chronic anxiety, the individual spends much more time being stressed out and anxious and perhaps much of the time may be spent thinking about these things. There does not appear to be an off switch available for it.
There are a number of ways to help this including starting a healthier lifestyle with a better diet, exercise and making sure there is some relaxation time during the day. Other forms of assistance can come from therapy and perhaps a course of anti anxiety medications depending on the situation.
Best Drugs for Anxiety
Best Drugs for Anxiety
Top drugs for anxiety are known as anti-depressants. There are quite a few medications that are prescribed to help people cope with anxiety, but every medicine is not idea for everyone. Knowing this, you may want to do a little research on what could be prescribed and why. Every medication has different side effects and reasons for being prescribed. Most of the time, you will be sent on a rollercoaster ride by your doctor. This ride will be caused by you and your physician working together to figure out which medicines will be best for you. This is known as the trial and error period.
As of now, the medicines that work the best are Zoloft, Lexapro, Prozac, Paxil, and Wellbutrin. These are all anti-depressants that are commonly prescribed to help with anxiety. Although these medicines are not the complete answer to anxiety and will not remove any symptoms entirely, only temporarily, they do make a big difference.
Zoloft is a medication that belongs to a group of medications known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Before you decide that this medicine is right for you, it may be a good idea to weigh your options and consider each and every aspect of the medicine. Zoloft has been known to cause depression and obsessive compulsive symptoms. This is definitely something you will want to think about before starting this medication.
Lexapro on the other hand, is available only by prescription, and like Zoloft, belongs to the SSRI group of medications. Lexapro has been proven to be safe with adults and children ages 12 to 17 for the treatment of anxiety. Before you start to use this medication, there are a few things that you might want to consider. If you are trying to become pregnant, are pregnant or breast feeding, you may want to reconsider this medication and consult your physician about other options.
How to Prevent Driving Anxiety
How to Prevent Driving Anxiety
Driving is something that the majority of people learn to do as soon as it is legally permitted to do so but this being said, there are still a high percentage of these individuals that experience anxiety while they are driving. This can be triggered by various causes such as the weather conditions, now knowing the area or the fear of driving in general.
There are a number of ways to prevent driving anxiety or at least to lower the incidence of it. Much of this is through self help although professional help is certainly available. Self help generally starts with altering the beliefs. Many times, anxiety is started because the person believes a certain thing such as that they will probably lose control of the vehicle while driving or many other scenarios. It is important for the person to realize that while it is possible, there are many vehicles on the road every day that are safe and they need to have confidence in their own driving skills.
In terms of driving skills, having driving education or some other form of course is very helpful and can prevent much of this driving anxiety. Knowing the routes around where the individual is to be driving can also help as well as knowing the precautions for driving in certain types of weather.
In certain cases, therapy might be needed. Such cases as in when a person has been the cause of an accident or been involved in an accident and has experience anxiety in the past because of these things. The therapist can certainly help to go through the scenarios and help to remove any negative thoughts that could possibly cause anxiety.
Anxiety while driving can cause more problems for the driver than actually driving because it takes away from the concentration. It is important to prevent this type of anxiety or at least limit it as much as possible.
Anxiety Physical Symptoms in Women
Anxiety Physical Symptoms in Women
Anxiety in women may seem more common than in men because they tend to be more open about admitting it. Nevertheless, the symptoms in the different sexes usually occur differently with many aspects. While men may display more physical symptoms, there are more psychological than anxiety physical symptoms in women.
Physical Symptoms
The physical symptoms that can occur in women are much the same as those in men. These stem from activation of certain parts of the nervous systems. As such, the emotion disturbance and onset of anxiety manifests itself through the physical routes. This includes things like difficulty breathing, heart palpitations, tremors, sweating, and nausea. Further than this you may also experience dizziness, light-headedness, chest pain and numbness.
The Psychological Symptoms
The psychological symptoms may not be as obvious as the physical symptoms and as such it can often be confused with something else. This includes general fatigue and lack of energy and concentration, as well as sleeplessness and restlessness. Amongst the more serious worries is the recurrent thoughts of the factor causing the anxiety and displaying physical symptoms of anxiety during this. This may also manifest as nightmares, which causes further anxiety, which just perpetuates the cycle.
Which is More Telling?
People are different and few people have the exact same cause of their anxiety, so people react differently.
There is huge debate about whether physical or psychological symptoms are more indicative of anxiety, but no matter what the answer to that is, the important thing is that if any of these symptoms are present there is a problem that needs to be sorted out. Physical symptoms are easier to pick up, so in this way men are more easily diagnosed. At the same time women are more likely to tell of their emotions so this makes diagnosis much easier.
Women and Depression
Women and Depression
Women are twice more likely to develop depression than men. Depression is not some mental condition that has similar symptoms for all gender. There are many reasons why women develop this mental condition. It can be because of the hormones that women have, or it can be because of the stress women have and the social pressures that women have to succumb to.
Women who suffer from premenstrual syndrome have more chances of becoming depressed. PMS is caused by the surge of hormones in a woman’s body during her menstrual cycle. Oftentimes, depression happens a week before the menstrual cycle.
Pregnancy is another cause of depression. Because of the onset of hormones during this time, many women develop depression. Some of the issues that may cause pregnant women to be depressed are miscarriage, unwanted pregnancy and infertility.
Perimenopause or the transition between menopause and regular menstrual cycle can also heighten the risks because of the hormones fluctuating.
New mothers can also experience baby blues or post-partum depression, still because of the hormones during pregnancy. . Rape victims or victims of domestic violence are most like to experience this condition.
Women who are depressed can exhibit these symptoms: changes in sleep, appetite, weight and movement. They may also experience feelings of hopelessness and decreased energy.
There are factors that might make a woman more prone to depression. Genetic predisposition towards depression can be a factor. A woman who is having social and psychological stress may also experience this. Women who undergo gonadotropin treatments may also feel this.
The symptoms are more apparent in women. There is loss in sexual activity, suicidal tendencies and changes in mood and lack of energy or fatigue. There is a variety of treatments that women can use. Psychotherapy is an effective way to combat depression. Counselling is another.
Depression Among Teenagers
Depression Among Teens
Depression is one of the common mental disorders that affect humans of all ages. It is characterized by having a loss of interest in doing something, guilt and low self-worth.
Among adolescents, depression may not be physically manifested. There are higher chances of depression among teenagers who have low self-esteem and highly self-critical. Many of them become angry and they may have difficulty in concentrating.
There is a study conducted years ago that 4.7 per cent of children have depression. Adolescent depression is more prevalent among girls at this stage. The symptoms of depression are highly similar to those of adults.
Many parents would actually believe that this is a period of rebellion and that this is normal. But recent studies have shown if a child who has become too irritable, moody and has changes in sleeping and eating patterns may actually exhibit signs of depression. As such the eating disorder bulimia is associated with depression. Untreated depression may lead to adult depression. Children may also skip classes, be involved with criminal activities and in some cases, suicide.
There are many factors that could lead to depression. Some of them are chronic illness, a loos of a dear one and abuse.
Treatment for depression among children may include short-term psychotherapy, medication or both. The involvement of the family in the treatment is very important. It is noted that a person suffering from depression may fall into a relapse so continuous psychotherapy is highly recommended. In cases where psychotherapy is no longer effective, medication is given to the patient.
Effects of Anxiety and Other Issues
Effects of Anxiety and Other Issues
The effects of anxiety can become very dangerous. Only a person having to deal with this would understand how troublesome this is. There are quite a few effects that stem from anxiety and the medications associated with it.
A few of these effects include rapid or irregular heartbeat, problems breathing, issues swallowing, feeling weak, and chest pains. This is only to name a few. Since everyone’s chemical make-up is not the same, everyone will not have the same symptoms or effects.
Anxiety is a feeling that many people experience. It is also a necessity for human beings to live. Many people aren’t aware that there are also positive side effects of anxiety. Just as with everything else, there is a good and bad side. Anxiety is a natural drive that everyone has. Everyone’s body make up is very unique, therefore, anxiety will not affect everyone the same.
Did you know that over 15 million Americans suffer from this disorder? There are quite a few different kinds of anxiety disorders. To be exact, there are six.
These types are social, generalized, panic, phobias, and post traumatic stress. Each has their own issues and downfalls. All of these types are categorized in one main category called anxiety.
In order to deal with anxiety successfully, relaxing is the key. It may come across to you as an easy task, but it can be a little harder than it sounds. In order to relax, some people have to find what’s irritating them in the first place and learn to let go, or they have to clear their mind of everything to have total freedom and relaxation.
