Depression Relief By Better Stress Handling

Looking for depression relief?

The exact causes of depression are unknown or perhaps it is more accurate to say that depression has many causes, not all of which are equally well understood by scientists and experts on human behavior.

Genetics clearly play a role as do levels of various chemicals within the brain.

However, it is not certain whether the levels of these chemicals are the cause of depression or a symptom of depression in those affected.

In any case, there is no one and the same singular cause for this disorder that affects a great number of individuals.

Some of the factors believed to contribute to and/or exacerbate the symptoms of depression include:

• Lack of sufficient balance, sleep and exercise

• Poor nutrition and/or digestion

• The effects of psychoactive substances such as alcohol and street drugs among many other contributing factors.

Look At The Most Important Factors

One of the biggest of these contributing factors and certainly one of the more prominent today given the hectic, overscheduled lifestyles led by so many of us is perceived stress.

Stress is certainly something with which all of us are all too familiar. It certainly is not good for one’s overall mental health, but can its reduction actually lead to depression relief?

The research certainly suggests this to be the case. How and why is this? While there isn’t room to delve into every aspect of the whitepaper produced by the researchers, in a nutshell what is happening is something called “learned helplessness”.

What is this learned helplessness? The idea is that when someone is continually bombarded by stressful stimuli, they learn to feel overwhelmed all of the time – and it’s easy to see how this might lead to feelings of depression.

Stress As A Erosion Factor

This idea that depression can be brought on by chronic stress is one which should make us all sit up and take notice.

There’s really little way that most of us can avoid stress entirely. It’s simply not an option for the majority of us to drop everything and spend our days lying on the beach, as nice as that would be.

Therefore, what is called for to prevent chronic stress from leading to a depressive order and helping to maintain better overall mental health is managing stress, rather than eliminating it.

Indeed, adequate management of your daily stress levels can help you to find sustained depression relief.

Stress Management

Fortunately, managing stress is a far easier matter than avoiding it, let alone eliminating stress from your life altogether.

There are a variety of techniques which are available for you to try and some will work better than others for your particular case. Not everyone is the same and we all experience and process stress in our own way.

Try a few different ways of managing stress for depression relief to find what works best for you.

Your Right To Relax

Finding a way to relax will not only help you to tamp down the harmful, depression inducing effects of stress on you; it is good for your physical well being too.

You’ll experience a lowering of blood pressure, better sleep and an all around feeling of better health, both physical and mental.

So what are some techniques you should try to manage stress and obtain depression relief?

Move That Body

One good one is exercise. This is effective for many people in keeping stress levels lower.

Almost any kind of exercise will help, but many report yoga to be especially effective in inducing a relaxed mental state.

Yoga combines relaxation techniques with physical exercise, which is perhaps why it is something that works so well for a lot of people.

Meditation And Breathing

Meditation can help you lower stress levels and can be done in almost any location at almost any time.

You can begin practicing meditation by simply breathing. Focus on your breathing and breathe deeply and slowly – you will soon feel your body becoming more relaxed and your mind free of those thoughts which have been causing you undue stress.

You can also combine meditation with walking to get the added benefit of physical activity.

Imagine A Bright Future

Visualization is a technique which others opt for in their search for stress relief.

This consists of closing your eyes and concentrating on mentally putting yourself into a place which is relaxing for you.

As an example, we’ll take a backyard hammock. Imagine looking up into the trees as you lie in the hammock, feel the warmth of the sun on your skin and try to conjure up the smell of the grass and flowers.

The more senses you can incorporate into this technique, the more effective it will be.

Conclusion

Although stress is not the only possible cause of depression, you can lower your risks of stress related depression by trying out these stress reducing tactics for yourself.

Of course, there are many other techniques out there; we’ve only scratched the surface in this article.

Take a look at our many other articles about effective stress and anxiety management. It is fun to do so.

From Depression Relief to the main page about Emotional Stress