What Invites Anxiety and Depression Into Our Lives?

Serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine are all chemicals that can lead a person to experience anxiety or depression. Even though medications are available to help mitigate the symptoms resulting from anxiety and depression, often they do not confront the associated thoughts, feelings, nor the overwhelming emotions. Our brains operate like cars where different indicators light up our “dashboard” when something internal speculates there is an issue. It’s common for us to ignore these signs or symptoms of a more significant problem. We’re too busy, have the feeling that “it’s not that big of a deal,” or think that the emotions don’t make sense.  However, depression and anxiety are our mind’s way of communicating to us that there is an issue. When these problems continue to be ignored, you may begin to notice not functioning as efficiently as before or feeling not as present as you would like. Talking about your symptoms, exploring what led to where you are, and what to do differently will help your mind begin to heal.

That Annoying Yellow Light

We’ve all seen that annoying yellow light that shows up on our dashboard. You know, the one that causes our heart to sink into the pit of our stomach as the anxiety builds thinking about the endless possibilities of issues. Taking our car to the shop only to hear about all the things that are wrong and then how expensive the repair is, more often than not, leads us to ignore the problem in hopes that it will just go away. Fear and anger are often similar to this check engine light. They become more present in our lives when our mind is trying to tell us that something is wrong. Our culture today likes to communicate the message that we need to think positively or “just be grateful.” However, the goal isn’t to ignore these emotions; it’s to understand why these emotions are present and what they may be trying to tell you about your current situation.

Similar to a car making noises as it slowly breaks down and forces you to pull off to the side of the road, anxiety and depression are symptoms of internal and emotional problems that have gone ignored. The issues are often ignored long enough to where it’s complicated and difficult to run a self-diagnosis. Usually, by this point, the different issues have compounded, making it difficult to become aware of the problem once a person is experiencing anxiety or depression. This is why it’s necessary to hire a “mental mechanic” to help you navigate the different issues that are present and discuss how to address the problems to get you back on the road of day-to-day life.

The Trojan Horse in Our Personal Bubble

A common reason for someone to experience depression is because their personal boundaries have been pushed or ignored within different relationships in their life. It’s normal for someone to become anxious or depressed if they feel as if their relationships are becoming unmanageable.  This occurs when someone does not feel as if they have autonomy over what happens to them or feel as if they are continually being disrespected.

It is common for someone to feel guilty or selfish when saying “no” or feeling discouraged when someone they care about challenges their boundaries.  And it is also natural for these emotions to come up in these types of situations.  However, a challenging part of this process is how these “trojan horse” emotions often make it more difficult or seemingly impossible to regain control over your situation. Usually, people will shut down (depression) or push away and avoid (anxiety) as a way to cope with the distress they’re experiencing and attempt to gain a feeling of stability in their life. However, these types of actions only contribute to the issue at hand.  A professional therapist can assist you in understanding these feelings and in processing through how or what decisions can be made in your life to regain the life you’ve wanted and engage with those you love and care about again.

When Hope Fails

Have you ever experienced hopelessness?  It’s the feeling that it doesn’t seem to matter whether you push back, fight, or give up because nothing will ever change.  This specific feeling can be categorized as a loss of control or autonomy over one’s life. When someone feels as if they’ve lost control of their life, their relationships, and/or their environment, this will lead to shutting down (depression) or becoming hyperactive (anxiety) as a way to fight to regain control. If you notice yourself or someone you love begin to experience or display these types of symptoms, understand that this is the body’s and the mind’s way of alerting you that something is wrong and that change is needed. It’s normal to feel uncomfortable about confronting these emotions but avoiding them can consume us.  Over time, it can then become overwhelming. These symptoms demand attention to inhibit or prevent something even worse from happening in the future.

Taking A Step Towards Hope

Even though there can be similarities in the root cause for issues in a person’s life, when someone is experiencing anxiety or depression, it could be caused by a countless number of reasons. If you feel overwhelmed, hopeless, or even frustrated with how challenging your life is currently, reach out so one of our professional team members can help you assess your situation. Together, you can both create a plan on how to address these issues and decide on what to do next.  If nothing else stands out in this article, please know this: you are not alone and there is hope for change.  This hope only comes by taking the scary step towards facing your problems and being willing to commit to the process of regaining control over your own life.  We hope with and for you.

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About Lifeologie

Lifeologie Counseling was founded in 2000 with one goal in mind — to bring a fresh, innovative approach to the everyday problems of life. Creative solutions to stuck problems®. With our unique multi-specialty, collaborative approach, Lifeologie Counseling helps individuals and families heal their wounds and break out of old, unhealthy patterns.