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Is Anxiety And Depression Treatable

Sleeping Patterns And Depression

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Depression can disrupt sleep patterns. Its essential to try to restore a regular sleep pattern to make a full recovery. Some tips for restoring a regular sleep pattern include:

  • Try to go to sleep and get up at about the same time each day.
  • If youre worrying about things during the night, set aside some time for problem solving during the day.
  • Avoid drinking caffeine after 4 pm and try not to drink more than two cups of caffeine-type drinks each day.
  • Avoid using alcohol to help you sleep. As the alcohol is broken down in your body, it causes you to sleep less deeply and to wake more frequently.
  • Allow yourself time to wind down before going to bed. If you are working or studying, stop at least 30 minutes before bedtime and do something relaxing.
  • Give your mind a break from online activity such as social media for an hour before bedtime, and consider putting your phone in a separate room from your bedroom at night time.

How To Manage The Symptoms Of Anxiety And Depression

Although the signs of depression and anxiety can be overwhelming, there are ways you can manage them. Its a good idea to get in touch with your doctor or therapist so they can help. Basically, anxiety and depression symptoms are managed to get different treatment options that you can use together to help deal with your conditions anytime you need them. The following are some of the ways to manage them:

In addition, ensure that you avoid excessive intake of caffeine and alcohol they can make your conditions worse. Also, smoking can increase the probability of you developing an anxiety disorder you should quit it.

  • Try relaxation techniques: Relaxation techniques can effectively help reduce the symptoms of depression and anxiety and also improve the quality of your life. Some of the relaxation techniques to use nay include meditation, yoga, good breathing exercises, and massage

When do you Need Professional Help for Depression and Anxiety?

Never Stop Your Antidepressant Without Guidance From A Doctor

Quitting the medication abruptly without professional support could potentially make your symptoms worse. If you dont notice improvement after taking your prescribed antidepressant for several weeks, or if you experience unwanted side effects, its best to ask the prescribing psychiatrist or clinician about alternatives.

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To Cope With Anxiety And Depression Try These Tips:

Try diaphragmatic and square breathing techniques.

Diaphragmatic breathing involves taking a deep breath from your diaphragm. Your stomach should expand as you breathe in. Square breathing techniques involve taking a deep breath in for five counts, holding this deep breath for five counts, exhaling for five counts and finally holding for five counts before repeating. The entire time should be spent focusing on your breath versus the stressful event.

Challenge your thoughts.

This involves not judging situations good or bad and focusing on what you’re feeling and identifying what’s in your control. Your primary areas of control are acknowledgement of your emotions, feelings and your reaction to stressful situations. It is also important to focus on the facts of the situation. Sometimes your anxious and depressive thoughts are not always based in facts. Facts are 100% absolute not assumptions.

Ask yourself:
  • How would I like the situation to turn out?
  • What are the facts?

Then identify small, specific goals to get to your desired outcome. If you fail to acknowledge your emotions and feelings and attach a negative thought to a situation, the outcome of that situation will result in avoidance and increased anxiety and depression.

Focus on the facts.

Challenge yourself to find the facts in a situation and acknowledge whatever emotions and feelings the situation reveals. Doing so increases the likelihood you’ll be able to cope effectively with a stressful situation.

Combining Psychotherapy And Drugs

Anxiety vs. Depression: What is the Relationship?

Patients with anxiety or depression sometimes find that combining psychotherapy with medication offers the most complete relief. A randomized controlled trial, the Stepped Care for Affective Disorders and Musculoskeletal Pain study, suggests that a combination approach might also work for people suffering pain in addition to a psychiatric disorder.

The trial enrolled 250 patients with chronic pain in the lower back, hip, or knee. Participants also had at least moderate depression, as measured by a standard clinical instrument. One group was assigned to 12 weeks of antidepressant therapy followed by a 12-week pain self-management intervention based on principles of CBT. In the usual care group, which served as a control, researchers informed participants that they had depression and should seek advice or treatment. Results were considered significant if participants reported at least a 50% reduction in depression severity and at least a 30% reduction in pain. At the 12-month mark, both depression and pain were significantly reduced in 32 of 123 intervention patients , compared with 10 of 127 usual care participants .

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Combining Psychotherapy And Medication

Both psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy have been shown to be more effective than control groups. However, whereas drugs are mostly compared with placebo controls, the evidence for psychotherapy in anxiety disorders is mainly based on comparisons with a wait-list, a control method that was used in 70% to 75% of the studies in adults and children.77,103,104 Because pill placebos have higher effect sizes than waitlist controls, the effect size differences between active and control conditions cannot be compared between psychotherapy and medication studies. Therefore, our research group conducted a large meta-analysis of all available controlled short-term studies for anxiety disorders and compared the pre-post effect size differences between medications and psychotherapies.77 In this meta-analysis, which was based on studies with around 35 000 patients, medications were associated with a significantly higher average pre-post effect size than psychotherapies . It was also found that patients included in psychotherapy studies were less severely ill than those recruited for medication trials.

The meta-analysis also showed that combinations of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy had a relatively high effect size . However, only a few combination studies were available for this comparison, and some of these have not been conducted with the most powerful drugs.

Mental Markers Of Depression

People with depression may:

  • Be hopeless, assuming that nothing positive will happen in the future for themselves, for others, or for the world
  • Believe it is not worth trying to think or feel differently, because of this hopelessness
  • Feel worthless, as if who they are or what they do is not valuable
  • Think about death due to a persistent belief that life is not worth living or that the individual is a burden on others. In cases of moderate to severe depression, more specific suicidal thoughts can be present.
  • Feel hopeless about themselves, others, the world

  • Believe it is not worth trying

  • Think about death due to a persistent belief that life is not worth living

In major depressive disorder , these types of thoughts are persistent most of the day and more days than not for weeks on end. If a person vacillates between a very low and very high mood state, then a diagnosis of bipolar disorder may apply. For any variant of a mood disorder, the low mood state is likely to be characterized by the type of thinking described above.

If you are having suicidal thoughts, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 for support and assistance from a trained counselor. If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.

For more mental health resources, see our National Helpline Database.

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Prevention And Coping With Anxiety

All human beings experience anxiety. In many cases, anxiety can have some beneficial and adaptive qualities such as pushing one to study for an upcoming difficult exam or propelling a person to flee from danger. Although experiencing some anxiety with life stressors and worries is normal, sometimes it can be difficult to manage and can feel overwhelming. Below we provide a list of tips and strategies to help individuals prevent anxiety from reaching a diagnosable level. Even though not everyone will struggle with a diagnosable anxiety disorder, learning strategies to aid in relief from anxiety and to manage the normal anxiety experienced in everyday life can help you live the life you desire.

Learning Relaxation Strategies

Exercise, Healthy Diet, and Rest

Awareness and Identifying Triggers

  • It could be helpful to have a journal that you use to track your stressors, mood, thoughts, and behaviors that are impacted by anxiety. This will further help you identify the cause of your anxiety and notice when you may be engaging in unhelpful thoughts that only increase your anxiety.

Supportive Friendships & Family/ Contact a Therapist

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Treatment Can Counter Emotional Tolls

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Although persistent anxiety and depression are highly treatable with medications, cognitive behavioral therapy and talk therapy, without treatment these conditions tend to get worse. According to Dr. John Frownfelter, treatment for any condition works better when doctors understand the pressures patients face that affect their behavior and result in clinical harm.

Dr. Frownfelter is an internist and chief medical officer of a start-up called Jvion. The organization uses artificial intelligence to identify not just medical factors but psychological, social and behavioral ones as well that can impact the effectiveness of treatment on patients health. Its aim is to foster more holistic approaches to treatment that address the whole patient, body and mind combined.

The analyses used by Jvion, a Hindi word meaning life-giving, could alert a doctor when underlying depression might be hindering the effectiveness of prescribed treatments for another condition. For example, patients being treated for diabetes who are feeling hopeless may fail to improve because they take their prescribed medication only sporadically and dont follow a proper diet, Dr. Frownfelter said.

Some changes to medical care during the pandemic have greatly increased patient access to depression and anxiety treatment. The expansion of telehealth has enabled patients to access treatment by psychotherapists who may be as far as a continent away.

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Whats It Like Living With Anxiety And Depression

Anxiety and depression are listed independently in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders there is a solid and notable link between these mental health conditions. Although it is possible and not uncommon to receive a diagnosis of either anxiety or depression, it is also equally likely to struggle with both conditions simultaneously. Depression and anxiety frequently co-occur, meaning someone experiences the complex symptoms of both conditions at the same time, making each even more difficult and challenging to manage.

There is a unique and complicated link between anxiety and depression. When someone has anxiety, they are at an increased risk of developing depression. In fact, some studies show up to half of those who have major depression also experience persistent, severe anxiety. Also, depression causes emotions such as fear and worry. When you are frequently worried about something , it can trigger anxiety. If you or a loved one are struggling with an anxiety disorder, it is crucial to seek help from a mental health treatment center like The Meadowglade before your symptoms have the opportunity to evolve into a more complex, co-occurring disorder. Knowing if you need to or should consider seeking help is best achieved by understanding what anxiety and depression are and what the symptoms of each condition may look like in a friend or loved one.

Kara Mayer Robinson Jabeen Begum

If you have both conditions, there are lots of ways to get help.

Other Causes Of Depression

There are a number of things that can lead to developing depression.

  • Stressful events big changes in your life, like bereavement, the end of a relationship or the loss of a job, can be difficult to deal with. When these things happen, its important to keep seeing friends and family instead of trying to deal with problems alone this increases your risk of developing depression.
  • Giving birth pregnancy and birth can make some people vulnerable to depression. Postnatal depression can happen as the result of physical changes, hormonal changes, and the responsibility of taking care of a new baby.
  • Loneliness your risk of depression gets higher if you arent in contact or spending time with family and friends.
  • Personality some personality traits can put you at a higher risk of developing depression. These include low-self esteem or a habit of criticising yourself too much. These personality traits can come from your genes, which you get from your parents, or they can be as a result of experiences in your early life.
  • Family history its more likely for someone to develop depression if a family member, like a sibling or parent, has experienced it before.

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Negative Thoughts And Depression

Worrying or thinking negatively is common in people with depression. This affects your ability to focus on getting better and makes you more vulnerable to unhealthy emotions.

Tips to help you control worry and reduce negative thinking include:

  • Write down what you are worried about. Go through each concern and think about how realistic your negative thoughts are. Explore alternative thoughts and explanations.
  • Try not to focus on the things you cannot change.
  • Focus on the present. Accept your thoughts without actively engaging with them.
  • Write down your problems and brainstorm solutions. Jot down the pros and cons with each option and choose the one that seems the best. Review whether it worked to overcome the problem.
  • Avoid making major decisions about your life at this time.

How Do You Treat Depression And Anxiety

Am I Depressed or Am I Anxious?

It can be harder for doctors to diagnose and treat depression and anxiety when they happen together. That’s why it’s important to tell your doctor about all of your symptoms.

The treatment for both anxiety and depression involves talk therapy, medication, or a combination of the two. Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the main talk therapies. It teaches you how to think and behave differently to stop triggering your anxiety or depression.

Antidepressants are medicines that treat depression. They change the balance of chemicals in your brain to improve your mood. Anti-anxiety drugs, antidepressants, and beta-blockers are treatments for anxiety.

The sooner you start treatment, the more likely it will help you. Let your doctor know if the treatment you’re on doesn’t relieve your symptoms or if it causes side effects. It may take a few tries to find the treatment that works best for you.

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Does Depression Always Come Back

Some mental health professionals describe recovery from all or most depression symptoms as remission. Youll also find this term in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . Other experts object to this term, as it implies that depression will eventually return.Depression does, in fact, have a high risk of recurrence but it doesnt return for everyone.

Psychiatrists may recommend antidepressants for children or adolescents when they have severe symptoms that:

  • significantly affect daily routines and overall well-being
  • make it difficult to attend or succeed at school
  • dont improve with other treatments

Keep in mind that medication isnt necessarily a life-long commitment. If your symptoms keep you from going to therapy or taking care of basic everyday needs, medication could relieve symptoms enough to make it possible for you to try other treatments.

Once you find a treatment approach that works for you, you may be able to stop taking medication.

What Can I Do If I Have Depression

If you have symptoms of depression, see your healthcare provider. They can give you an accurate diagnosis, refer you to a specialist or suggest treatment options.

If you or someone you know is thinking of hurting themselves or taking their own life:

  • Go to the emergency department of your hospital.
  • Contact a healthcare provider.
  • Speak to a trusted friend, family member or spiritual leader.

A note from Cleveland Clinic

Depression is a common condition that affects millions of Americans every year. Anyone can experience depression even if there doesnt seem to be a reason for it. Causes of depression include difficulties in life, brain chemistry abnormalities, some medications and physical conditions. The good news is that depression is treatable. If you have symptoms of depression, talk to your healthcare provider. The sooner you get help, the sooner you can feel better

Last reviewed by a Cleveland Clinic medical professional on 12/31/2020.

References

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What Are The Symptoms Of Depression

Depression can affect your emotions, mind and body. Depression symptoms include:

  • Feeling very sad, hopeless or worried.
  • Not enjoying things that used to give you joy.
  • Being easily irritated or frustrated.
  • Eating too much or too little.
  • Changes in how much you sleep.
  • Having a difficult time concentrating or remembering things.
  • Experiencing physical problems like headache, stomachache or sexual dysfunction.
  • Thinking about hurting or killing yourself.

If you or someone you know has thoughts of hurting themselves, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800.273.8255. This national network of local crisis centers provides free, private emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Dont Suffer In Silence

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Get support, whether from family, friends, your academic advisor, campus counseling center, or a trusted online community. A heart-to-heart talk with someone you trust can help you get rid of toxic feelings and may even give you a fresh perspective.

If these steps dont bring relief, or if you are still unable to cope and feel as if the stress is affecting how you function every day, it could be something more acute and chroniclike depression. Dont let it go unchecked!

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