How to Get Rid of Stress and Depression

Stress and Depression: Stress Anxiety Depression

What is the relationship between stress and depression?

There is much psychological research that confirms that there is a relationship between stress and depression. There is a complex relationship between stress and depression.

Approximately 9.5% of the adult American population suffers from a depressive disorder. A study by the World Health Organization and World Bank revealed that depression is the most common cause of disability worldwide. If you're under severe stress, you may also be at risk for development of a depressive disorder.

"I feel depressed" is a common reaction to situations which overwhelm or sadden us. But true depression is different from having occasional blue moods or unhappy feelings. Depressive disorders are illnesses, often with biological causes, that are defined and diagnosed by fixed criteria.

Stress leads to Depression OR Stress cause depression

Stress can also contributes to depression.

It is true that stress contributes to depression symptoms such as sadness. Recent research has found many stressors to increase depression symptoms.

Whether a stressful event itself can actually cause a person to become depressed is not fully known. There are times when we all must struggle with very painful situations in our lives. More times than not these changes do not result in a person becoming clinically depressed. In fact, sometimes people become depressed even when there is little or no stress in their lives and everything seems to be going very well. And, no single stressful event will cause depression to develop in every person. The same type of stressor may lead to depression in one person, but not another.

Each day, we are learning ever more on the relationship between stress and depression, and although there is a lot we still do not know, the presence of stress as a major role-player in the disease process is now considered beyond dispute, with therapies increasingly geared toward neutralizing its vast destructive powers.

The stress factors which have been found to contribute to depression symptoms by the stress and depression research have included:

• Symptoms range from feelings of sadness after a loss,
• like the break up of a relationship or
• the death of a loved one,
• family conflict
• marital conflict
• financial stress
• job loss
• Some substances and drugs also leads to stress and depression

Depression is related to Stress and Stress is related to depression:

Not only does stress contribute to depression symptoms, but depression contributes to stress. Stress and depression research has confirmed this as well.

The reason that stress can contribute to both depression symptoms such as sadness and to the illness of clinical depression is both biological and psychological according to the stress and depression research.

Stress can lead to neuronal loss and atrophy in the hippocampus, which is reduced in depressed patients. In one elaborate lab study involving the creation of a visible burrow system approximating life in the wild, the dominant rats made more new brain cells than their more stressed-out subordinate burrow-mates. A recent Yale University study has found that antidepressants (an MAOI, Prozac, or reboxetine) can restore this loss and grow new neurons.

Science is just beginning to understand how stress affects the body causing depression. One process has recently been discovered by an international team of researchers. This team focused on a gene--the serotonin transporter gene--which regulates the levels of a brain chemical called serotonin.

A stress and depression study that assessed positive automatic thoughts and life stressors in 152 undergraduate students found that when the number of positive thoughts was higher, happiness was also higher. Positive automatic thoughts about self-worth related to less depression when the students experienced stress.

There are various reasons/factors for a person to become depressed. Some people may become depressed as a result of having to struggle with chronic stress. These constant difficulties may come in the form of having to juggle multiple roles at home and work, making major changes in lifestyle, being in an abusive environment, etc.

They may also come with important and normal transitions in life such as late adolescence and early adulthood when many people separate from their families to establish their own independence. Middle age may require adjustment to changes in fertility and virility, children leaving the home, concern about job advancement, and a re-evaluation of accomplishments in life. Retirement is another time of major change as some people struggle with a reduction of position and finances. If a person is under continuous stress, a single difficult event may be more likely to induce a depressive episode. For instance, if a middle-aged woman is in an unhappy marriage, she may be more likely to become depressed after her youngest child leaves home for college. The event of her child leaving home may not by itself have been enough to lead to depression, but the constant stress of an unhappy marriage combined with this event may be enough to trigger clinical depression.

Stress and Depression - The BottomLine:

Stress and depression research has shown, without question, that stress increases depression and depression increases stress. This happens because of complex biological factors which are just beginning to be understood.

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Stress Anxiety Depression, Stress and Depression: find symptoms of Stress related depression

Stress contributes to Depression

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