Is Anger A Sign Of Depression
Millions of Americans suffer from depression and anxiety disorders. When diagnosed accurately, treatment may help many individuals.
But what happens when the symptoms are not typical of the disorder? The chances of a correct diagnosis and effective treatment may then be reduced.
Anger is not a classic sign of depression. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , the standard reference manual used by mental health professionals, does not list anger as a symptom of the condition. And the scales that are used by clinicians to determine if medication is working effectively do not include anger-specific items.
Yet clinicians frequently see anger and irritability in patients who are seeking help. In fact, irritability is seen almost as frequently as sadness and anxiety. But there is limited research on anger and its link to these disorders
Since 2001, studies of anger and aggression across psychiatric diagnoses have consistently found elevated rates of anger, irritability, and hostility among depressed patients, while studies of bipolar disorder also found elevated levels of anger.
Recognizing Depression Symptoms In A Loved One
Family and friends are often the first line of defense in the fight against depression. That’s why it’s important to understand the signs and symptoms of depression. You may notice the problem in a depressed loved one before they do, and your influence and concern can motivate them to seek help.
Be concerned if your loved one:
Doesn’t seem to care about anything anymore. Has lost interest in work, sex, hobbies, and other pleasurable activities. Has withdrawn from friends, family, and other social activities.
Expresses a bleak or negative outlook on life. Is uncharacteristically sad, irritable, short-tempered, critical, or moody talks about feeling helpless or hopeless.
Frequently complains of aches and pains such as headaches, stomach problems, and back pain. Or complains of feeling tired and drained all the time.
Sleeps less than usual or oversleeps. Has become indecisive, forgetful, disorganized, and out of it.
Eats more or less than usual, and has recently gained or lost weight.
Drinks more or abuses drugs, including prescription sleeping pills and painkillers, as a way to self-medicate how they’re feeling.
How Can I Help Someone With Depression
Depression is a serious but treatable disorder that affects millions of people, from young to old and from all walks of life. It gets in the way of everyday life, causing tremendous pain, hurting not just those suffering from it but also impacting everyone around them.
If someone you love is depressed, you may be experiencing any number of difficult emotions, including helplessness, frustration, anger, fear, guilt, and sadness. These feelings are all normal. Its not easy dealing with a friend or family members depression. And if you neglect your own health, it can become overwhelming.
That said, your companionship and support can be crucial to your loved ones recovery. You can help them to cope with depression symptoms, overcome negative thoughts, and regain their energy, optimism, and enjoyment of life. Start by learning all you can about depression and how to best talk about it with your friend or family member. But as you reach out, dont forget to look after your own emotional healthyoull need it to provide the full support your loved one needs.
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Or You’re Never Hungry
On the flip side, a loss in appetite may also be a sign that you’re heading toward depression. A study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry analyzed the appetites of participants diagnosed with depression. It concluded that 35% of depressed participants experienced an increase in appetite while “approximately 48% of adult depressed patients exhibited depression-related decreases in appetite.” If you’ve noticed you’re not hungry and your food intake has decreased, it may mean you’re depressed.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e
You Give Up On Reaching Out
Right now, it’s hard to stay in contact with friends and family members. Social media, video chats, or text messages feel impersonal or awkward, which can make you want to give up on reaching out for social interactions. But if you’re hopeless about maintaining relationships and feel yourself pulling away, it may be a sign you’re depressed.
A study published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology analyzed people living with depression and their daily social interactions. The study concluded that “people with greater depressive symptoms feel that they experience worse social interactions” and “people with greater depressive symptoms reported less satisfaction of their need to belong.” Your listless attitude toward socializing may be a sign that depression is creeping in.
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Signs And Symptoms Of Depression In Women
The symptoms of depression in women vary from mild to severe and are distinguished by the impact they have on your ability to function. Common signs of depression include:
- Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. You feel as if nothing will ever get better and theres nothing you can do to improve your situation.
- You dont care anymore about former hobbies, pastimes, and social activities you used to enjoy.
- Appetite changes often leading to significant weight loss or weight gain.
- Changes in your sleep pattern.
- Feeling angry, agitated, restless.
Women also tend to experience certain depression symptoms more often than men. These include:
- Depression in the winter months due to lower levels of sunlight.
- Symptoms of atypical depression, where rather than sleeping less, eating less, and losing weight, you experience the opposite: sleeping excessively, eating more , and gaining weight.
- Strong feelings of guilt and worthlessness. You harshly criticize yourself for perceived faults and mistakes.
If you’re feeling suicidal
Problems don’t seem temporarythey seem overwhelming and permanent. But if you reach out for help, you will feel better.
Read Are You Feeling Suicidal? or call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. For helplines outside the U.S., visit Befrienders Worldwide.
Losing Interest In Sex
As you age and your hormones shift, you may experience a decrease in your libido, which can be rectified with hormonal therapies and other treatments. But if you lose interest in sex altogether, or just dont experience pleasure anymore, you may be depressed.
Women who lose interest in sex may avoid being touched or simply decide they dont want to be intimate. Men who are depressed may experience erectile dysfunction and therefore avoid intimate situations due to performance anxiety.
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You Lash Out At Others
When you are feeling low, you are also likely to become easily irritable or angry with yourself and others around you. Sometimes you can mistake this irritability as a bad temper when really it can be something completely different.
Depression is a hard thing to deal with, so there is no surprise that people can become easily agitated or angry over things that wouldnt normally cause this reaction. Some people believe that someone with depression is quiet, sad, shy, etc. However, this is not always the case.
As mentioned before, depression affects people in different ways, so we cannot paint everyone with the same brush. If you feel that you are often lashing out at others more than usual, this could be a side effect of depression. Here are some anger management tips that could help.
Depressive Symptoms Associated With Aggression
The authors review the association between depression and violence, and the role that anger and emotional dysregulation play.
SIGNIFICANCE FOR THE PRACTICING PSYCHIATRIST
Violence is not usually considered to be related to depression, yet findings suggest an association between violent behavior and depression or depressive symptoms in many different disorders. A Swedish study compared the criminal records of 47,158 depressed individuals with the records of 898,454 people with no history of depression matched by age and sex.1 Those in the depressed group were approximately 3 times more likely than the general population to commit violent crimes, such as homicide, attempted homicide, aggravated assault, or robbery.
This association was present even when previous histories of violence, self-harm, psychosis, and substance use were taken into consideration. Furthermore, the risk of violent crime significantly increased in individuals with more depressive symptoms.
In dementia, as well, patients with depressive symptoms are more likely to exhibit physical aggression.6 And in bipolar disorder, increased violence is not limited to the manic phase but is also present in bipolar depression.7
The relationship between aggression and depression
When we assess the risk of violence in people with depressive symptoms, we must consider the specific disorder in which these symptoms exist.
Neurophysiological factors
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Develop A Wellness Toolbox To Deal With Depression
Come up with a list of things that you can do for a quick mood boost. The more tools for coping with depression, the better. Try and implement a few of these ideas each day, even if you’re feeling good.
Depression In Relationships: When To Say Goodbye
Overview
Breaking up is never easy. Breaking up when your partner is struggling with a psychiatric disorder can be downright painful. But there comes a time in every relationship when it may be necessary to evaluate your options and make difficult choices.
No one wants to be accused of abandoning a loved one at their time of greatest need. But neither should you remain in a strained relationship with no conceivable future out of a sense of duty or guilt. Sometimes theres nothing more you can do but say goodbye for the sake of your own mental health.
Before it comes to that, for your own sake and the sake of your partner, you should be sure youve done all you can to salvage the relationship. Otherwise you may be consumed by guilt or self-doubt, wondering if you did all you could do for your partner and your relationship.
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We Dont Want To Hurt People
Sometimes, when our loved ones hear how awful were feeling, it can upset them. They care about us. It can be hard for them to see us hurting or in pain. If we begin to feel suicidal, and share that with a loved one, we see the pain and worry in their eyes. We see them wondering what theyre not doing enough of to help. Our loved ones might struggle to understand why we feel the way we do. It might hurt them, and we dont want that, because we love them. So we push them away.
What Causes Intermittent Explosive Disorder
Researchers are still trying to discover the exact cause of intermittent explosive disorder, but they think genetic, biological and environmental factors contribute to its development:
- Genetic factors: IED more commonly runs in biological families. Studies suggest that 44% to 72% of the likelihood of developing impulsive aggressive behavior is genetic.
- Biological factors: Studies show that brain structure and function are altered in IED. For example, brain magnetic resonance imaging studies suggest that it affects the amygdala, which is the part of your brain involved in emotional functioning. In addition, studies show that the level of serotonin is lower than normal in people with IED.
- Environmental factors: Experiencing verbal and physical abuse in childhood and/or witnessing abuse during childhood appears to play a role in the development of IED. Having experienced one or more traumatic events in childhood also seems to play a role.
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What Does Irritability Look Like When Its Part Of Depression
There are many things that can prompt irritability and anger in young people. What are the signs that these negative moods might be associated with depression?
If the irritability is constant rather than conditional. We expect some level of irritability from teenagers in general, especially when theyre being asked to do something they dont want to do, like put down their phones and join the family for dinner. But that typical kind of irritation or anger is intermittent, and its provoked by something specific.
However, if irritation is the main way that a teenager is throughout the day, says Dr. Allerhand, and not only at home but also at school or in other environments, it may be related to a mood disorder rather than an environmental circumstance.
If the irritability is accompanied by other symptoms of depression. In addition to depressed mood or irritability, to be diagnosed with depression a child would have to have at least four of these symptoms:
- Losing interest in things they once enjoyed
- Feeling worthless, saying negative things about themselves
- Lacking energy, feeling tired or seeming lazy
- Trouble concentrating or making decisions
- Gaining or losing weight, changes in appetite
- Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
- Thinking about or attempting suicide
Does Depression Cause Anger
Anger is sometimes a perfectly healthy response. For example, if you exclaim, Oh, come on! when someone cuts you off in traffic, your frustration is probably not anything to worry about. However, if the same event sends you on a spiral of anger that ruins your day or if it makes you want to put others in danger, there may be a deeper problem at work.
Depression and anxiety can both cause people to experience unhealthy anger. People with these disorders are often very critical of themselves. These automatic, mean-spirited thoughts add up over time. After a while, the person feels frustrated with thoughts they believe they cannot control. This rage stays right beneath the surface and can bubble over with slight triggers.
Not all depression causes anger. Some people have more classic depression symptoms such as a loss of interest in activities, exhaustion, and trouble sleeping. Likewise, people with anxiety may not have anger but may have panic attacks instead. Only a trained professional can make these diagnoses.
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A History Of Trauma Neglect Or Abuse
Abuse, neglect, or rejection in childhood can increase your chances of developing depression and contribute to feelings of unresolved anger.
If you couldnt react or express anger in childhood, you might continue to suppress it later in life, even when it happens as a natural response to humiliation or unjust circumstances. Suppressed anger, again, tends to leak out usually as persistent irritability or verbal and physical outbursts.
Plus, internalized feelings of helplessness and worthlessness, which can stem from childhood abuse or any traumatic experience, can lead you to redirect anger toward yourself. These feelings can fuel shame, harsh self-criticism, and self-punishment all of which often happen with depression.
How To Feel Better Tip : Reach Out For Social Support
You can make a huge dent in your depression with simple but powerful self-help steps. Feeling better takes time and effort when you dont feel like making an effort. But you can get there if you make positive choices for yourself each day and draw on the support of others.
Getting support from people who care about you plays an essential role in overcoming depression. On your own, it can be difficult to maintain a healthy perspective and sustain the effort required to beat depression. At the same time, the very nature of depression makes it difficult to reach out for help. When youre depressed, the tendency is to withdraw and isolate, while an irritable mood brought on by depression can cause you to lash out over situations that wouldnt normally bother you, further distancing you from others.
Ask for the help and support you need and share what youre going through with the people you love and trust. You may have neglected your most treasured relationships, but they can get you through this tough time. If you don’t feel that you have anyone to confide in, you can find help to build new friendshipseven if you’re shy or introverted.
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Id Always Figured That Because I Was Angry I Couldnt Be Depressed
How anger works with my depression is still a new idea to me, but according to my mood calendar, they sync up.
I track anger using the âPMSâ button and sad face button in Clue, a period app. So far, in the last few months, just recognizing that my anger and depression intertwined has brought me a lot of relief.
You see, whenever I got angry, I also indulged in this self-defeating idea that anger was part of my DNA â that Iâd inherited my dadâs temper and I was simply a bad person by default.
Some part of me believed that anger was just who I naturally was, the âreal meâ lashing out in rejection of me trying to become kind.
This belief also caused a lot of anxiety because I would spiral and wonder how I could ever be my âtrue selfâ if my this true self was evil. I just wanted to be a good person but the angry night monster was hell-bent on telling me otherwise.
But now, knowing that itâs part of my depression explains a lot.
It explains why, when the anger subsides, I almost immediately hear a voice tell me how pointless everything is. It explains the times I get so surprised by how fierce and hopeless I feel when the depressive episode hits.
If I never came across that article, I may have never considered anger as a warning sign. If those two months actually became permanent, I wouldâve believed the idea that my subconscious was inherently evil.
Now that I understand how my depression works for me, I can help myself.
What To Do If Someone Lashes Out At You
You might be left asking what to do when you find yourself on the receiving end of someones ire. When someone snaps at you, and you suspect theyre hurting underneath, calmly ask them what is going on. If that just escalates their angry behavior, disengage and dont reengage before theyre ready to talk without lashing out.
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