The Number One Tip To Help With Depression Fatigue: Professional Help
Fighting depression and fatigue on your own is extremely challenging, especially when you dont have a lot of motivation or energy to do so. Fatigue and depression negatively impact your relationships, work and school performance, and physical health.
With the proper depression treatment in San Diego, you can begin feeling more like yourself faster. At BOLD Health, we use science-backed therapy approaches in an individualized treatment approach explicitly curated for you.
Our team of clinicians takes a BOLD approach to not only understand your symptoms well gain a genuine understanding of who you are as a person and what brought you to seek depression treatment in San Diego.
What Is Crippling Depression Or Major Depressive Disorder
Dont confuse yourselves crippling depression is just a slang term used for clinical depression . When someone says, I may have crippling depression, it may mean that they feel sad and cannot function well every day.
This type of depression needs the medical diagnosis of a psychiatrist, attention of a mental health professional, support of loved ones, lifestyle changes, and even medication. Here is more data you should know about this type of depression.
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What Is Samhsa’s National Helpline
SAMHSAs National Helpline, , or TTY: is a confidential, free, 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year, information service, in English and Spanish, for individuals and family members facing mental and/or substance use disorders. This service provides referrals to local treatment facilities, support groups, and community-based organizations.
Also visit the online treatment locator, or send your zip code via text message: 435748 to find help near you. Read more about the HELP4U text messaging service.
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What Causes Depression Fatigue
Depression impacts the neurotransmitters in your brain that are associated with alertness. So, scientifically speaking, depression psychologically affects your energy levels, leading to fatigue.
There is a bidirectional relationship between depression and fatigue. In other words, if you suffer from depression, youre very likely to suffer from fatigue. And when youre tired and exhausted all the time, it can make you feel depressed.
Its a difficult cycle to break.
But there are some causes of depression fatigue you can try to address on your own. Or, even better, you can work on them together with the help of a qualified mental health professional.
Learn To Recognize Negative Thinking
Sometimes these thoughts can be obvious, such as times when you berate or criticize yourself. Other times, they can be more subtle. You might find yourself engaging in things like catastrophizing or all-or-nothing thinking.
Catastrophizing involves always anticipating negative outcomes. All-or-nothing thinking means that you think of things as either successes or failures with no in-between. Once you get better at recognizing these cognitive patterns, you can start working on some healthier replacements.
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Fatigue And Depression: When Is Tiredness A Warning Sign
3 Minute Read
Sleep is an important part of overall health, but for many, it does not come easily. Millions of Americans report feeling fatigue a feeling of tiredness or exhaustion.
Many different factors, ranging from poor sleep to health conditions, can cause fatigue. Its also a common symptom of mental health conditions, such as depression.
Being fatigued doesnt mean youre depressed, but fatigue can be a warning sign. Learn more about the link between the conditions.
How Does Depression Affect Productivity
Depression and workplace productivity can significantly counteract each other. This is a common challenge for many people suffering from depression. Employers suffer, too: The estimated cost, due to loss of productivity related to depression and its effects, is in the billions of dollars.3
Why is it hard to keep up workplace performance when youre depressed? The symptoms of depression can be debilitating. Depression can affect productivity in these ways:4
- Lack of concentration
- Lack of initiative or motivation
- Low energy, fatigue
- Poor communication with others
Depression at work is a challenge for many. Self-care and daily changes in your routine may help, but its important you talk to your doctor, a therapist, or behavioral provider for long-term management of depression. Without treatment, depression can worsen.
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Create A Morning Pampering Routine
When you live with depression, you may notice your personal care starts to decline. You might start by skipping the shower. Brushing your hair may feel like a chore. Maybe you dont remember when you last brushed your teeth.
A small, cross-sectional study found married women who self-pampered were less likely to experience depression compared to married women who didnt self-pamper.
Its possible, however, like with diet, that people who pamper themselves more are more likely to have other beneficial mental and physical behaviors, which might explain lower rates of depression.
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Fatigue Cause No 1: Heart Disease
When fatigue strikes during everyday activities, such as cleaning the house or weeding the yard, it can be a sign that your heart is no longer up to the job. If you notice it’s becoming increasingly difficult to finish tasks that were once easy, talk to your doctor about heart disease.
Fix: Lifestyle changes, medication, and therapeutic procedures can get heart disease under control and restore your energy.
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What Is On The Horizon For The Treatment Of Residual Fatigue
Dr. Fava: Ongoing studies are currently evaluating some antidepressant medications that, in theory, may be much less likely to cause fatigue as a side effect, such as the triple uptake inhibitors and SNRIs with more prominent noradrenergic effects, as well as adjunctive treatments to minimize residual fatigue, such as norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors .
It is important to note that residual fatigue is not limited to patients with depression and that many drugs we use to treat other mental and medical conditions can induce fatigue well. For instance, we often see fatigue affect patients with schizophrenia that further compounds the apathy and negative symptoms that are core to that illness. Many of the medications we use for neurological conditions can cause symptoms of fatigue as well and that also exacerbates the existing condition for these patients. So, I would say that the topic of fatigue extends beyond depression and will become an important focus of assessment, treatment, and drug development in the next few years.
Do Something You Enjoy
Depression can push you to give into your fatigue. It may feel more powerful than happy emotions.
Try to push back and do something you love something thats relaxing, but energizing. It could be playing an instrument, painting, hiking, or biking.
These activities can provide subtle lifts in your mood and energy, which may help you overcome your symptoms.
Research suggests people who spend time in nature have improved mental health.
Exposure to sunlight may offer some of the same benefits. It can increase your serotonin levels, which can provide a temporary mood boost .
Consider taking a walk at lunch among the trees or spending some time in your local park. Or plan a weekend hike. These activities can help you reconnect with nature and soak in some rays at the same time.
Did you know that 1 out of 7 individuals will suffer from depression symptoms at some point in his or her life? Today, depression is one of the main causes of disability in developed, as well as low and medium income countries. In fact, around 150 million people suffer from depression worldwide.
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How To Get Rid Of Depression
In this article, we will talk about ways to get rid of depression. All of us have been through this feeling at some time of our life. The feeling where everything seems lost, when all seems to go wrong. The feeling when you feel like a looser, when there is constant darkness surrounding you. I know how it feels my friend, I have been through that and I have come out of it. It is in times like these that you realize your worth. For whenever you feel low remember, for if your life is surrounded by bad times at present, think about all the good times that are about to come.
So get away from all the melancholy surrounding you and lets look at what is causing it and how you can get away from it finally.
Symptoms of Depression:
- Fatigue or Loss of Energy
Causes of Depression:
1.) Trauma:
This is one the major causes of depression. From the loss of a loved one to a financial blunder, anything that creates a sense of loss can result in trauma and eventually depression. Trauma for the same reason has been categorised as one the first sign of an underlying mental problem.
2.) Mental Problems:
People with some kind of mental problem are at more risk to suffer from depression. People with alzheimer could suffer from depression. Any previous head injury could also induce the sensation. Check your doctor if thats the case before the depression becomes acute.
3.) Substance Abuse:
4.) Medicinal Side Effects:
When To Get Help For Low Mood Or Depression
Whatever the cause, if negative feelings don’t go away, are too much for you to cope with, or are stopping you from carrying on with your normal life, you may need to make some changes and get some extra support.
If you’re still feeling down after a couple of weeks, talk to your GP or speak to a Breathing Space advisor on 0800 83 85 87 .If you are feeling distressed, in a state of despair or suicidal outwith these hours you can contact NHS 24 on 111 or Samaritans on 116 123 .
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Acknowledge You Have A Problem
This is the most important step. The first one, the one that makes the difference between aimlessly floundering about in your efforts, and actually figuring out a direction.
If you dont realize there is a problem, you will most likely never solve it.
The moment you acknowledge that there is a problem, is the moment you can finally take the steps you need to take to fix that problem.
No one else will take them for you: youre the one who has to do it.
It took me 4 years of constant acute misery before finally realising I was dealing with severe depression. I thought I was just overly sensitive: I cried every-single-day, many, many times per day
- I could no longer hold a conversation with someone , without bursting into tears
- I would hide in the bathroom every day at work to go cry
- I could not answer a single personal question without feeling that my heart was going to explode with sadness.
It was acute emotional distress so unbearable, I could not function. And by not acknowledging it, I only made things worse.
You are not just too sensitive, or just tired. You are depressed. Now, time for you to start taking the necessary measures.
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What Is Mental Exhaustion
Mental exhaustion is a feeling of extreme tiredness, characterized by other feelings including apathy, cynicism, and irritability. You may be mentally exhausted if youve recently undergone long-term stress, find it hard to focus on tasks or lack interest in activities you usually enjoy.
Mental exhaustion often happens as a result of overuse, like physical overuse injuries. Even though you cant point to it, it has more in common with repetitive stress injuries, like carpal tunnel or tennis elbow. Rather than overstressing a muscle group, mental and emotional exhaustion come from overstressing your mind.
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Change Harsh Monologues To Compassionate Dialogues
Its so common for people to be hard on themselves when they are depressed and yet its when were depressed that we most need kindness and compassion.
Imagine how you would speak to a child or a dear friend if they were feeling down. Hopefully, you would communicate with them in a very kind and compassionate way. Healing does not come from harshness. If it did, you would probably feel better by now because Im guessing you have not spent the majority of your time being compassionate and kind towards your depressed emotions.
Sadly, many people with depression spend the majority of their time beating themselves up and then feeling bad about feeling bad, but fortunately, we can turn this pattern around and every moment we get another chance. Healing begins when we meet our emotions with tenderness and empathy. Lets take a brief look at how to do that.
How To Be Kind And Compassionate To Ourselves
If we break down the word depression, we get de-press. Pressing down. So often we are taught to depress or press down our emotions and they end up turning into a big ball of depression. So part of overcoming depression is learning how to identify and express your emotions and receive the compassion you need for them.
You may have unresolved feelings that led to developing depression in the first place, you may have emotions about your depression and you might have feelings as a result of depression. They all need compassion and honoring.
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Eliminate Your Chronic Stress
In all stress management workshops, in all sports that require great self-control, in all occupations where self-control is crucial, in all theater and singing classes, in all spiritual practices such as yoga and qi qong, breathing is the key to soothing or even eliminating stress by learning to unblock your diaphragm, the muscle of breathing!
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Ways To Overcome Mental Exhaustion
When youre mentally exhausted, even fun things sound like work. This can make it even more challenging to manage stressors. However, it takes effort and awareness to change the patterns that lead to feeling mentally tired. The good news is that you dont have to tackle it all at once to start feeling better.
Try these 11 strategies for overcoming mental exhaustion:
Meet Yourself Where You Are
Depression is common. It affects millions of people, including some in your life. You may not realize they face similar challenges, emotions, and obstacles.
The key to navigating depression is to be open, accepting, and loving toward yourself and what youre going through.
Every day with this disorder is different. Its important to take your mental health seriously and accept that where you are right now isnt where youll always be.
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Try Increasing Your Activities
It can be hard to find the motivation to do pretty much anything when youre depressed. And when your activity level drops, you might feel even less motivated and more tired. This leads to a vicious cycle.
With physical tiredness, you need to rest. But with depression, its the opposite. Sleeping and sitting around often make you feel more tired and also gives you time to sit with depressive thoughts, which can make you feel worse.
One way to break this cycle is to start gently increasing your activities. This is a cognitive behavioral therapy technique known as behavioral activation. The theory is that doing things will help give you the energy to do more things.
Again, start small, and prioritize manageable, reasonable activities that bring some enjoyment, or activities that provide a sense of achievement.
Here are some ideas for gentle activities to try:
- Go for a small walk, and smell the flowers that you pass on the way.
- Watch birds in your local park.
- Make a playlist of upbeat music.
- Move your body in a way that feels good.
- Research a topic that youre interested in.
- Do a jigsaw or a crossword puzzle.
- Make a warm drink.
- Rewatch a favorite movie.
- Have a spontaneous picnic.
For more ideas and for a worksheet to help you monitor your activities and mood changes, you can check out the Behavioural Strategies for Managing Depression worksheet from the Center for Clinical Interventions in Australia.
Favorite Apps Products And Gadgets
If youre feeling sad, lonely, or stressed, the 7 Cups app could provide you with online therapy and emotional support. With180 professional therapists and more than 300,000 trained listeners and licensed therapists, youll be able to speak to someone 24/7 in a confidential setting.
This app offers activities and games to overcome negative thoughts. Youll receive a happiness score that you can improve each time you play. Its based on effective, evidence-based psychological strategies. The company says 86 percent of those who use the app report feeling better about their lives after just two months.
If you suffer from seasonal affective disorder , bright light therapy may help improve your symptoms. We like the Verilux HappyLight Lucent 10,000 Lux LED Bright White Light Therapy Lamp. Its compact and portable, so you can use it on the go. And it received an average of 4.5 stars on Amazon reviews. The cost is around $45.
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Can Boredom Cause Fatigue
Being bored can make you feel tired. That may sound strange, but it’s true. If you were very busy during your working years, you may feel lost about how to spend your time when you retire. When you wake up in the morning, you may see long days stretching before you with nothing planned. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Engaging in social and productive activities that you enjoy, like volunteering in your community, may help maintain your well-being. Think about what interests you and what skills or knowledge you have to offer and look for places to volunteer. Read Participating in Activities You Enjoy for ways to find volunteer opportunities.
