Depression is too big of an obstacle to tackle, irrespective of how cool you think you may be. This mental health condition can naturally force you away from your goals and loved ones. It can also drain your positivity and energy. Hence, winning over it is worth celebrating at any time.
Despite being out of the depressive state for months, however, the disorder can still wound its way into your world. That is if you don’t become attentive to your surroundings and your actions.
So, in hopes of keeping hope alive in your heart and mind, be wary of the things that may push depression back in your life.
Stress
Staying under pressure for weeks on end can easily trigger a relapse for anyone with a depressive history. The stressful events may enable your brain to overproduce specific chemicals that you just need in small doses. For that reason, you may experience hormonal imbalance that can lead to another bout with depression.
Physical Injury
When you’re seriously hurt physically, there a lot of activities you may not be able to do. That put so much burden on a person, especially if you love your independence and don’t want to rely on others. You’ll have plenty of time to overthink as well, which isn’t favorable when there’s a mental disease you wish to thwart for good. “Minor physical injuries can be managed with little to no disruption in activities of daily living (e.g. working, self-care) and rarely trigger psychological impact or emotional trauma,” says Shawna M. Freshwater, PhD.
Irreparable Relationships
A split with your boyfriend/girlfriend, spouse, or even a long-time best friend is enough to make you extremely sad. Crying about the matter is only OK for a couple of days. Once you let yourself wallow in misery longer than that, however, it’ll be like welcoming depression with open arms.
Distance From Loved Ones
Missing your beloved family members to the point of becoming depressed isn’t impossible. It can occur, especially in case you’re a parent whose child leaves for college or work for the first time. You may feel lost as you sleep and wake up without seeing the face of your loved ones, except the pictures. “Emotional distance can develop from months or years of unresolved conflict and life stressors in your relationship. As time passes and circumstances change, it is not uncommon for couples to express dissatisfaction with the level of emotional connection that they feel with their partner,” says Dr. Melissa Estavillo, PsyD.
Criticisms
Bullying can push depression back in your life too. Once you stay on the receiving end of it, it’s effortless to think that everyone wants to judge you and that you have no one on your side. There may be instances as well wherein you feel too weak to go out of the house and face others’ critiques again.
Death In The Family
Grief is like a magnet for mental disorder as well. You tend to hit rock-bottom if someone close to your heart passes away, and the process to overcome it isn’t – for lack of better term – rainbows and daisies. You may get angry, in denial, and very gloomy. But that’s better than bottling up your emotions and brewing depression.
“You have to enter into a partnership with the grief. This means acknowledging that the transformative process will be hard, that you will most likely have to let even more things in your life go, but that in the end your voice will be clearer and stronger,” as reminded by Jade Wood, MA, LMFT, MHSA to the followers of her blog.
Lack Of Treatment
Assuming you’re not entirely well yet, and you stopped receiving treatment halfway, you may return to a depressive state in an instant. The mental health experts tell you to get therapy or medication for a specified period based on the severity of the depression. When you discontinue it, though, you might say hello to hopelessness soon enough.
Acknowledge every single factor that may trigger the mental illness relapse. You have to be aware of such matters so that you can prevent depression from messing up your life again.