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By Dr Sarah Marshall
1 in 3 people suffer from depression at some point in their lives. The distressing and disabling symptoms of depression make it likely that anxiety is often a feature.
The key symptoms of depression are low mood, lack of interest in everyday activities, low energy, sleep disturbance (such as waking very early and not being able to get back to sleep or sleeping excessively), decreased appetite or over eating.
Impaired concentration inevitably means that processing thoughts and ideas becomes inefficient and the memory deteriorates. With a preoccupation with negative thoughts and loss of confidence it is hardly surprising that anxiety levels increase. The converse is also true that disabling anxiety can lead to these symptoms and depression may follow.
The causes of depression are not always clear – bereavement, whether through death or loss (for example the death of a loved one, children leaving the nest, breakdown of a marriage, loss of a job, home or even a pet) are obvious triggers.
Sometimes the ‘last straw’ scenario comes into play and numerous, apparently small, stresses accumulate without any becoming obvious.
It is known that with depression there is a change in the balance of neurotransmitters in the brain. These are chemicals which affect mood and, putting it simply, a predominance of happy neurotransmitters leads to a good mood and a lack leads to a low mood. A person suffering from depression is not to blame for their condition and, although the chemical imbalance may correct itself, it is not possible to ‘snap out of it.’
There are many things that we can do to help. It may be that all that is needed is a listening ear, support and reassurance. New antidepressants are excellent at relieving symptoms of depression and anxiety without major side-effects. They enable someone who is depressed to continue functioning so that when the symptoms have improved there has been no loss of status or friends.
If depression has been present for a long time the tendency to negative thought processes may need to be retrained. In this case cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is useful.
If you have any concerns about yourself or someone close to you, come in and talk it over.
