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With Depression and Anxiety on the Rise, Let’s Fight for a Better Mind and Better You!

Written by - Reviewed by Consumer Health Digest Team

Published: Aug 30, 2019 | Last Updated: Aug 30, 2019

With depression and anxiety, it becomes hard to live a normal life if the condition is not treated.
Depression and Anxiety
Depression and anxiety are different conditions, but they have common symptoms. Shutterstock Images

Psychological problems are one of the main challenges that face men today. They include issues that affect an individual as a result of impairment or distress.

Depression and anxiety are the two common types of psychological problems. Depression is the persistent emotion of loss of interest.

Also known as clinical depression, this psychological issue can control your feelings, how you think and behave and can, in the long run, lead to mental or emotional problems.

Anxiety, on the other hand, is an emotional condition that causes increased preparedness, panic, increased heart rate, among other signs. Although anxiety can be termed, as usual it can assume or reach alarming levels.

These two issues besides affecting your mental state can have consequences on the people you directly associate with.

Over the years, debate and research have yielded solutions into possible remedies of these issues. One of such solutions is cognitive-behavioral therapy. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a psycho-social intervention that looks to intervene and change and improve mental health.

What it focuses on is challenging unhelpful behaviors, improving emotional regulation, and developing your coping skills in different situations.

To give you a better scope of how exactly cognitive behavioral therapy works. Take a look at the following possible symptoms and how they can be overturned o get you back to yourself.

Suicidal thoughts

This is one of the most severe signs of depression, and it is also important to note that if you actualize these thoughts, they can directly affect the people around you. These thoughts can be brought about by the use of certain drugs, severe loss, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Suicidal thoughts come about when you believe that being dead or dying is the only way out of any predicament that you might be going through.

The first and the best way that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) will come in is through changing your belief that suicide is the best or the only means out of your problem.

After that is done, whatever issue that got you there can effectively be handled.

Low or increased appetite

Both of these situations have a driving force behind them, and in each, there are possible effects such as weight gain or weight loss. In some cases, both conditions might lead to adverse health effects. Take a look at each of the two situations.

Loss of appetite. This is often a symptom of stress. Getting worried too much can distract you from feeling hungry.

And in some cases, if you try or attempt to eat something, you might end up feeling nauseated and or an upset stomach. If not taken care of you might find yourself losing weight.

Weight gain-this is often fueled by an increased desire for foods that you believe will sooth you out of your situation or predicament. This is usually brought about by depression.

Foods that are high in carbs have serotonin a chemical that can increase or boost your moods. Such foods include cakes, bread, and ice cream, among others.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy carefully addresses either of these situations. And changing your mindset about this, in the long run, will ensure that you resume or assume your regular eating habits.

Increased loss in interest

It is often advised or said that one of the most effective ways of getting out of an addiction, is through finding an activity that will keep your mind busy or engaged.

Well, that is a good thing, but depression or advanced anxiety will or can make you lose interest in an activity you previously enjoyed engaging in. A strong feeling will often inspire this, that losing interest will make you feel better.

If you were to find yourself in such a situation, it would be better to seek attention from an expert. Continuing suffering in such a case will only end up making your condition worse.

Some of the things you might lose interest among others include:

  • Hobbies
  • Work
  • Associating with friends and family

Irregular sleeping patterns

Either depression or anxiety can cause these situations. It is strongly recommended that you have at least six hours of sleep every night; this boosts your brain functionality and development.

Some of the irregular sleep patterns that may be brought about by anxiety or depression include:

  • Insomnia
  • Oversleeping (which causes low productivity)
  • Waking up very early in the morning

The issue of irregular sleeping patterns can be addressed by either therapy or through prescribed medication. It is important to note that the medicine must be prescribed upon visiting a specialist. Such specialists include psychotherapists and psychologists, among others.

Poor performance

You might be a student or employed, maybe an interview too. Depression or anxiety might come your way and hand you difficulties in performing per the expectation.

If such happens, you could find yourself missing out on opportunities or losing your job if your employer is not understanding enough.

Either depression on anxiety can cause such cases. And to some extent, poor concentration is mostly to blame.

To effectively and possibly get you out of such a predicament. A lot of cooperation will be required from you, a therapist/psychologist, or the person-in-charge of you where you work or from people who you are close to, such as family.

When you are finally out of your situation, it would be vital that all the parties involved to cooperate to ensure that you will not relapse.

Increased aggressive behavior

Aggression and increased restlessness are some of the psychological effects of depression and anxiety. You will primarily do this with the perception that this to feel comfortable or better about yourself.

A good example that might cause this is when you are a drug user. Some of the drugs that might lead you to exhibit increased aggressiveness include:

  • Cocaine
  • Crack cocaine
  • Synthetic marijuana
  • Methamphetamine
  • Ecstacy
  • Some types of prescription drugs (it is essential to be aware of the side effects)
  • Mephedrone

Some of these drugs are easily addictive and to suppress the effects; special attention will be needed; sometimes, a combination of medication and therapy. The duration or period will be determined by the type of drug and the possible extent of effects.

Feeling inadequate and self-loathing

As a human being, sometimes you will find yourself feeling unworthy or hating yourself. This could be caused by things such as blaming yourself for a loss of something dear to you.

To give you an example, to help you understand this, you could be driving with a loved one, and unfortunately, you get into an accident, and they lose their life.

In your mind, you might ask yourself a whole lot of questions, and these will somehow make you blame or hate yourself.

If such a situation is left unchecked, your psychological condition might take a turn for the worse. The best solution will be to visit a recognized mental facility to make sure you feel better and that your situation will not spiral out of control.

Depending on the gravity of the situation you are going through, the length or duration of treatment will be determined. But the question should be how bad do you want to change?

Physical symptoms that will not respond to medication

Picture this, a financial situation that is well beyond your control and that situation could be urgent, but again, you do not have the financial means to get around it.

That’s right, you will think, and with time, that turns into stress and stress will become depression. This will, in the long run, the subject you to drug-resistant conditions such as headaches among other health complications.

According to research, a healthy mind can play a crucial role in avoiding diseases. But first, break the word disease, you should get ‘’ dis” and “ease” meaning that you are not at ease. That will mean that there is an increased possibility of illnesses taking over you.

Some of the diseases or conditions are:

  • Heart attacks (both minor and major)
  • Some types of cancer, both in men and women
  • Coronary heart disease
  • Boosting the strength of HIV and AIDS
  • Parkinson’s disease
  • Strokes, either mild and major
  • Multiple sclerosis or lupus

Some of these conditions or complications can happen in the blink of an eye and can have adverse consequences.

A good example is when a heart attack is involved, it is therefore strongly advised always to try to maintain a healthier or a happier state of mind. Healthy eating habits and physical exercise can also avoid this.

When it comes to suppressing the effects of a condition like HIV, you must change your belief that this is not a possible death sentence. Changing that perception will, therefore, enable you to purely focus on the things or issues that matter the most to you.

Increased loss of hope and feeling pessimistic

Losing a job that you depend on and looking for another one without results can be a frustrating experience. The effects can even be worse if it takes longer than expected.

If left unchecked, you could get into undesirable vices such as drug or alcohol abuse. All with the aim of feeling better about yourself.

Sometimes you could exhibit extreme situations like loss of hope and feel increasingly pessimistic. These two situations are where your mind and thoughts adjust to believing that, that is what it is.

In most cases, these two conditions might or could affect your performance or the ability to make decisions.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can come in that, and it will be used to change the beliefs that you could be harboring. This process could take different time, and it will all depend on the situation at hand.

The Final Word

As seen above, these as some of the physical and mental effects of depression and anxiety. Depending on the situation involved or what you could be dealing with, the right or correct solution will or can be found. Cognitive-behavioral therapy focuses on first dealing with changing your thoughts and beliefs.

Again, depending on the situation at hand, once your belief and thought patterns are changed, the root cause of your problem can then be addressed. It is essential that for this system to work, a lot or some level of cooperation will be required.

You, your loved ones, and or people you associate with daily might be needed to support you through the process at some point. What this does is that it helps in handling the situation quite effectively.

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