Stress Monster of Depression is Horrifying Even Without Special Effects:  Signs and Symptoms of Depression

The Signs and Symptoms of Depression Lower Our Threshold

Depression and stress are best friends. When one appears the other is usually not far behind. In fact, often people who convince themselves they are not depressed finally seek help due to stress. Why is this? Why does depression seem to be so stressful?

The shortest answer to these questions is that signs and symptoms depression undercuts our stress tolerance. There are always going to be days when the driver in front of us cuts us off and someone at work does something to make our job more difficult. Most people have developed various coping mechanisms to deal with the normal stressors of daily living. We crack a joke, we distract ourselves or find some other way to manage our emotions and move on. When we have a high tolerance for stress, we take irritations in stride and quickly recover.

The Signs and Symptoms of Depression Are a Crushing Weight on Our Coping Mechanisms

Coping mechanisms act like a bridge that supports the weight of stressful situations that roll across our lives every day. If the bridge is strong and can support heavy traffic, then we have a higher stress tolerance. If our bridge is shaky, then the activity on that bridge becomes even more burdensome. Depression works like termites in the supporting beams of the bridge. It’s unnerving to hear the bridge creak and groan while it sways under pressure.

Here is another way of thinking of the effects of the signs and symptoms of depression on stress tolerance. Imagine a house with an air conditioner. As the outside temperature rises (stress) the heat may never meet the threshold for what that air conditioner can handle (stress tolerance). In other words, the air conditioner has a high tolerance for heat. But there comes a point at which the air in the room starts feeling very warm. At some point, the capacity of the air conditioner will be overwhelmed by rising heat. Everyone has a threshold for stress, but the signs and symptoms of depression lower it the way a clogged filter will hamper an air conditioner trying to cool hot air.

Depression lowers our stress tolerance: it makes us sweat over things that normally would not make us sweat.

How heated up do things need to be before you can no longer keep it cool? How much irritation does it take to make you hot under the collar? 80? 90? 110 degrees? Whatever it is, that is your current stress tolerance. Depression often reduces the capacity of our air conditioner to handle the “heat” of everyday life. We have a lower threshold for tolerating stressful activities, events, and interactions.

It is no surprise, then, that people who are burdened by the signs and symptoms of depression are often irritable and get angry more easily. It also helps to explain why depression nudges us to withdraw from activities: we have to close off some rooms so that the smaller air conditioner has less volume to keep cool. Depression can degrade our sleep or our concentration making it harder to handle situations well throughout the day. All these signs and symptoms of depression (social withdrawal, sleep problems, concentration issues) can cause us to handle situations by making them worse, creating more problems and more strain for an already stressful day.

Is There Anything Good About This?

The upside to all this is that the signs and symptoms of depression and stress often conspire together to get our attention. Sometimes the emotional bridge by which we travel needs a major upgrade. Sometimes our lives experience global warming and we need a better, more powerful air conditioner. Depression and the heat of stress that follows can make us actually do something about the heat such as installing better insulation to hold on to whatever refreshing air comes our way. When the heat of stress spurs us to positive action we have discovered the silver-lining of depression. If we are too sad, frustrated, or angry to go on our merry way, then there is a golden opportunity for personal change.

Many people find that when they face depression squarely and constructively, they end up much happier than they were before they were depressed. This is the my-glass-is-half-full perspective on depression. For some peculiar reason, we don’t often make significant life changes unless we are unhappy or frustrated. Increased stress often joins with depression like two friends cooperating to confront us with change.

It's often wise to engage in attacking anxiety and depression at the same time.  The signs and symptoms of depression strengthen the symptoms of anxiety attacks and extreme stress. 

Attacking Anxiety and Depression Together is an Efficient Use of Your Effort

But the many of steps for how to fight depression can do double duty serving the purposes of a program of self help for panic attacks.  Learning the techniques for changling your thought patterns, exercise, changing what you eat, getting more information, are but a few of the strategies that address the signs and symptoms of depression and those of stress at the same time.