If you're depressed, you'll be sad or anxious pretty much all the time. You may be restless and irritable and cry for no reason. You'll have little interest in anything including sex and you'll feel drained. You'll have low self-esteem and fail to see the positive in anything. You might either sleep too much or too little. Similarly, your appetite may shoot up or you'll not be hungry at all. You could also get physical symptoms, such as stomach pains, headaches and rapid heartbeat. Most people get depressed now and again and it's only a problem if it does not go away and your sleep is still suffering.
What Cause It?
It's often triggered by stress, bereavement, financial problems or difficult relationships and having a negative outlook makes you more prune as it makes you less able to cope. As a result, there'll be a drop in the key chemicals in your brain responsible for regulating mood such as serotonin and noreinephrine. You need serotonin to produce your sleep inducing melatonin, so it's inevitable your sleep will suffer.
What's The Treatment?
Your doctor will get you an assessment to make sure you have not gotten another under condition such as an underactive thyroid or anemia which can also make you tired. He may prescribe antidepressants which affect the levels of your brain chemicals. There are more than 25 different types of antidepressants and your doctor will recommend one which is the right one for you. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors like prozac work by boosting serotonin levels. Others, such as amitriptylines, act as sedative as well as increase serotonin. The most effective treatment, however, is some of talking talking on its own or combines with medication.
A counselor or psychotherapist will help you get the root of the problem. Once you've discovered why you're depressed and learned how to cope, your depression is less likely to come back. Psychoanalysts one of the most common types of psychotherapist and often blame depression on an inability to deal with anger and a desperate need for approval. You'll have to delve deep into the past to resolve these issues and this can take years. Cognitive therapists do not look to the past so much and believe depressed people are caught in a cycle of negative thinking and expect to fail. Your therapist triggered by a specific problem such as a difficult relationship or dealing with the loss of loved one.
Are You Feeling Sad?
If you start to feel low as soon as winter sets in you may have seasonal adverse disorder (SAD) which is triggered by a lack of daylight. If you have a mild form, you'll feel slightly more tired and fed up in winter than at other times of the year. If it's more extreme, you'll sleep more, feel lethargic when you're wake and crave stodgy foods. Light goes in through the eye and travels to the part of the brain that controls mood, appetite, food and sex drive so if you're not getting enough light these will be badly affected. Lack of light also makes you produce more melatonin, making you feel sleepy. The best treatment is light therapy where you're exposed to bright light from a lightbox between 15 to 45 minutes a day. Your doctor may also prescribe the antidepressants, which boots levels of the feel good hormone serotonin.