Treatment For Anxiety And Depression In Men
Your doctor is a good source of information and can discuss with you whether what youre experiencing may be anxiety or depression. They can also refer you to a psychologist or psychiatrist. Any of these health professionals can help you with an action plan, whether or not you are diagnosed with anxiety, depression or both.
Anxiety and depression are like any other conditions there are ways to treat and manage them.
Lifestyle changes, such as spending time with supportive friends and family, regular exercise, getting enough sleep, maintaining a healthy diet and cutting down on alcohol and other drugs are all worthwhile changes that can help to reduce anxiety and depression symptoms.
Psychological treatments, including cognitive behaviour therapy, are effective in treating anxiety and depression and are often recommended first, particularly for mild to moderate anxiety and depression. Your doctor may refer you to see a psychologist or other counsellor for this type of treatment.
For some people, antidepressant medication might also be an option. Antidepressants can be effective for both anxiety and depression. They usually take at least 2 weeks before they start to help, and it may also take some time for your doctor to find the medication and dose that is most effective for you.
Exercise To Reduce Stress Levels And Improve Your Mood
It is scientifically proven that exercise relieves stress and induces hormones such as endorphins to reduce the effects of mental pressure. Therefore, exercising can be extremely helpful when youre feeling stressed and depressed just because exercise helps with both. Additionally, exercising lessens your fatigue and leaves you feeling fresher and more active.
If you are feeling blue and you dont think you are capable of anything, do a little exercise and you might notice at least a minor change in your mindset.
If You Can Adopt A Pet
Scientifically, it is proven that owning a pet can lead to better mental health. It can be hard work at first but, as you move on with it, you will be able to distract yourself from the things that were making you feel stressed and depressed before.
Pets provide unconditional love and attention that is great for your mental health at the moment + you get some actual activities to do , so it can help you if youve also been inactive. Also, having a new pet allows you to feel like you are making a change in your life . It can work as an invisible marker, separating you from the sadness and helping you to focus on the future.
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Why You May Not Know You’re Depressed
There are several possible explanations for being depressed and not knowing it. Depression might not be on your radar, either due to denial or stigma, or you may dismiss your symptoms because you’ve been experiencing them for so long. You may even be mistaking the symptoms of depression for something else.
The following are some reasons why you may not realize that you are depressed:
Being Convinced Everyone Hates You
In life, some people will like you and some people will not. This is normal, right? In a healthy mindset, most people will accept the positives with the negatives. But depression is like the devil on your shoulder, whispering until people hate themselves and are convinced that everyone else hates them too.
Depression points out every tiny, perceived, possible slight and uses this as evidence that everyone hates you. This perception of hate tends to make people with depression feel even more depressed.
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Not Bothering To Keep Up Good Hygiene
Good hygiene is supposed to be a given. Shower every day or close to it. Brush your teeth, do your hair, and take care of your body. But when depression comes around, those affected might stop showering for weeks even, if the episode lasts that long. It sounds gross but thats what depression does. It can make someone too sick to shower.
Sometimes the pounding water is physically painful. Sometimes getting naked hurts. The idea of a shower can bring on feelings of worthlessness. You may not even feel like youre worthy of being clean. The same goes for other tasks like brushing your teeth or washing your face.
Depression may simply turn acts of self-care into draining activities we simply dont have the energy to do.
Feeling Hopeless Guilty And Worthless
Although at some point, many PhD students and postdocs will be made to feel like they are worthless, if this becomes a regular occurrence, it is time to take note.
This may be combined with a feeling of guilt and worthlessness.
It is important to remember your value as a PhD.
Mistakes are normal.
No one is perfect and research in particular is filled with endless dead-ends and experiments that yield negative results.
It is not your fault.
You have nothing to feel ashamed of.
If your advisor makes you feel like this, it might be worthwhile trying to approach them, a senior mentor, committee member, or ombudsperson, about how their behavior is affecting you.
This is not easy, but it is for your own well-being and confidence to be able to set boundaries and protect yourself from a negative environment.
There are ways to overcome difficult advisors so you can finish your PhD.
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Get Advice From The Verywell Mind Podcast
Hosted by Editor-in-Chief and therapist Amy Morin, LCSW, this episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast shares what it means to have ‘existential depression,’ featuring Melissa & Doug’s co-founder Melissa Bernstein.
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Symptoms of depression can occur along a spectrum both in duration and severity. Mild depression can occur during periods of stress but resolve with time and may not require any specific treatment. Moderate to severe depression causes chronic symptoms and usually requires at least one form of treatment, if not multiple treatments.
Generally speaking, severe depression requires some type of treatment to find some relief. Additionally, depression severity can change over time, growing increasingly worse or alternating between mild and severe during the same depressive episode.
If someone has severe depression, they may self-harm, have suicidal thoughts, or be at risk for attempting suicide. If you are severely depressed, help is available to help you manage your symptoms and ensure your safety and well-being.
A Day In The Life With Depression
Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.
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Picture someone with depression. Whats the first image that comes to mind? Lying in bed all day? Crying? These arent wrong, and they may be fully accurate for me or someone else actively going through a depressive episode. But day-to-day life with chronic depression doesnt usually look like that. Not every day threatens to crush me, but many days I feel like I carry more weight on my shoulders than most.
I am in grad school right now to become a therapist, and one of the ways we assess the severity of ones mental health condition is to find out how much their symptoms affect their day-to-day life. As a person with depression, theres a low hum of how my daily functioning is affected some days. Other days, its a deep guttural internal scream, imperceptible to almost everyone else.
Like many others, I try to mask it as well as possible. I would never judge a client or a friend for feeling depressed, but theres obviously a double standard for myself, deeply rooted in internalized stigma.
Heres a look at what one day of life with depression looks like for me.
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Not Wanting To Leave The House
Some people with depression can be housebound for weeks or longer. There are plenty of reasons for this, depending on who you ask. For some, its self-hatred. For others, crushing fatigue. Depression has this power to zap not only your will, but also your physical ability to leave the house.
The energy required to go grocery shopping is out of reach. The fear that every person you run into will hate you is real. This thought loop of uncertainty creates an environment where its almost impossible to get out the front door.
You Have A Constant Headache That Just Wont Go Away
If you experience throbbing or feel pressure anywhere on the head or temple area, theres a good chance its a tension or stress headache, says Dr. Colgan. Oftentimes people point to particular troubles in their life that might be causing this pain, but lifestyle might be to blame instead. Keep in mind, if your head pain feels like a migraine headache, the worst headache of your life, or a headache that wakens you from sleep, those are signs of a dangerous health problem. You should visit a doctor immediately, advises Dr. Colgan.
What to do: When stress is the cause of your headache, the easiest thing to say is, have less stress in your life. But that advice itself is stressful, says Dr. Colgan. Knowing what your headaches coming from is helpful therapy. People oftentimes feel worse worrying and trying to figure out what the cause could be. So knowing its not some serious health problem may make a person feel better. Sometimes the most effective way a doctor can treat a patient is to teach them about their symptoms, says Dr. Colgan.
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Suicidal Thoughts And Behaviors
Strong signs of suicidality include talking about wanting to die, making plans, or attempting to take ones own life. Warning signs of suicidal intention include:
- Acquiring the means to commit suicide
- Changes in eating or sleeping habits
- Engaging in risky or self-destructive behavior
- Extreme agitation or anxiety
- Getting one’s affairs in order
- Increased use of substances such as drugs and alcohol
- Intense changes in mood/mood swings
- Saying goodbye to friends and family as though for the last time
- Feeling trapped or hopeless in ones situation
- Talking a lot about death, dying, and violence
- Talking about suicide or wishing that one hadn’t been born
- Withdrawal from friends or family
Your Back Or Neck Is Always Aching
If youve got knots in your shoulders, a stiff neck or your lower back cramped up after a long day, it could be the constant of a job or personal situation, not just the position you sit in during the day. High levels of stress and tension create discomfort and muscle pain by tightening muscles and causing muscle spasms, says Dr. Colgan. And stiff muscles in your neck can also lead to headaches, he says.
If your back pain developed after an accident or emotional trauma, it could also be a sign of post-traumatic stress disorder . The National Institute of Health recommends talking to your primary doctor, as many people arent able to heal their back pain until they deal with the emotional stress thats causing it.
What to do: Many relaxation techniques can help with stress reduction, including guided imagery, taking deep breaths from the diaphragm, meditation, massages and yoga, says Tuit. Try devoting time for stretching breaks throughout the day to help prevent muscles from tightening up. Make time for some of these yoga poses to unwind at the end of the day.
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Can Working From Home Cause Depression
Working from home, either permanently or partially each week, is becoming a reality for more and more people. While the added flexibility and home comforts can be beneficial to your mental health, it is not without its drawbacks.
Feelings of isolation can arise for those working from home especially if you also live on your own. A lack or physical communication with other human beings can quickly lead to feelings of sadness and depression. If you are working from home regularly, its really important to remain in contact with colleagues, both professionally and socially. Try to block out some time in your diary on a daily or weekly basis to have a chat over video conferencing the social aspects of human interaction can do wonders for your mental health.
Changes In Appetite And Weight
Changes to your appetite either losing your appetite altogether, or wanting to eat all the time, are also signs of depression.
Even in the absence of changes to eating behaviors, people with depression can experience weight loss or gain.
These symptoms may seem relatively minor compared to some of the other signs of depression, but they are important indicators for diagnosis and treatment.
It is important to make time for meals.
Proper hydration and nutrition are as important as getting enough sleep and rest.
There are probably countless days where you decided to skip lunch or replace a meal with a coffee because you were simply too busy.
Eating and eating well is important to keep your energy levels stable.
Ensuring you drink more water than coffee is also equally important to stabilize your mood and keep you at your best.
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Share A Good News With A Friend
Well, we have mentioned above to connect with others to battle off your feelings of loneliness but this point in this list of things to do when you feel sad and alone is unique on its own.
Generally when we call a closed one or a friend we are subconsciously involved in complaining about our lives but take a moment and share one piece of happy information with your pal. It will deepen your relationships and feed your brain with positive hormones.
Constantly Feeling Sad Anxious Or Empty
Do you find yourself feeling sad every day, easily brought to tears, and unable to come out of it?
Maybe you feel anxious about everything, where even the simplest tasks fill you with dread and worry.
You may also feel like you are emotionless numbed out, feeling neither happy nor sad.
While these symptoms may seem contradictory, they can be expressed all at once.
Deep emotional distress, combined with lasting melancholy while you move in and out of a state of feeling flat or numb, are not uncommon.
If these states, and the inability to move out of them and feel happiness and optimism, last for more than a month or get progressively worse, its time to talk to an expert.
This is the first indication that your PhD is taking a serious toll on your mental health.
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Powerful Daily Affirmations For Enjoying Your Own Company And Combatting Loneliness
Finally, if youre feeling lonely or lost, try affirmations for loneliness:
- I am at peace when Im on my own.
- I can appreciate myself for everything that I am.
- Only I am responsible for my happiness.
- I am learning to love myself and my own company.
- I will trust my intuition.
- Being alone is rejuvenating me.
- I am finding myself by being on my own.
- I am creative, happy, and at peace when I am on my own.
- We all learn new things about ourselves every day.
- I will take the time to truly understand myself.
Symptoms Of Anxiety In Men
Anxiety is more than having sweaty palms and butterflies in your stomach. Symptoms of anxiety can include ongoing feelings of worry, fear and impending doom that are so severe they interfere with your ability to work, maintain relationships and get a decent nights sleep. Physical signs of anxiety may include:
- pounding or racing heart
- thinking about death or suicide.
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Job Search Time Wasters That Phds Should Stop Doing Immediately
Feeling discouraged with your job search strategy? Have you uploaded hundreds of resumes without hearing back from employers? Are you starting to think you are not cut out for an industry position? This happens to many PhDs at some point in their transition journey. They dont know how to execute a correct job search strategy. So they waste lots of time doing things that dont yield any result. Then get discouraged. An industry job search is maddening. As PhDs we are never trained rigorously on how to do it in academia. Most PhDs are never trained on how to execute
Prevalence Of Anxiety And Depression In Men
On average, one in 8 men will have depression and one in 5 men will experience anxiety at some stage of their lives.
Men are less likely to experience anxiety and depression than women. They are also less likely to talk about it. This increases the risk of their anxiety or depression going unrecognised and untreated.
Untreated depression is a high risk factor for suicide. In Australia, there are about 3,000 suicides each year. Around 75% of people who take their lives are men, with an average of almost 7 men taking their lives every day.
Its important to remember that anxiety and depression are conditions, not weaknesses, and effective treatments are available.
and depression not only for you, but for your friends and family. Visit Beyond Blue to find out more about anxiety.
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You Having Trouble Sleeping Well
If you find yourself waking up and worrying or ruminating over things, it could be a sign of anxiety or depression, says Dr. Colgan. After a long day, sleep should come easy and getting into bed should finally be a time when you can shut your brain off. If you feel tired but have a difficult time falling asleep, its possible you have stress-related fatigue.
What to do: Talk to your doctor if this is regular occurrence. Discuss whether your chronic stress may have led to depression, says Dr. Colgan. When youre not sleeping well, everyday annoyances might make you feel even more overwhelmed and frustrated because youre more vulnerable. A tired body is not well prepared to cope with stressful situations and ward off illness, says Tuit. She suggests addressing your sleep issues by asking yourself if youre getting six or more hours of sleep each night. If not, determine whats interfering with that. Cutting back on caffeinated and alcoholic beverages and increasing exercise can also improve sleep patterns, she says.