Stress as a Trigger for Depression

10 Dec, 2020 | Cally | No Comments

Stress as a Trigger for Depression

The world changes and with every age and decade, even, come new diseases, or rather, old ones pop up and are more prominent. For our digital age, stress seems like one of the worst culprits. We already know that stress isn’t good for us and we do various things to get rid of it – some of us exercise, some watch TV, and those who like to bet online spend their time browsing the matchbook review.

But, how is stress a disease? It isn’t, yet with enough stress, you can break anything, from an atom to a human. Given enough time and intensity, stress can cause multiple diseases from asthma, heart disease, obesity, headaches, anxiety and you guessed it, depression, one of the most prevalent diseases today. Here is how stress can cause depression and what you should look out for.

Stress Leads to a Feeling of Being Overwhelmed

There is no feeling like being overwhelmed. This can be caused by a variety of things, from having bills to pay to a very toxic and annoying boss at work. Working for a lousy paycheck while giving it your all and barely having any health insurance is not a good feeling. What if you get sick? Who’s gonna pay for that and the bills and still have any money left to do anything which is not survival-related? All of that pressure can start causing multiple problems and depression is one of them. But first, you will most certainly feel overwhelmed, like everything is putting pressure on you, from having loved ones to being loved, let alone having to take care of a family or a vehicle.

The Body’s Response – A State of Lull

Stress literally hurts the body. When you are overwhelmed, the only thing that you want to do is sleep or rest, or simply stop. The first signs of depression is a decrease in practice of habits which were once healthy, cherished and practiced frequently. This can be anything from dental to regular hygiene, stretching, working out, reading, or other things which you find interesting, like soldering or collecting stamps.

Depression Versus Dopamine Overdose

Both are bad for us, but the latter is much more common and people tend to mistake it for depression. While depression can be classified by many things such as a loss of love for activities we once loved, to unwanted body movements, thoughts of suicide and days spent in stillness, or rather, a lack of will to live, a dopamine overdose can have similar sympoms.

A dopamine overdose happens when our body becomes tolerant to dopamine, due to its frequent creation in the body. Causes of this can be social media scrolling, YouTube videos, everything that warrants our attention and promises rewards, instant gratification. Video games and junk food contribute to this. 

Yet, these symptoms, while similar to stress-related depression, are not tied to the same problem.

Stress is one of the many killers that lurk in and out of our body, next to sugar and the ever flowing dopamine. Be careful and try to limit or remove stress-inducing activities, lest you end up being depressed. If that happens, things tend to get more complex and medical professionals will most likely be needed.