Anxiety And Depression In Children
Find information and resources for parents on how to help children cope
Many children have fears and worries, and may feel sad and hopeless from time to time. Strong fears may appear at different times during development. For example, toddlers are often very distressed about being away from their parents, even if they are safe and cared for. Although fears and worries are typical in children, persistent or extreme forms of fear and sadness could be due to anxiety or depression. Because the symptoms primarily involve thoughts and feelings, they are sometimes called internalizing disorders.
Electroconvulsive Therapy Electric Shock Treatment
If you have severe depression and other treatments, like medication, haven’t worked, ECT might be recommended for you.
When receiving ECT, you will be given an anaesthetic and medication that relaxes your muscles to begin with. Electrodes will be placed on your head that give an electrical “shock” to your brain.
ECT is given over a series of sessions, normally twice a week for three to six weeks.
ECT can cause side effects including nausea, headaches, aches in the muscles and memory problems.
Most people find that ECT is good for relieving severe depression, but the beneficial effects tend to wear off when several months have passed.
Individual Or Group Therapy
When you hear the word therapy you might automatically think of one-on-one sessions with a therapist. However, group therapy can be very useful in depression treatment as well. Both group and individual therapy sessions usually last about an hour. What are the benefits of each? In individual therapy, you are building a strong relationship with one person, and may feel more comfortable sharing some sensitive information with one person than with a group. You also get individualized attention.
In group therapy, listening to peers going through the same struggles can validate your experiences and help build self-esteem. Often group members are at different points in their depression, so you might get tips from both someone in the trenches and someone who has worked through a challenging problem. As well as offering inspiration and ideas, attending group therapy can also help increase your social activities and network.
When the going gets tough in therapy
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How To Cope With Anxiety And Depression
Anxiety and depression often go hand in hand. Heres what you need to know if they strike simultaneously.
Aleksei Morozov/iStock
Do you sometimes worry so much that it interferes with your everyday activities? Or feel so blue that it completely clouds your outlook? Do you often experience these or similar feelings together? Youre not the only one.
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America , anxiety disorders which include generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder are the most common mental health problem among U.S. adults, affecting 18.1 percent of the population each year. And mood disorders which include major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and seasonal affective disorder are the leading cause of disability.
Moreover, the incidence of developing depression in addition to an anxiety disorder or vice versa is high. Many people with major depression also suffer from severe and persistent anxiety, notes Sally R. Connolly, LCSW, in Louisville, Kentucky. And some experts estimate that 60 percent of people with anxiety will also have symptoms of depression, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness .
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Take Some Of The Stress Out Of Life
Depression and anxiety can make it hard for you to deal with everyday situations. By using some of these strategies you can take some of the stress out of your life.
Choose one of these steps:
- get back into your daily routine, by doing little things like, showering, making your bed, hanging the washing out. Choose one thing to start with.
- postpone major life changes such as moving house or changing jobs until youre feeling better
- help someone else who needs support
- remember to take holidays from work and get away from your everyday life
- learn to relax. Try yoga, meditation, muscle relaxation or a breathing technique
- download a mindfulness app, a range of them can be found here on the Mental Health Foundation website
- Check out the Small Steps website for a range of simple tools you can use to manage your stress, anxiety & low mood.
- find a counsellor you can trust and work through issues youre facing.
Taking care of your mental or emotional health is important. Your mental health wont always take care of itself, especially in the stressful times.
Being strong mentally means youre better prepared for lifes challenges. There are many ways we can protect our mental and emotional health as we go about each day. These same strategies can help prevent mental distress from developing in the future. It might take time for the positive feelings to return, but keep at it. Things will get better!
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Try To Eat Balanced Meals
Nourishing your body with whole foods, including fruits, vegetables, lean protein, and whole grains, can help you get the nutrition you need and it could also help improve your symptoms.
Caffeine, refined sugars, and processed foods, on the other hand, could potentially worsen symptoms of both anxiety and depression.
You dont need to cut these out of your diet entirely, but try to balance them with nutrient-dense foods when possible.
Fifth Street Counseling Center
At Fifth Street Counseling Center, we understand how crippling mental health struggles can be, as well as how professional help can make a difference. Weve been serving Broward County since 1991 and have continued to offer our services despite COVID-19s restrictions.
Our video counseling services have offered support during a time of social distancing. Call us at 797-5222 to find out more.
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Looking After Someone Who Has Depression
If you’re close to someone with depression, their condition can affect you too. Your relationship, and family life in general, can be strained, and you might not know what to do or how to help.
Talking about the situation can help. Finding a support group, or talking to other people in a similar situation, can make it easier to cope. If the condition is causing difficulties in your relationship with your partner, you could contact a relationship counsellor who can talk things through with both of you.
When suffering from depression, men are less likely to ask for help than women. They’re also more likely to turn to drugs and alcohol to cope with the symptoms.
Whats The Difference Between Grief And Depression
Given that the primary symptom associated with depression is sadness, it can be easy to think of grief or bereavement as depression. But grief is a natural response to specific experiences, such as the end of a relationship or the death of a loved one. While you might feel regret or remorse, and you might withdraw from usual activities if you are experiencing grief, youre unlikely to feel the overwhelming sense of worthlessness, thoughts of self-harm or suicide, and other symptoms of depression. Another important difference is that in grief, painful feelings usually come in waves and are often mixed with positive memories.
American Family Physician
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How Can I Take Care Of Myself
Once you begin treatment, you should gradually start to feel better. Go easy on yourself during this time. Try to do things you used to enjoy. Even if you dont feel like doing them, they can improve your mood. Other things that may help:
- Try to get some physical activity. Just 30 minutes a day of walking can boost mood.
- Try to maintain a regular bedtime and wake-up time.
- Eat regular, healthy meals.
- Do what you can as you can. Decide what must get done and what can wait.
- Try to connect with other people, and talk with people you trust about how you are feeling.
- Postpone important life decisions until you feel better.
- Avoid using alcohol, nicotine, or drugs, including medications not prescribed for you.
What Causes Anxiety And Depression
Factors that can influence the development of both anxiety and depression include:
- Personality, especially the tendency towards negative feelings and self-doubt
- Early adversity such as trauma, neglect, or toxic stress
- Neurobiology, specifically in the parts of the brain responsible for emotional regulation, cognitive control, and executive function
Even if you have all of these influencing factors, you wont necessarily experience depression and anxiety. These elements simply increase the likelihood of their occurrence.
Heres the good news: you can target any of these risk factors through prevention.
For example, if you know anxiety, depression, or both run in your family, you may choose to practice preventative mental health behaviors such as exercise, mindfulness, and behavioral strategies like CBT.
You may also be on the lookout for the early signs of anxiety and depression so you can seek prompt treatment.
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The Reality Of Mental Health In The United States
Gone are the days where mental health issues are a taboo topic. People struggling with anxiety and depression are encouraged to open up about their challenges rather than shy away with shame.
The more that people have started to be honest about their struggles, the more that society has come to realize just how common issues such as anxiety and depression are in the United States.
Theres no need to face these challenges alone when you have a community of people who understand your position and know how to help. Despite the fact that anxiety disorders are treatable, only 36.9% of those suffering pursue treatment.
Neglecting an anxiety disorder increases an individuals likelihood of visiting a doctor by three to five times. In addition, they are six times more likely to develop a psychiatric disorder.
Its quite usual for those suffering from anxiety to also experience cases of depression, with approximately 50% of those diagnosed with an anxiety disorder also being diagnosed with depression .
What To Do About It
Some people do experience symptoms of depression in waves or intermittent episodes. This means you could experience days, even weeks, of relief and then notice your symptoms suddenly come back or intensify.
In other words, worsening depression is sometimes just the nature of depression but that doesnt mean its permanent, or that treatment wont help.
Professional support is the best way to improve symptoms of depression. If your symptoms fail to ease within a few days or continue to get worse, its best to talk to your therapist or doctor as soon as possible.
If youre already taking medication or working with a therapist, they can help you get guidance on next steps.
It never hurts to schedule an appointment as soon as you start to feel worse. You can always cancel later if you begin to feel better, but that way youll have the appointment if you need it and wont have to worry about availability.
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You Notice Changes In Eating And Sleeping Patterns
Depression often affects appetite and sleep habits.
When it comes to appetite changes, you might find yourself eating more than usual. You could also lose your appetite entirely and feel as if you have to force yourself to eat.
Sleep changes often happen on a similar spectrum. You could have a hard time staying awake and feel exhausted enough to sleep all day but you could also struggle to fall asleep or wake up often throughout the night.
Trouble sleeping at night can mean you need to nap during the day to catch up, so you might end up drifting off at unusual times. This can affect your energy and concentration and further disrupt your sleep.
Learn As Much As You Can About Mental Health
Part of your process of working to help a friend with depression or anxiety should involve a commitment to learning about their struggles. So, if youve never had these types of problems before, read all about them. Dont just research the symptoms covered above, but also natural remedies for anxiety, common anxiety triggers, medical treatments, therapeutic approaches, and so on.
Once you deepen your understanding in this way, youll be much more likely to know what your loved one needs and to be able to offer it to them.
Learning about mental health can also stop you from making lots of mistaken assumptions that can inadvertently cause harm.
For example, you might just assume that if you see your friend looking happy and vibrant, this means their depression is in the past. However, if youve researched depression, youll know that one good day doesnt indicate a cure, and assuming it does can set the person back.
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Anxiety And Depression: 7 Proven Tips To Treat Both
Many people try to address anxiety or depression separately, but the two conditions often co-occur. The reality is that these disorders tend to hang together, and its more common than you think to experience both depression and anxiety at the same time.
If youre experiencing both conditions at once, well show you how to recognize the signs and symptoms and, even more importantly, how to treat them.
Many people try to address anxiety or depression separately, but the two conditions often co-occur. The reality is that these disorders tend to hang together, and its more common than you think to experience both depression and anxiety at the same time.
If youre experiencing both conditions at once, well show you how to recognize the signs and symptoms and, even more importantly, how to treat them.
Talking To Your Health Care Provider
Sometimes it is hard to know if youre struggling with depression or anxiety, or if youre feeling the symptoms of pregnancy. The symptoms can be similar and confusing.
Talk to your health care provider about how you are feeling. You might have to talk about your feelings several times. Make sure to talk about:
- how strong your emotions are
- how often you have these emotions
- how your emotions are affecting:
- your ability to take care of yourself
- your home or work
- your interactions with your partner, family and friends
Tell your health care provider everything about:
Especially if your thoughts and actions scare you, share them with your health care provider.
If your health care provider is not around, go to the closest emergency medical centre to talk to someone.
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So Should I Seek Help
You most definitely should seek professional help if youre experiencing any of the symptoms of depression or anxiety. Anxiety and depression can also coexist people dont always just have one or the other mental health condition.
People with anxiety and/or depression can benefit from talk therapy, group work, medications, and lifestyle changes. Getting professional help from our office or another mental health provider can help you overcome depression and anxiety and find joy in life again.
Dont wait and just keep thinking about getting help though, because seeking help early on can prevent an anxiety disorder or depression from taking over your life.
Dont hesitate to get help. our office today for mental health support. Alternatively, click the online scheduler to make an appointment.
We want to help people living in and around Chattanooga, Tennessee, to thrive, both physically and mentally. If youre hesitant to come into the office, telehealth visits are available.
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Unexplained Aches And Pains
For decades, we have known that depression is not just a mental disorder. It clearly has physical manifestations. In a study published in Dialogues inClinical Neuroscience, 69 percent of persons who met the criteria for depression consulted a doctor for aches and pains. Mood disorders can show up in surprising symptoms like bloating, backaches, or joint pain. Have unexplained aches and pains? Consider depression.
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Therapy And The Big Picture In Depression Treatment
One of the hallmarks of depression is feeling overwhelmed and having trouble focusing. Therapy helps you step back and see what might be contributing to your depression and how you can make changes. Here are some of the big picture themes that therapy can help with:
Relationships.Understanding the patterns of your relationships, building better relationships, and improving current relationships will help reduce isolation and build social support, important in preventing depression.
Setting healthy boundaries. If you are stressed and overwhelmed, and feel like you just cant say no, you are more at risk for depression. Setting healthy boundaries in relationships and at work can help relieve stress, and therapy can help you identify and validate the boundaries that are right for you.
Handling lifes problems. Talking with a trusted therapist can provide good feedback on more positive ways to handle lifes challenges and problems.
Take Some Steps On Your Own
Get organized. “Less clutter in your physical surroundings, email inbox, and to-do bucket will help your mind be more at ease,” Braslow says. You donât have to tackle it all at once. Make a plan to work on one area at a time.
Make new goals. Is there something youâve always wanted to do, or a place you want to go? Create a step-by-step, realistic plan to make it happen.
Do something meaningful. Get involved in an activity that feels important to you. It may be athletic, political, spiritual, or a social cause where you can volunteer. Look for something that gives you a sense of purpose.
Be creative. Direct your focus into something constructive. Rediscover your strengths. If you have a long-lost talent or interest, dive back into it. Braslow suggests trying poetry, music, photography, or design.
Read a good book. It’s a great way to relax. Thereâs even research that shows that reading books on spirituality or psychology may boost your mood.
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