symptoms
of depression
how depression works
overcoming depression
thinking styles
How
depression works...
...and the key
to overcoming it.
From time to time we
all feel a little low, it’s natural. Find out how feeling low can
develop into depression, and how to break out of it.
Depression involves a cycle of negative, depressive thinking, worrying and being anxious, which lead to excessive dreaming, increasing stress levels and waking exhausted, and therefore thinking more negative thoughts.
View the cycle of depression diagram
Depressed people will
tend to have a more pessimistic and negative outlook on life.
This depressive thinking style stirs up the emotions; feeling anxious,
sad, angry and other unwanted emotions. This emotional arousal increases
the production of stress hormones, excessive stress weakens our immune
system, leading to poor health, and also affects our ability to think
clearly.
One
function of our dreams is to deal with the emotions that have been aroused
during the day, but have not been fully resolved. The more emotional arousal
we have the more dream sleep we need to ‘process’ the emotions.
Depressed people need more dream sleep than others, and will often have
disturbing, vivid dreams.
Whilst sleep generally is restful and refreshing, dream sleep is tiring. Whilst dreaming we also cease producing serotonin, the so-called ‘happy hormone’ that regulates mood control and motivation, and more stress hormones are produced.
The combination of
the tiring emotional arousal, reduction in serotonin and increased stress
mean a depressed person often wakes up exhausted.
Feeling exhausted and lacking motivation make further negative thinking
more likely, and the cycle is complete.
How can the circle be broken?
What is the effective treatment of depression?
Read on and find out
in the treatment of depression
and the cycle of health/wellbeing.
