Depression Hurts Body and Mind

When depression hurts it affects the body and mind. Depression appears as symptoms that can be very debilitating. A change of appetite is a symptom that occurs often in some cases it will inhibit appetite and such as in Atypical depression it can have the opposite effect and increase appetite. This is just one example where depression hurts.

The bodies need for sleep can also be disturbed and almost all depressed individuals experience a loss of sleep. As a matter of fact 80 percent of individuals suffering from depression experience insomnia while 15 percent sleep excessively. Fatigue is another complaint many depressed individuals experience. It can be so severe that physical movement can be difficult and actually come to a halt. This being another example of where depression hurts.

It has been shown that depression hurts by affecting the bodies system. Depression can affect the heart a place an individual at risk for heart disease. It also can raise the risk for those who may already have heart disease. It is not known why but researchers have discovered that depression alters blood platelets, who's functions are responsible for clotting. This example shows how depression hurts and can be dangerous.

Depression can even changes in bone mass leading to osteoporosis. But nothing is more insistent than the physical pain depression can cause. For nearly half of the individuals suffering from depression, body pain is one way depression hurts and can exhibit itself.

The pain is usually unexplained by injury and shows up as headaches, abdominal pain, or musculoskeletal pains in the lower back, joints and neck. They can appear alone or in any combination.

The depression can go untreated for the doctor or health professional nor the sufferer are aware of the true source of the problem. The pain is not in the head and is very real but it drives the sufferer to seek help from a primary physician or orthopedist in belief there is something wrong with their body.

Treating the physical symptoms caused by depression is as important as recognizing it. Depression hurts and to ensure a full recovery it is important to eliminate the pain. Persistent pain can keep people from functioning properly in their professional and personal live increasing the risk for suicide.

Nerve pathways which are presided over by the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine are where emotional symptoms arise, the painful symptoms of depression also arise on these specific nerve pathways. These pathways travel up into the brains frontal cortex where they help with thinking and mood. They also travel up to the brain's hypothalamus where they assist in eating, sleeping and sex drive.

But these pathways travel down into the spinal cord as well and this is where the problem lies and why depression hurts. Normally functions such as the stomach digesting and muskuloskelotal functions are fed through the central nervous system. However, these sensations are normally suppressed from consciousness that allows us to pay attention to the world outside our bodies.

That suppression is normally regulated by serotonin and norepineprhine dependent nerve fibers that travel from the brain to the spinal cord. In depression they become dysfunctional and normal sensory inputs escape into the brain where it is interpreted as painful when really there is nothing wrong. Depression can hurt even when there really is nothing wrong.