Stress

One of the most usual yet deadliest enemies we face in this modern, trying world is STRESS. And I have to stress that out because it is often ignored, yet it can really damage your health and your life. It can finally contribute to depression.

Probably the leading type of stress is job stress or work-related stress. It is not unusual for workers to be grumpy on Monday and cheerful on Friday night. Work-related stress has been the root of a number of ailments such as extreme fatigue, headaches, anxiety, nervousness, respiratory illnesses, muscle ache, back pain, ulcers, insomnia, hypertension, high blood pressure, depression of course, and even obesity! If you've been so busy with your work and you haven't got the time to take a short break, you'll have tendency to pig out on dinner or midnight snacks. And of course, job instability can lead to depression.

Other factors that lead to stress are relationship problems, health problems, and financial problems. Things like a contention with your sister, not being able to clear your debts on time, supporting a family on a meager income, having an terminal disease, can definitely bring about depression. Even positive events such as obtaining a job advancement or having increased job responsibilities, getting married, or getting pregnant can also lead to tension, and depression.

Some Drugs Can Cause Depression

Certain drugs can change a person’s moods. All drugs affect the body and the mental processes in one way or another. If a drug creates noxious results in the brain or nervous system, extreme depression could be the result. Toxic depression occurs when a person takes too much of a drug or tranquilizer over a long duration of time. This kind of depression and drug toxicity will disappear in a day or so after the drug is no longer in the system. You must remember that when you begin to experience weird feelings while taking a medication, consult your medical doctor.

How does depression affect the individual's behavior

Depressed people have some or more of the following characteristics:

• They lose interest on their love life, career, friends, and family.
• They experience loneliness, hopelessness, gloom, and indifference to their surroundings. It is a feeling of extreme despair.
• They seek to escape from problems and even from life itself. Thoughts of leaving home, running away or avoidance of others is common. They feel life is hopeless and worthless. Suicidal thoughts are lurking in their minds.
• There is a tendency to escape from the company of others because of an unexplained fear of being rejected. Their withdrawal consequently brings on some rejection by other people. They cancel scheduled activities, become uninterested to return phone calls, and seek ways to avoid talking with or seeing others.
• They are overly sensitive to what others say and do. They may misinterpret actions and suggestions in a negative way and become irritable because of those mistaken assumptions. They complain and cry a lot.
• They have a general loss of self-esteem. They feel more and more negative about life’s events, and they even question their own personal worth. Their self–confidence level is extremely low.
• They experience negative changes in physical activities––appetite, sleeping and sex. Some lose interest in sexual activities. Some lose interest in food while others gouge themselves with all the stuffs they can eat. Some sleep constantly while others cannot get to sleep easily, or they wake up in the middle of the night and cannot go back to sleep again.
• There is usually an underlying feeling of guilt. They often feel overly responsible for other people’s feelings.
• Depression often makes the depressed dependent upon other people. This further aggravates a feeling of helplessness, which makes them more upset.
• They have difficulty expressing and handling their feelings. Anger is especially difficult for them to control. Because of a sense of worthlessness and lack of knowledge in dealing with their situation, they get more enraged in themselves. This can be directed outward at others.

Above 95% of even the most depressed individuals can be totally cured if the condition is identified at the early stages. It is essential to know and take action when the early warning signs of depression are manifesting.

Are you safe from depression?

Did you know that words related to depression have been searched over 993,000 times on the Internet for May 2005 alone? Much attention has been centered to this international health problem as the rigorous challenges of modern times continue to devastate those who cannot cope with it. Extreme depression can ultimately lead to suicide.

No one is safe from being affected by depression because it affects everyone. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a male or female, rich or poor, educated or uneducated. Once a person starts becoming depressed, he or she usually behaves in a manner that intensifies the illness.