Another "Is it just me" ...

[tamaranth]

A friend wished me luck with getting the medical profession to view stress and depression as two different things. Though I used to encounter the view that they're exactly the same, I haven't met it for a while. And personal experience, plus Thinking About It, leans strongly towards a distinction: for me, stress is much more about reaction to external events and depression is either from brooding or .. well, like the sudden squalls we're getting, random and unattributable.

What do you think?

[Poll #1016578]

Comments

[drplokta]

I think depression is also often a reaction to external events, but different ones from the ones that cause stress.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Stress is not in itself a disease but it can contribute to a variety of 'mild to moderate mental health disorders' including anxiety and depression (you understand that they don't feel mild or moderate if it's you or a loved one who's got them) . The problem with medicalising stress per se is that different people will react to the same stressors in very different ways, but also that removing stress doesn't always help. Sorry, would say more but am on blackberry. In beer tent.

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

Hell no! Sure stress can make you depressed, but I've also been known to feel LESS depressed thanks to the adrenaline rush and sense of purpose that go with it.

I've found doctors tend to say
You're depressed - here's some antidepressants, CBT, sweet FA, come back when you're not pregnant, breast-feeding, etc.
You're stressed - here's some pills. Take them when stressful stuff happens and you won't notice a thing.

Some of the stress pills were fun in a recreational kind of way (but unhelpful in terms of getting my life together). CBT was no fun but really helpful. Depression pills - well they kept me going, but I've managed without since the CBT. So far.

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

Depression is a change in the base state of brain chemistry. There are many possible reasons for it - stress is just one possible cause.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

It can be a symptom - if there's enough of your "normal brain" left to get pissed off with the fact that you're depressed, and setting off the cycle of self-disgust getting really stressed and frustrated about not being able to think yourself out of it.

Life is easier if you're stupid.

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

different but related; external events can be triggers for both, both are internal reactions with hormones involved, both are a mix of chemistry and - not attitude or habit or POV but something in that fuzzy area - but they're not the same thing. stress could trigger depression, depression could make reactions to stress worse - for some people; for others the adrenaline of stress can be a tonic. stress serves a purpose and we have evolved with it. depression is a malfunction.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Stress can be internal, and I know I tend to be highly stressed all the time. But I feel just as stressed when I'm hyper as when I am crashing. Stress is neither the cause, nor the same thing. It's simply my contextual state of being.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

I quite like a certain amount of stress - buzzy. I do not like depression. Also - depression can be exogenous (reacting to events), endogenous (internal) or a bit of both.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

I can get stressed when I'm not noticeably depressed, but I can handle stress better when I'm not depressed (or so I think)

And when I'm depressed I tend to choose things that won't stress me ...

... but also when I'm depressed I *avoid* things that might be stressful and this leads to bigger problems (e.g. paying bills, doing tax returns, getting the car taxed/insured, repairing a leaking gutter etc.) so the depression leads to more stressful events and a more stressed life, but it's certainly not the same thing.

And I was really surprised to read your posting and this poll, because I've never been aware of anyone suggesting they were the same thing (not doctors, not other people) but maybe that's just my set of reality filters ...

[pecos.livejournal.com]

Totally different, although most behavior modifications to lower your stress will help with depression. It's quite possible to be completely depressed and under no stress at all. And I love your poll, because we're ALL unique and special snowflakes!

[andrewducker]

Depression, in my experience, can be a result of long-term stress - the mind retreating into itself because it's run out of energy to deal with the outside world.

But that's just one way of dealing with stress, and just one result stress can have. We're all maddeningly different, after all :->

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

I'd echo a lot of the very sensible comments made above. Bad stress often leads to induced depression (although really bad stress can bypass that and go straight to even worse things) whilst even moderate depression can make relatively minor issues stressful. It's the stress-bucket theory again; the more stress you take round with you, the less capacity you have for dealing with new problems, and depression makes stressful issues take up a bigger portion of your bucket. (Or alternatively it makes your bucket smaller. Pick your analogy to fit.)

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

the fewer spoons you have to empty the bucket...

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

My GP seemed to view them as one big package in my case, but did recognise and diagnose both. My assigned psychiatrist, who I loathed, ignored the stress aspect completely and viewed me simply as a biochemically maladjusted depressive brain. A duty psychiatrist whom I met on my first hospital stay, however, observed to me that a state of chronic stress imposed by a c**p employer had interacted distressingly with what he -- to my delight -- described as 'certain personality vulnerabilities.' Observation suggests to me that where it is stress alone (which was my first complaint, taken to the GP some 6 or so years before I broke) GPs tend to offer beta-blockers, only progressing to anti-depressants when the former have unhelpful side-effects (beta-blockers give me RSI, go figure) and that for stress alone they use the old fashioned style of anti-depressants in low doses (dothiepin and its group). The currently trendy SSRIS -- Prozac etc -- only entered the arena once the depression appeared.

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

And don't forget the third component of the dysfunctional trinity: anxiety.

I used to thing anxiety caused my stress and hence my depression. Since CBT, I realise that my own special snowflakiness is that I express stress as anxiety. Less stress = less anxiety. God only knows where the depression comes from.