|
|
|
|
|
Posted by JenJen on August 8, 2007, 6:26 pm || Total Votes: 10
|
|
By:Hara Estroff Marano
What's the best way to deal with depressiona and anxiety? Quickly and definitively. Whatever kicks them off, depression and anxiety both are maintained by styles of thinking that magnify the initial insult and alter the workings of the brain in such a way that the longer an episode exists, the less it takes to set off future episodes.
Anxiety and depression are probably two faces of the same coin. Surveys have long shown that 60 to 70 percent of people with major depression also have an anxiety disorder, while half of those suffering anxiety also have symptoms of clinical depression.
The stress response system is overactive in both disorders. Excess activity of the stress response system sends emotional centers of the brain into overdrive so that negative events make a disproportionate impact and hijack rational response systems. You literally can't think straight. You ruminate over and over about the difficulties and disappointments you encounter until that's all you can focus on.
Researchers believe that some people react with anxiety to stressful life events, seeing danger lurking ahead everywhere—in applying for a job, asking for a favor, asking for a date. And some go beyond anxiety to become depressed, a kind of shutdown in response to anticipated danger.
People who have either condition typically overestimate the risk in a situation and underestimate their own resources for coping. Sufferers avoid what they fear instead of developing the skills to handle the kinds of situations that make them uncomfortable. Often enough, a lack of social skills is at the root. Some types of anxiety—obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, and social phobia—are particularly associated with depression.
The fact that anxiety usually precedes the development of depression presents a huge opportunity for the prevention of depression. Young people especially are not likely to outgrow anxiety on their own; they need to be taught specific mental skills.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) gets at response patterns central to both conditions. And the drugs most commonly used against depression have also been proved effective against an array of anxiety disorders.
Although medication and CBT are equally effective in reducing anxiety/depression, CBT is better at preventing return of the disorder. Patients like it better, too, because it allows them to feel responsible for their own success. What's more, the active coping that CBT encourages creates new brain circuits that circumvent the dysfunctional response pathways.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy teaches people to monitor the environment for the troubling emotional landmines that seem to set them off. That actually changes metabolic activity in the cortex, the thinking brain, to modulate mood states. It works from the top down. Drugs, by contrast, work from the bottom up, modulating neurotransmitters in the brainstem, which drive basic emotional behaviors.
Treatment with CBT averages 12 to 15 weeks, and patients can expect to see significant improvement by six weeks. Drug therapy is typically recommended for months, if not years.
Exercise is an important adjunct to any therapy. Exercise directly alters levels of neurohormones involved in circuits of emotion. It calms the hyperactivity of the nervous system and improves function of the brain's emotion-sensing network. It also improves the ability of the body to tolerate stress. What's more, it changes people's perception of themselves, providing a sense of personal mastery and positive self-regard. It also reduces negative thinking.
However, just telling a distressed person to exercise is futile, as depression destroys initiative. The best thing a loved one can do is to simply announce: "Let's go for a walk." Then accompany the person out the door.
|
|
Already voted! | Topic: Treatment
|
|
|
Comments:
|
Comment by felixmason on September 1, 2008, 8:58 am
|
|
Liked the article. I just blogged something similar to the above "rumination" thing like two days ago ;)
|
|
Voted up |
|
Comment by Selva on August 21, 2008, 1:21 am
|
|
Good Article, In the sense that when you understand the SA much the possibilities of success is actually more
|
|
Voted up |
|
Comment by colleen on May 16, 2008, 9:00 pm
|
|
I found this article to make a lot of sense. thanks
|
|
Voted up |
|
Comment by robbo56 on January 29, 2008, 7:20 pm
|
|
I don't understand exactly why I was being such a pill, but I just read what I wrote and ....well I must have been having a "you can't know more than me" episode. I definitely agree about CBT being the best treatment for both Social Phobia and Major Depression......I have both, and I use it for both....so, the article is right on, and I was off track...but well....such is insecurity and I'm glad I saw this because I forgot all about it.
|
|
Voted up |
|
|
|
|
Good stuff:
People who have either condition typically overestimate the risk in a situation and underestimate their own resources for coping.
|
|
Voted up |
|
|
|
|
thanks informative
|
|
Voted up |
|
Comment by robbo56 on October 7, 2007, 2:19 am
|
|
I've read that in regard to co-morbid depression and anxiety, but without a reference to a particular disorder, such as Social Anxiety Disorder (I believe it was in "Dialectical Therapy for Depression and Anxiety").It was also the authors contention that there are more patients with co-morbid conditions that single disorders, alone. The question is whether or not we're speaking of an emotion or a disorder. Anxiety (as I understand it) in one of 3 ranges: normal, excessive, disordered (and in Dialectical Therapy for Depression and Anxiety, a similar relationship (without referring to a specific anxiety disorder was claimed (the co-morbid factor). I can only refer to my own experience. I had an anxiety disorder (social phobia) long before I had major depression. There could have been a relationship (to some extent) but the primary cause of the depressive disorder was a long period of stress, and a situation that seemed hopeless......then it was BOOM - deep depression. Also, I have anxiety sometimes (worry) with my depression, but I wouldn't call it a disorder - and neither did the dialectical book.
I remember when they called it "agitated depression" - and the symptoms vary quite a lot with depression (since my medication works beautifully for depression but makes my insomnia worse, and there are such variations in medications in terms of symptom relief.
For example, I have some obsessional thinking that the anti-depressant seems to have reduced also. I couldn't agree more about multiple symptoms, but disorders?....I have doubts about whether it's a true anxiety disorder.
|
|
Voted |
|
Comment by joez on August 9, 2007, 7:42 am
|
|
nice article showing a broader picture....thanks for finding this
|
|
Voted up |
|
You must be logged in to post a comment.
|
|
