Depression Causes Stress

We tend to think that stress causes depression. I disagree. I think that Depression causes Stress.

Here's why. I think that Depression can sneak up on us. Mild symptoms of Depression can create the stress and self doubt and other signs that we believe cause Depression.

We have it backward. By the time we think we're heading into Depression, we've already been Depressed for a while.

Here are some of my early signs of Depression (the complete and expanded list is on this page).

• When I wake up, I feel slow.

• It becomes difficult to follow my schedules. Everything takes more effort and I am more forgetful.

• It becomes harder to do things. I know what I have to do, but I just can’t seem to actually do it. It’s not laziness or forgetfulness – it’s like the idea of taking action keeps slipping out of my mind. Tasks remain undone.

• It becomes harder to understand the work or studies I am doing. It’s as if my intelligence level is falling. I put off whatever I’m doing until tomorrow.

• Simple or complex decisions becomes harder to make. I put off making any decisions at all.

• I forget to do things. If I plan to do something, I forget about it within minutes. I might have plans this evening and realise tomorrow that I forgot about it. I have to meet someone tomorrow and forget about the meeting until they call to find out where I am.

I don’t always notice these early signs of Depression, but lots of things that need to be done start piling up.

Very often the Depression symptoms above start at a low level, so I don’t notice them. After all, the symptoms could be mistaken for tiredness or not having the time to finish things.

So if I left a task to do later, or if I don’t feel like doing anything because I had a hard day, what’s wrong with that? Especially if I’ve just come off a period where I’ve been incredibly productive.

It’s possible to continue for quite a while (measured in days or weeks or months) in this state of low level depression where tasks happen inconsistently and stuff isn't done. This is especially true if you have activities that must happen, like going to work or caring for children. You’ll feel tired all the time and all those optional things you have to do or would like to do just don’t happen.

No single thing is critical, but you won’t do any of them

What happens is you’ll start piling up lots of things, big and little, that need to get done. The groceries will sit on your countertop, your credit card bill won’t be paid, you won’t have carried the car for servicing, you won’t get around to buying the tickets for the concert you really want to go to, you won’t have done laundry, you won’t have gone through the pile of papers on your work desk yet, you won’t have called your friend or your client.

The dogs need to get bathed, the house needs to be swept, the DVDs need to be returned to the rental shop. You’ve been missing classes. You won’t have picked up a present for the birthday party. You won’t have watered the plants so they died or collected your clothes from the dry cleaners.

You get the idea. No single thing is a critical problem, but you won’t do or fix any, and you’ll find your life starting to crumble around you. You’ll be aware of all the things that need to get done, and you'll be guilty or upset that you aren't doing them, BUT you still just can’t get around to doing them. And this is going to really really stress you out.

The low level Depression CAUSES stress

All of the little things add up over the course of time to create one big heaping pile.

Then you’ll really be stressed.

And the stress then makes the existing depression worse. For me, it takes only about 1-2 weeks of mild depression and missing tasks to create a huge enough backlog to drown me.

To make matters worse, you will also have annoyed your family, friends and co-workers by not doing what you are supposed to do. In addition to knowing that you are failing your responsibilities and being not very competent, you have to deal with annoyed people.

Depression is very much a downward spiral. The worse things are, the worse they get.

If you think that it's your thoughts, and your insecurities, and your self doubt that's causing your depression, maybe you can recast the problem as follows

"I'm getting into a depression episode, which causes me to think I'm not good enough, and doubt myself, and think people are criticising me, which makes the Depression episode worse"

If you have a therapist / psychiatrist, this is something to ask them about. It may be possible that antidepressants or anti-anxiety meds will work to prevent or decrease the mild depression. If that happens, you may be able to get enough control to prevent the small issues from getting out of hand, and reduce your stress and a further spiral down into Depression.

If Depression cause Stress, there's another fallout. At the moment, the implication is that by creating stress in yourself or getting into stressful situations, YOU are one of the causes of your Depression. Which kinda means you are somehow to blame. However, if the mild Depression causes the problems that lead to stress and further Depression, then you are an actor who is trying to fight against the problems. Mentally, there's a huge difference. Something to think about.

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