“Pessimistic, grouchy, bored, blue? Chronic low-grade depression can feel so familiar you don’t even know you’ve got it. But it’s rampant among women and underdiagnosed. The good news is that with treatment you can be better than ever.”
Since depression is often a symptom of hormone imbalance, these words caught my eye this morning in an article found on http://www.oprah.com/health/Diagnosing-Low-Grade-Depression-Dysthymia-and-Women
The article explains:
“Low-grade depression (dysthymia) is one of the most common ailments on the planet and one of the least likely to be diagnosed. Like its cousin, clinical depression, low-grade depression hits women roughly twice as often as men (though some researchers believe mood disorders in men are underreported because of social stigmas). Clinical depression is a kind of mental hurricane: Symptoms include debilitating insomnia, weight loss, anxiety or a mental fog so dense that people forget what they’ve read as soon as they’ve read it. The pain is so awful that suicide can seem an acceptable solution.
Low-grade depression is more like a year of drizzly weather. It is, by definition, chronic. A diagnosis requires the presence of symptoms on more days than not for a period of at least two years, which is what makes it so hard to pin down. Any given day might be okay, even happy. Yet in the general run of days, there are more gray ones than not, more unhappiness than joy. Most people afflicted with this kind of chronic malaise instinctively blame themselves: They would rather believe they can solve the problem—if they could just find the right job or the right man or lose weight—than admit they have a psychiatric disorder.”
The article explains that a healthy person might take action, or simply look around for a fun distraction. “A person with low-grade depression broods and gets stuck. Caught in that drizzly mental weather, she doesn’t seek shelter or buy an umbrella; she goes on slogging through puddles.”
Certain types of depression have a strong hereditary or hormonal component.
A family history of depression is a strong indicator of risk. Is the root cause genetic or environmental? Who knows for sure without an in-depth look into the individual’s life circumstances. We also know that many women who suffer from hormonal imbalance also have a family history of hormone imbalance.
The article states that not everyone who suffers from low-grade depression looks back on an unhappy childhood; for some, the problem begins in adolescence or early adulthood—the result, perhaps, of the inevitable stresses that accompany such rites of passage as moving into a first apartment, graduating from college or losing a first love. Someone who is vulnerable might slip into low-grade illness without even realizing it.
Some additional points of interest contained in the article:
- Low-grade depression and poor eating habits frequently go hand in hand. Scientists aren’t sure of the exact biological mechanism, but there is evidence that eating carbohydrates temporarily boosts a person’s mood by altering the brain’s level and use of serotonin. People with low-grade depression quite often binge on high-carbohydrate foods—pasta, crackers, popcorn—in what some doctors see as an unconscious effort to self-medicate.
- Depression is a whole-self illness. It’s hard to separate the biological from the situational factors. Regaining health often requires attacking the problem on all fronts: spiritual, physical, social and intellectual.
- Signs of low-grade depression
- You feel sad, dissatisfied or pessimistic most of the time, although you still have days when you feel normal.
- Your appetite changes.
- You’re tired most of the time.
- You have insomnia or you’re sleeping too much.
- You’re harder on yourself than you should be.
- You’re not working at your peak, and you’re having trouble concentrating.
- Simple decisions somehow take forever.
- You feel that every day is more or less a struggle.
- If you have at least two symptoms—especially the first one—see your doctor for a checkup, and if you’re physically healthy, ask for a referral to a mental-health professional. If you have five or more symptoms and are also experiencing anxiety, feelings of helplessness and loss of interest in sex, your depression may be more serious. Seek medical help immediately.
The important factor to keep in mind is that to remedy the situation, one must peel down to the root cause. An important factor to not overlook is hormone imbalance. Go back and look at your family history. Has anyone else in your family suffered from depression? Likewise, could there be some residual unhealed emotional trauma that you are unknowingly carrying around with you?
Notice if you have any of the above symptoms. Peel down to the root cause and take the appropriate action. Know that you too CAN feel happy, alive, and rejuvenated.
