9 physical symptoms of depression nobody talks about
9 physical symptoms of depression nobody talks about
While most of us think it is a 'mood' or 'mind' thing, remember it affects our physical health too. The mind and the body are eternally connected. When one fails the other cannot prevail.
Written By:
Debjani Arora
| Published : September 18, 2018 9:17 AM IST
We don't talk about depression aloud. No, we don't. Even with so much happening around, people coming out of their cocoons and talking about their struggles with the inner demon, awareness campaigns on depression, social media being abuzz about mental health issues we still talk about depression in a hush-hush manner. There is a reason for this, we still don't understand the condition completely, in entirety. Most of us have a vague idea of depression and this idea makes us interpret the condition as persistent sadness, gloominess, grief, sorrow and isolation which makes a person socially discontent and a recluse. But in reality, depression is not just that. In fact, it is more than feeling sad or isolated. Many people put up a happy face to mask those feelings.
Depression is a mental condition where there are chemical changes happening in the brain affects the mood and is also called a mood disorder. While most of us think it is a 'mood' or 'mind' thing, remember it affects our physical health too. The mind and the body are eternally connected. When one fails the other cannot prevail. There are certain physical symptoms of depression that we ignore as we fail to realise that while the brain finds it difficult to process emotional information the smooth functioning neural pathways go kaput in depression, it affects physical health. Here are some physical symptoms of depression that you should know about:
Unmanageable chronic pain: If you suffer from any kind of chronic pain like the knee, back or other joint pains with depression these pains just become worse. Your normal doses of painkiller might just be above to give you superficial relief or make you feel good just for few hours. The common kinds of pains that get worse are:
Headaches: In depression, headaches become a common thing. If you are suffering from migraine headaches, they might become worse with time and you may have frequent episodes of the same.
Back pain: As your mind struggles and your body just behaves like an unruly child, posture problems are bound to arise and our back is the worst hit with bad posture. Back pains just get worse
Muscle aches and joint pain: Any kind of muscle or joint pain can get aggravated.
Chest pain: Of course, this isn't a sign of depression but more of a serious heart, stomach, lung or other physiological problem. But depression adds to the discomforts making it unbearable.
Digestive problems: Constantly feeling queasy or nauseated or having frequent bouts of diarrhoea or constipation can also be due to depression.
Unexplained exhaustion and fatigue: When one is suffering from depression no amount of sleep, rest, food can make one feel rejuvenated. Instead, one feels tired or worn out all the time. In fact, getting out of the bed in the morning seems like a herculean task.
Sleeping problems: Sleep problems with depressed people manifests in different ways. Some of them wake up too early or can't fall asleep when they go to bed and others oversleep and wake up tired.
Change in appetite or weight: Loss of appetite and weight is another symptom of depression that is misunderstood. Some people suffering from depression start to crave foods that are high in carbohydrates and it makes them put on extra weight.
If you find yourself or a loved one of yours facing these symptoms along with a persistent sadness or gloominess for no rhyme or reason, get up, go out and seek help, asap. Period.
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