What Is The Difference Between Stress And Depression
Whether its a traffic jam on the way to work, an important job interview, or the death of a loved one, everyone experiences varying degrees of stress from time to time. In small doses, stress can be beneficial. It can motivate you to reach your goals and help you accomplish tasks more efficiently. Stress is key for human survival, but too much stress can be detrimental to your health.
Whether its a traffic jam on the way to work, an important job interview, or the death of a loved one, everyone experiences varying degrees of stress from time to time. In small doses, stress can be beneficial. It can motivate you to reach your goals and help you accomplish tasks more efficiently. Stress is key for human survival, but too much stress can be detrimental to your health. When you feel stressed for weeks or months on end, stress can make it difficult to concentrate, disrupt your sleep, and make you feel like you cant overcome challenges in your life. At times, you may feel burned out, or perhaps even depressed. While stress and depression share some similarities, depression is a more serious and long-lasting condition that requires a different kind of treatment.
Common signs of stress
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Inability to concentrate or complete tasks
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Trouble falling asleep or staying awake
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Feeling overwhelmed
What is the difference between stress and depression?
How to deal with stress and depression
Depression treatment at Alvarado Parkway Institute
You Cant Find Meaning Or Purpose
Its not only philosophers that spend time thinking about life and the meaning of it. When you were younger, you probably spent some time trying to figure out what you wanted out of life and what would give your life meaning. But as youve grown older, youre just too busy with life that you forget all about it.
It can be hard to pin point your depression to a lack of meaning in your life. You can have a good family and a good job, but still walk around feeling depressed every day because deep down you have lost that connection with your original purpose and what you wanted in life.
Everyone finds meaning in different things. Some find it through work, relationships, helping others, learning or through creativity.
Take a step back and look at your life. What makes you happy? Do you remember what you originally felt was your purpose in life and are you living according to that still?
Maybe ten years ago, you thought you would find meaning in having a specific job, but now you realize that its not really what you want. Or maybe you went in another direction than you intended to, but you dont feel fulfilled now.
Its never too late to change things. Heres the proof. Take some times to really look at your life and see if you can figure out some things that might look great on the surface, but is secretly suffocation you every day and ultimately making you unhappy and depressed.
What Causes Depression Or Anxiety
Depression and anxiety can happen for no obvious reason. But in many cases it can be triggered by certain life events, such as:
- money or finance issues
- the time of year.
These situations might make anyone feel low and not everyone who experiences these goes on to develop depression. But thinking about any triggers can help you understand your feelings.
Everyone feels down from time to time, but if you’ve not been feeling yourself for a while it’s time to talk to someone like your doctor, nurse or a trusted friend or family member.
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Take A Test To See How You Feel
If youre unsure about the way you feel, take our anonymous online test to check whether your levels of stress, anxiety, or depression are within a healthy range, and see if one of our online courses could help.
What Causes Depression?
No one knows exactly what causes depression. It is clear that genetic factors are important in many cases of depression. Depression seems to run in families , and about 30% of the predisposition for depression is due to genetic influences.
Stressful life events play a part in the onset or relapse of depression. Ongoing conflicts with others can take their toll on our well-being, as can other social and environmental stressors such as financial difficulties, retirement, unemployment, childbirth, loneliness, or loss of someone or something important. In vulnerable people, these unpleasant life events may be enough to cause or worsen a depressive illness.
A persons personality characteristics are an important factor. When people are depressed, they usually have a very negative view of themselves and the world. They do not appreciate good things, and bad things seem overwhelming. Some people have a tendency to view things this way even when they are not depressed. In other words, they may have a depressive personality style.
Did you know
What Does Stress Mean
Stress is a normal physiological response to an abnormal situation. As such, it is part and parcel of our lives. It enables our body to adapt to the multiplicity of positive and negative events that we experience, like a birth, marriage, loss of employment, etc. Stress comes and goes on its own, depending of what factors are involved. For example, if you feel stressed on the job but less so at home in the evening or on the weekend, we could deduce that the stressors are work-related.
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The Lived Experience Of Depression
A person who is in good physical health, is employed, has a safe home to live in, enough money to care for themselves and their family, supportive friends, and hobbies may struggle to comprehend why they feel persistently sad, angry, or irritable.
In the absence of a clear trigger such as the death of a loved one, a divorce, or the loss of a job, they may feel that it doesnt make sense for them to feel depressed.
Risk Factors That Can Make You More Vulnerable
Depression most often results from a combination of factors, rather than one single cause. For example, if you went through a divorce, were diagnosed with a serious medical condition, or lost your job, the stress could prompt you to start drinking more, which in turn could cause you to withdraw from family and friends. Those factors combined could then trigger depression.
The following are examples of risk factors that can make you more susceptible:
Loneliness and isolation. Theres a strong relationship between loneliness and depression. Not only can lack of social support heighten your risk, but having depression can cause you to withdraw from others, exacerbating feelings of isolation. Having close friends or family to talk to can help you maintain perspective on your issues and avoid having to deal with problems alone.
. While a network of strong and supportive relationships can be crucial to good mental health, troubled, unhappy, or abusive relationships can have the opposite effect and increase your risk for depression.
Recent stressful life experiences. Major life changes, such as a bereavement, divorce, unemployment, or financial problems can often bring overwhelming levels of stress and increase your risk of developing depression.
Chronic illness or pain. Unmanaged pain or being diagnosed with a serious illness, such as cancer, heart disease, or diabetes, can trigger feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.
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What Are The Treatments For Depression
Many helpful treatments for depression are available. Treatment for depression can help reduce symptoms and shorten how long the depression lasts. Treatment can include getting therapy and/or taking medications. Your doctor or a qualified mental health professional can help you determine what treatment is best for you.
- Therapy. Many people benefit from psychotherapyalso called therapy or counseling.7,8 Most therapy lasts for a short time and focuses on thoughts feelings and issues that are happening in your life now. In some cases understanding your past can help but finding ways to address what is happening in your life now can help you cope and prepare you for challenges in the future.With therapy, youll work with your therapist to learn skills to help you cope with life, change behaviors that are causing problems and find solutions. Do not feel shy or embarrassed about talking openly and honestly about your feelings and concerns. This is an important part of getting better.Some common goals of therapy include:
- Getting healthier
- Making sense of past painful events
- Identifying things that worsen your depression
- Having better relationships with family and friends
- Understanding why something bothers you and creating a plan to deal with it
Get Help For Your Anxiety Today
People like Laura recover from anxiety every day. Shes learned in therapy how to identify the causes of her anxiety and has made excellent progress. Her recovery is also proof of how you too can heal from the endless burden of anxiety. Her story shows that people can move past their anxiety and go on to lead full, and happy lives. Even if it doesnt feel that way now, things can get better for you with time, patience, and appropriate care.
To make that happen, you need to start working with a mental health professional right away. The sooner you seek help, the sooner you can begin to put your fears behind you and build the life you long for. Its time to overcome your fears. It may be hard to imagine now, but one day you will start to feel happy, confident, and safe once again.
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Why Anxiety Can Make You Cry
Anxiety can be an overwhelming condition more than people realize. Millions of people living with anxiety disorders can handle themselves every day. These people often feel like the anxiety is manageable though it is affecting their lives.
However, the more a person struggles with anxiety, the harder it may be to manage the associated emotions. Anxiety puts the body under tremendous stress, and it takes energy and resources to reduce that anxiety. Anxiety can be powerful so powerful that the stress associated with it essentially hits your body with a non-stop barrage of physical and mental symptoms. Symptoms dont always generate further emotions, but they wear you down and reduce your ability to cope with and tolerate an experience.
What Does It Mean To Be Stressed And Depressed
You feel stressed out when you are under a lot of mental and emotional pressure. It is often triggered by something that has happened to you recently you probably felt like its too much or really hard to handle.
Depression, on the other hand, is a serious issue that can last for several days, weeks, months, or years in some cases. You could have a bitter experience, a bad trauma, or anything that might have triggered your depression, and you can often feel that depression is out of your control or that you are just exhausted. When things go out of control for a long time, it is possible to feel stressed and depressed at the same time.
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Effects Of Stress On Depression
While stress can generally have negative effects on your physical and mental health, it can be especially harmful if you have depression.
Stress can make you feel less able to maintain positive habits or coping strategies, which are important to managing depression. This can make symptoms of depression feel more intense. Interrupting a healthy routine can result in negative coping strategies, such as drinking or withdrawing from social relationships. These actions can result in further stress, which can then make depression symptoms worse.
Stress can also affect your mood, as anxiety and irritability are both common responses to stress. When a stressor causes you to feel anxious, the anxiety may result in more negative feelings or frustration, even if the stressor is only temporary.
Stress management techniques are useful in coping with depression. Stress relief can also help prevent depressive symptoms from developing. Some helpful stress management techniques include:
- getting enough sleep
- consuming less caffeine or alcohol
- doing breathing exercises to lower your heart rate
If lifestyle choices are causing you stress, you may consider changing the way you approach your personal or professional life. Some ways you can help decrease this kind of stress include:
Prevalence Of Anxiety And Depression In Men
On average, one in 8 men will have depression and one in 5 men will experience anxiety at some stage of their lives.
Men are less likely to experience anxiety and depression than women. They are also less likely to talk about it. This increases the risk of their anxiety or depression going unrecognised and untreated.
Untreated depression is a high risk factor for suicide. In Australia, there are about 3,000 suicides each year. Around 75% of people who take their lives are men, with an average of almost 7 men taking their lives every day.
Its important to remember that anxiety and depression are conditions, not weaknesses, and effective treatments are available.
and depression not only for you, but for your friends and family. Visit Beyond Blue to find out more about anxiety.
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Where Negativity Stems From: Why Am I So Negative
Negative thoughts occur in a variety of forms, including:
Catastrophizing: Always assuming the worst possible outcome is inevitable.
Black and white thinking: Also known as polarized thinking. Seeing everything as either one extreme or the other.
Personalizing: When you assume that you are to blame for everything that goes wrong.
Filter thinking: Focusing only on the negative sides of a situation and ignoring the positives.
According to LiveScience, negative thoughts are classified in the medical field as cognitive distortions. These distortions reflect the ways that our mind convinces us of untruths. They will not only generate negative thinking and emotions, but they will also reinforce negative thinking by repeating them on a loop. Cognitive behavioral therapists often refer to these as sticky thoughts.
Overcoming Anxiety With Proper Treatment
Residential treatment is an excellent way to get the care you need for your anxiety, both in terms of healing its causes and learning how to cope with the disorder. There are many different anxiety disorders, and a good residential program will begin with an initial evaluation and an accurate diagnosis, which is key to sustainable recovery. They will give you comprehensive treatmentnot just for your anxiety, but any co-occurring disorders that may be present. Residential clinicians will delve into the root causes and triggers of your anxiety, and zero in on the areas where healing work must be done.
Youll receive 24-hour care at a residential treatment facility. That means if you have a panic attack at any time, day or night, there will be someone there to support you through it. Youll receive medication from a psychiatrist to help ease your symptoms. And if youre currently on medication, the doctor can adjust it until youre feeling better. Youll never alone, as youll be in a community of people who, like you, are struggling with anxiety and other challenges. And youll be in a pristine healing environment, far away from the situations, people, or places that may have been making your anxiety worse. In short, a residential treatment facility is a soothing, safe place to heal where you can build up your confidence and learn the coping mechanisms necessary to manage and live beyond the boundaries set by your anxiety.
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But My Stress Makes Me Successful
Life brings stresses that sometimes motivates us. If you are stressed about an exam, or about having to speak on a stage, these are normal kinds of stress that can help you grow as a person and try out new skills and ways of being.
And even bigger stress can sometimes be for the best. If you hate change, but find yourself needing to move house or country, it might be a hard experience but in the long run lead to a life upgrade.
But dont think your stress is good just because its making your money, or because everyone else at work is stressed, or because you think it makes you seem important. Stress can and does kill, whether through heart attacks or by suicide bought on by stress morphing into depression.
Not sure if your stress is helping or hindering? The secret is to really pay attention to your moods and the thoughts in your head.
- Has your stress given you occasional low moods, are are you feeling low more often than not?
- How long have you been feeling low? Is it two weeks or more?
- Do you feel anxious most of the time? Or is some of your day manageable?
- Can you still come home from the stressful situation and relax?
- Are your thoughts increasingly negative? Do you have thoughts of being hopeless and worthless?
Firstly Despite The Various Causes Of Depression Person Out There Has One Amazing And Beautiful Thing In Common
Like every good father He has only great plans for us He wants us to be very happy, succeed in life, feel beautiful in our own skin, have peace of mind and spirit. As a matter of fact, the list of amazing things He has planned for us are endless, but we cannot access all these plans and promises if we are unprepared to believe in Jesus Christ and open up our hearts to Him.
In John 3:16, the Bible says For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. In this scripture, we see that God has made a promise to mankind, a promise not just to save us from eternal damnation, but also to guide us through the trials and tribulations that we experience here on Earth.
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