Depression Physical Symptoms: Learn How To Recognize The Signs
Physical symptoms depression: how it manifests itself
Depression makes the world see as hidden by a gray cloud: everything seems complicated, even the most normal and simple things. Even getting out of bed in the morning can be experienced as an effort. The depressed always feels misunderstood: his disorders can affect the body, emotions, concentration and behavior. In a depressive state, sexual desire is lost, energy is lost, it is difficult to memorize things, one can experience tachycardia, sweating, excessive heat or cold shivering, anxiety, irritability. We isolate ourselves from others, we are hesitant in making choices, in making decisions, we reduce activities to a minimum and in the most serious cases there may be suicide attempts. The depressed feels disappointed in life and sees everything in a pessimistic way. His thoughts are automatically negative. Work or school learning are particularly affected by a lack of concentration and difficulty in memorizing. He isolates himself and then begins to have problems relating to children, relatives and partners. It can sometimes happen that only physical symptoms occur, without obvious worsening of the mood and life that is lived externally: in this case it could be masked depression, especially if the patient reacts well with the antidepressant drugs prescribed by the doctor or has family members with major depression. Depression is a treacherous disease, which often no one notices; sometimes even the patient is not aware of it and thinks that he thinks that his state is due to real problems of work, economic or couple. that is, his pessimism, his nervousness and the tendency to isolation are only a normal effect of external situations that are not going well and of which he wishes improvement and does not ask for help from the doctor.
The causes of major depressive disorder
There is a need for clinical and medical intervention when other symptoms of major depressive disorder are detected, deeper and more painful, not justified by bereavement, divorce or other events of a certain severity. In depression to be treated with clinical intervention, they observe deep feelings of guilt, despair, extremely negative vision of the future, thoughts of self-destruction, total pessimism. The subject who feels that he has lost all motivation, all interest in life, feels unwilling, infinitely sad, for example after losing a person he loved, presents a normal reaction and usually not excessively lasting with respect to the serious event that he is experiencing. Only if it does not resolve after a year at the latest, this depression must be treated clinically. In addition, we all experience transient periods of melancholy, nostalgia and sadness, which are physiological of the human being and cannot be diagnosed as real. depression.
Physical Depression Symptoms: The Causes Behind
Some experts in the field consider biological and genetic factors as a priority as causes of major depressive disorder, others psychological factors and those related to the environment. But trials are currently leaning towards a combination of all these triggers. Dramatic events, long periods of stress can reduce serotonin and norepinephrine. As for the environment: the education imparted by parents, relationships with friends, with the "school environment, unpleasant events that occurred in the family of origin," dissatisfaction at not having been fulfilled as expected. A fundamental role is played by the psychological factor, that is, the way in which the subject experiences events and interprets them. Some patients encountering difficulties in coping with daily activities tend to postpone them, increasing their inner sense of failure.Lack of concentration and rebellion to the sense of frustration and dissatisfaction are also found in boys with hyperactivity and attention problems, which could be confused with symptoms of major depression.
Major Depression: Sadness and anhedonia
Most depressed subjects often accuse symptoms that are not very serious, which are combined with physical discomfort, decreased sexual desire, lack of strength, nervousness, apathy, which are not immediately associated with a depressive state. Those of lesser severity are linked to particular periods of life; some patients are unable to even carry out routine daily chores, including looking after their appearance. The constant rethinking of past mistakes (ruminating) and the interpretation of normal daily events as one's own shortcomings are very frequent. Depressive disorder can manifest itself in various periods of life, very often after the age of 25. In some it begins with spaced episodes, in others with more and more frequent periods in mature or old age. Most depressed people fail to formulate self-destructive thoughts. Sadness and anhedonia are among the main indicators of major depressive disorder, which has a high rate of mortality from self-destruction. Medicines and psychotherapy are essential in this case. Those who suffer from this mood disorder reveal very intense states of sadness as symptoms, they feel dissatisfied and do not experience pleasure (anhedonia) for almost nothing; has a constantly negative and pessimistic attitude towards himself and what awaits him. It is the most widespread psychological disorder in all countries of the world, especially among women, perhaps because they are more sensitive, more profound in analyzing their own inner problems, more self-critical and less superficial, unable to easily distract themselves from everyday worries and from the big ones. sorrows compared to men who manage to isolate themselves mentally and think about other things, even if sometimes for a short time. Males often react to depression by overdoing alcohol or using drugs.
Physical, cognitive, affective, motivational, behavioral symptoms
The cognitive symptoms of this pathology are a reduced ability to concentrate and lack of decision-making, inattention, feelings of guilt, lack of esteem, sense of demerit. Among the affective symptoms there is a deep tendency to almost continuous sadness with always negative thoughts, life becomes a pain, an evil and you can no longer enjoy anything. No more pleasure in practicing activities or pastimes you loved before is a clear sign of depressive disorders. One withdraws into isolation, decreases or disappears sexual desire. Among the motivational symptoms we have the continuous feeling of tiredness, even without getting tired: every action is carried out less efficiently and more slowly. In behavior, important symptoms are weight loss even without a diet, sometimes due to inappetence, or weight gain, especially sweets or pasta, to find comfort in food. Others suffer from sleep disturbances, insomnia, difficulty falling asleep, or sleep while waking up all the time. Others, however, accuse hypersomnia, dozing constantly. We slow down in everything, in speaking, in thought, in movements or we are agitated and unable to stay still or seated, we move back and forth with compulsive and repetitive gestures. Physical symptoms include tachycardia, bone, muscle, joint and abdominal pain, constipation or diarrhea and the feeling of confusion and mental emptiness. The lack of self-esteem, the tendency to feel unlucky, haunted by fate even for small obstacles or normal daily problems feed the depressive symptoms, as well as the reduction of contacts with friends and relatives, tending to an exaggerated isolation, to a true withdrawal from external life, which prevents the subject from experiencing a few moments of positivity and possibly situations that can make him recover gratifications. The depressed patient is convinced of the uselessness of these relationships and of the fact that they cannot bring him any improvement. The same rumination contributes to keeping the patient in a depressive state, as it does not allow him to think about the future (taken as it is from the past) , nor to face the present.
Major Depressive Disorder: Medications and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy has proved to be very effective in the treatment of major depression together with drugs. Antidepressant drugs are indispensable in case of a serious disorder. The new types of antidepressants inhibit the reuptake of serotonin. Sometimes they have side effects, which usually subside during treatment. Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy is a valid method for treating major depressive disorder, as it acts on how the patient interprets what is happening to him and gives an evaluation of himself, helping him to change his pessimistic ideas about himself, about what He waits for him in the future and everything happens around him. The change in thinking will normalize his mood and symptoms. All this will return in a circular way will act on thoughts, making them less and less negative. The subject will be guided to slowly change his tendency to inertia and isolation from society.
Reactive depression: what it is
Reactive depression is a depression caused by a painful or traumatizing event. It can be an abortion, the disappearance of a loved one, a violence suffered, the loss of all one's possessions, a betrayal. Unlike major depression, behind reactive depression there are always dramatic events, which act as triggers. Obviously everyone responds with suffering to a dramatic event, but if the subject reacts excessively and above all prolonged over time to the event, his state is defined as reactive depression and requires the intervention of a specialist doctor. The symptoms of reactive depression are a sense of worthlessness, apathy, exaggerated emotionality, insomnia, inappetence, intolerance to noise, fatigue even in inactivity, frequent crying, anxious state, arrhythmia. If the state of reactive depression hides behind psychosomatic pathologies, even without the patient's awareness, we speak of masked depression also in this case.
