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The Depression Stress Link: How to Survive When Life is Hard

In some people there is a depression stress link. Understanding that link helps explain why some people are more resistant to stress than others, and why some people are easily depressed by stressful life events. Understanding the depression’s stress link may also help you identify ways to deal with both depression and stress, which will make the quality of your life better.

Chemistry and the Depression Stress Link

Chemistry isn’t the whole explanation for stress and depression, but it is part of the explanation. When we are stressed, we secrete chemicals such as adrenalin that prepare us to meet a threat. Our heart rate and blood pressure increase, muscle tone increases, we are more alert and vigilant.

Serotonin is a brain chemical that helps regulate mood. We don’t know for sure what causes depression, but we do know that when the amount of serotonin present at the ends of our nerve cells is increased, depression gets better. We also know that serotonin is necessary for us to handle stress effectively, and that people with low serotonin levels are more sensitive to stress. So low levels of serotonin may be associated with both depression and a poor stress response.

Early Trauma: The Beginning of the Depression Stress Link

Recently, researchers have found that people who have experienced significant trauma early in childhood have a higher tendency to be depressed than others. Significant early trauma is a threat to a child’s survival, and the child’s body and body chemistry may be changed by that threat. We say it is “hard-wired” into their biochemistry.

These individuals exhibit a strong depression stress link. When something stressful happens, their response to the stress is out of proportion. The response is in proportion to the original trauma, not the event that is happening in the present. There is an elevated response with stress hormones and a diminished response with serotonin, which creates a direct depression stress link.

Implications of the Depression Stress Link

People in whom the depression stress link is heightened and activated tend to experience stress as low-level depression. Most people experience anxiety during stressful times, but these individuals are more likely to experience depression. If you are one of these individuals, being aware of the depression stress link gives you some tools for dealing with your depression:

1. When you start to get depressed, you can identify stressors that might be contributing to your depression.

2. You can use stress management techniques to try to manage your stress and improve the depression.

3. During stressful times, you may want to take prophylactic anti-depressants, especially ones that improve serotonin levels.

4. You can understand that managing your stress is probably going to be an important, ongoing, life-long health habit.

5. You can develop insight and awareness enough to deal with any precipitating original trauma so that you respond more appropriately to present stressors.

The depression stress link is very real and is especially pronounced in people who experienced early childhood trauma. Dealing with the original trauma, learning to manage stress, and treating depression during stressful times may help you have a better quality of life.