Reasons for depression.

[Jeff1943]

I've always thought it's a fine line between anxiety and depression. Sometimes I'm hard put to distinguish between the two and if you asked me to describe the difference I might have to get back to you on that.

I've always considered my tendency was towards anxiety and of the two I would find that the least challenging.

Claire Weekes didn't have a lot to say about depression: she preferred to call it 'depletion' and considered it to be the result of nervous exhaustion. As I'm a Claire Weekes fan I have to admit I know much more about anxiety disorder than depression because she was concerned more about anxiety.

So let's consider some possible reasons for depression.

1. Chemical imbalance. This occurs when genetic imperfections supply us with too much of one hormone or too little of another. A whole multi-trillion dollar/pound industry has grown up in an attempt to restore the balance with medications. Let's remember this is a relatively recent science, when Claire Weekes wrote her first book back in the 1960s there were really only two mind-changing meds: barbituates that made you sleepy and the wonder drug Valium/diazepam which gives instant relief from anxiety and remains a wonder drug in my opinion despite recent attempts to demonise it.

So pharmaceuticology in general is still very much an infant science. Weekes' method for full recovery from anxiety disorder only advocates taking 'sedatives' and bed rest for short periods of time in extreme cases so stands apart from the pill-popping approach to recovery.

In fact, I don't think Weekes had much sympathy for the 'chemicals out of balance' theory which she considered a symptom rather than a cause of anxiety and depression. I think she thought that following recovery through her method the chemicals in our brain would return to normal balance. I think she thought apparent inherited tendencies were caused by nurture not nature.

2. Anxiety is so depressing. This school of thought is based on the belief that having to face exaggerated anxiety every day can lead to a feeling of depression. So depression is a secondary condition: solve the anxiety (and the overwhelming pressures that can cause it) and the depression will yield too. Because there's nothing left to be depressed about.

3. Nervous exhaustion. Constant stress and worry can wear anybody down. Some sooner, some later. It's usually accompanied by too little sleep and inadequate meals due to loss of appetite. Total exhaustion can have a detrimental effect on our mental hormones/chemicals that then precipitate feelings of depression. Removal from those overwhelming pressures and plenty of bed rest, good food and spending your time on interesting pursuits are the antedote: where did convalescent homes go to just when you need them?

That's the story. Three possible causes for a mental health tsunami that appears to be reaching pandemic proportions amongst the young as much as the old.

[bonkers65]

Good post. As far as meds go, the only thing that's ever helped me were the benzo's (Valium, Xanex, etc.) They help with my depression some too. But I used them conservatively.

[Jeff1943 in reply to bonkers65]

My thoughts entirely, bonkers65. The fact that diazepam can help with depression too shows the fine line that exists between depression and anxiety.

[bonkers65 in reply to Jeff1943]

I agree. After all Anti-depresants are prescribed for both depression and anxiety

[Agora1]

Hi Jeff, I remember so clearly when my anxiety was so overwhelmingthat I was crying everyday. When in patient, the thought of depression

came up several times and I clearly told them I was not depressed but

severely anxious. You hit the nail on the head in your post that Dr Weekes

had other names for it which was depletion and/or nervous exhaustion.

That's exactly what I had. Since I respond to posts regarding anxiety through

my own life experiences, you'll notice that I stay away from depression since

I never felt that I experienced that issue myself and wouldn't be able to contribute.

Thanks for a great post Jeff.. Hope you are doing well.

It's always good to see you on site. xx

[Nothing_but_books in reply to Agora1]

I understand your point about speaking from experience, but I see things differently. You've offered encouragement and support to many of us here, not just shared experience with anxiety. We appreciate you at A, AND D.

Depression seems almost literal to me -- a hole too deep to escape, the ground crumbling in your fingers as you try to escape. What you've offered, for me at least, has been hope. In caps. A word, an idea, that isn't even on the horizon from inside that pit. Imagining, remembering, I find I a take a long slow breath.

[Sleeplessme]

Excellent post as always my friend. Just to add my thoughts...

The first mental health care expert I ever came across as a patient explained to me that there are 2 reasons for depression/anxiety, in fact I don't recall him actually uttering the words depression or anxiety at all at this stage, it was more a case of talking along the lines of 'people that come to me fall into one of two categories'. His grouping was quite simply only two of your three categories:

Chemical imbalance (his area, as he was as it turns out a psychiatrist) and life, aka nervous exhaustion (the psycologists area.)

So I guess he just clumped anxiety and depression together as mental health issues, and, although I do see a huge importance in discerning the difference, in a way I still do too. Although they are both very different things, I do still believe that either of them can be separated into either category the same way...

Both anxiety and depression can come from a chemical imbalance, and at the same time both can come from nervous exhaustion.

Also, both can be the catalyst for each other.

This would explain why so many people, particularly those who don't really have any experience of either, confuse the two so regularly.

No one in my journey through the NHS system ever talked of the difference between the two, and I didn't even know the difference myself until I found this place!

For myself, although I definitely had a certain level of depression (doesn't everyone to some extent?) This site helped me realise that anxiety was the one that was actually affecting me the most and it was Claire weeks (via you guys) and propanalol that has helped me deal with it. Had I gone with what more than one NHS doctor had prescribed, depression medicine, then I don't think I would ever have felt as good as I do now.

So I think it's really important for people to understand the difference and work out which one they have before they spend years wondering why their medicine isn't working.