Stress
Emotional stress can undermine your health, potentially impacting high blood pressure, susceptibility to illness, abuse of drugs or alcohol, less able to fight disease, and increasing the likelihood of depression. Most people experience some level of stress but there are ways to prevent it from becoming overwhelming.
Natural Relief for Depression
The lows of depression — dark moods, lack of energy, loss of joy — affect many people at some point in their lifetime. Now, a research suggests meditation deserves a place among the therapies shown to lift mild to moderate depression symptoms.
“Meditation has been studied for decades, but we wanted to know if it was really better than the placebo effect. So he and a team of researchers reviewed 47 meditation studies, involving 3,515 volunteer patients, most of whom were not suffering from clinical depression or clinical anxiety.
Their conclusion: “Meditation appeared to provide as much relief from some depression symptoms as other studies have found with antidepressants. Volunteers who took an eight-week meditation course experienced a 10% to 20% improvement in depression symptoms and a 5% to 10% improvement in anxiety symptoms. Meditation also showed similar promise to reduce pain.
How Meditation Works for Depression
The most helpful type of meditation is mindfulness meditation — a self-awareness practice that involves focusing on the present moment and gently refocusing, without judgment, whenever attention wanders. The theory: Meditation may ease depression by stopping, for a while, the ever-churning worries and fears that can fuel it.
“One way mindfulness may help is by causing you to pause and react less to whatever is bothering you. This process can reduce the symptoms, making them less bothersome, and over time can become second nature with more meditation practice.”
Depression and Sleep: Understanding the Connection
Depression and sleep problems are closely linked. People with insomnia , for example, may have a tenfold higher risk of developing depression than people who get a good night’s sleep. And among people with depression, 75 percent have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep.
Which comes first? “Either one can be the starting point, “Poor sleep may create difficulties regulating emotions that, in turn, may leave you more vulnerable to depression in the future—months or even years from now. And depression itself is associated with sleep difficulties such as shortening the amount of restorative slow-wave sleep a person gets each night.”
If you have depression , daily stresses—such as financial worries, an argument with your spouse, or a jam-packed evening commute—could also lead to more nighttime wake-ups and more trouble getting back to sleep than someone without depression would experience.
Understanding the relationship between insomnia and depression can help you spot risks early, get the right help, and recover more fully if you are experiencing both. You’ll feel healthy, well-rested, and able to enjoy life again. Here’s what you need to know about depression and sleep:
Take sleep problems seriously.
You should tell your doctor if you:
- have trouble falling or staying asleep
- feel tired during the day
- have physical pain, discomfort or other complaints (for instance, signs of obstructive sleep apnea or pauses in breathing at night) that prevent you from getting a good night’s sleep
Treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices for apnea can restore good sleep, helping you sidestep related conditions like depression. (People with sleep apnea have a fivefold higher risk of depression.)
Stay alert for signs of depression.
These include feeling hopeless, helpless or sad; trouble concentrating and remembering things; loss of energy; daytime sleepiness; loss of interest in activities that once gave you pleasure; or thoughts of suicide or death. Tell your doctor if you have any of these.
This is especially important if you’re discussing insomnia with your doctor. “Insomnia may be a separate condition or it may be a symptom of depression,” Finan explains. “Your doctor needs to know as much as possible to treat the right problem.”
Get help for both depression and sleep.
If you have insomnia and depression, don’t assume that medical treatment for one will automatically cure the other. Treatments for depression, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and other medications, may improve your mood and outlook, but they may not be enough to improve your sleep.
There’s some evidence that lingering sleep problems in people undergoing depression treatment increase the risk of a slide back into depression. The good news: There’s also some early evidence that CBT-I (cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia), along with depression treatment, improves sleep in people with depression and may increase the chances of a remission of depression.
The Power of Positive Thinking
Here’s heartwarming news: People with a family history of heart disease who also had a positive outlook were one-third less likely to have a heart attack or other cardiovascular event within five to 25 years than those with a more negative outlook.
The finding held even in people with family history who had the most risk factors for coronary artery disease, and positive people from the general population were 13 percent less likely than their negative counterparts to have a heart attack or other coronary event.
It was determined “positive” versus “negative” outlook using a survey tool that assesses a person’s cheerfulness, energy level, anxiety levels and satisfaction with health and overall life. But you don’t need a survey to assess your own positivity. “I think people tend to know how they are.”
Hope and Your Heart
The mechanism for the connection between health and positivity remains murky, but researchers suspect that people who are more positive may be better protected against the inflammatory damage of stress. Another possibility is that hope and positivity help people make better health and life decisions and focus more on long-term goals. Studies also find that negative emotions can weaken immune response.
What is clear, however, is that there is definitely a strong link between “positivity” and health. Additional studies have found that a positive attitude improves outcomes and life satisfaction across a spectrum of conditions—including traumatic brain injury, stroke and brain tumors.
Can You Boost Your Bright Side?
Simply smile more.
A University of Kansas study found that smiling—even fake smiling—reduces heart rate and blood pressure during stressful situations. So try a few minutes of YouTube humor therapy when you’re stomping your feet waiting in line or fuming over a work or family situation. It’s difficult not to smile while watching a favorite funny video.
Practice reframing.
Instead of stressing about a traffic jam, for instance, appreciate the fact that you can afford a car and get to spend a few extra minutes listening to music or the news, accepting that there is absolutely nothing you can do about the traffic.
Build resiliency.
Resiliency is the ability to adapt to stressful and/or negative situations and losses. Experts recommend these key ways to build yours:
- Maintain good relationships with family and friends.
- Accept that change is a part of life.
- Take action on problems rather than just hoping they disappear or waiting for them to resolve themselves.
Stress on the Job: 4 Tips for Working Women
Emails that arrive day and night, a travel schedule that interferes with family life, the age-old struggle with work-life balance — data from the American Psychological Association show that 65 percent of Americans cite work as a top source of stress. It can happen, even if you usually love your job.
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Women in particular face a unique set of challenges at work due to issues like childcare and interpersonal relationships.
Stress happens when there’s an imbalance between the demands of a situation and a person’s resources for managing it.
“Think of the brain as stress central,” she says. It’s responsible for organizing the stress response that happens throughout your body.
The Most Common Sources of Work Stress
Stress produces physical symptoms, and many of its roots can be traced to the workplace.
- Work-life balance. American women are spending more hours working than ever before, leaving less time for personal obligations. Meanwhile, they shoulder a large caretaking burden. “More often than not, women are still the caretakers for children and are involved in elder care. “Women have caretaker obligations at both ends of the life span.”
- Relationships. “The inflexibility of work environments is a huge stress for women. For instance, some women might want to telecommute or maintain nontraditional hours to enable them to fulfill personal obligations, but many employers still dislike flexible working arrangements. Other women struggle with pervasive issues, like sexism or discrimination.
- Technology. Mobile devices, like laptops and smartphones, creep into our personal time. “Some people may leave the office at 6 o’clock, but they’re checking their email in bed. Ever-present technology makes it more difficult for already time-strapped women to unplug from work and to have any real downtime.
4 Ways to Cope with Stress
Exercise
Incorporate regular spurts of movement into your day, particularly if you spend most of your time sitting behind a desk. The exercise doesn’t need to be vigorous. Even short daytime walks are helpful. Use a fitness tracker or app on your phone to track your progress.
Sleep
“The health effects of sleep are unbelievable. As a society, we haven’t given it enough priority. Sleep boosts mood and helps us to deal with daily challenges more effectively. Wind down two hours prior to bed by stopping work, and avoid caffeine beginning in the late afternoon. Studies suggest that mobile phone use in adults can ruin your chances of getting a good night’s sleep. So shut off your devices in the evening and wake up at the same time each day to allow your body’s natural sleeping rhythm to express itself.
Seek out happiness
“Find time for pleasure and joy. Prioritize hobbies and do them on a regular basis, whether it’s family time or community activism. “Having purpose and meaning in your life is key to job satisfaction,” she says.
Social support
Treat your social network as a stress buffer that boosts health and longevity. Your group doesn’t have to be large, as long as it supports your sense of connection and shared experience. Friendship and connectedness are “critical to being able to cope with stressors.
Stress Busters: 4 Integrative Treatments
Nearly half of women report a rise in stress levels over the past five years. And while women and men tend to cope with stress differently, we know that chronic stress contributes to a range of health problems in both sexes, including mental health disorders, heart disease and obesity.
Integrative treatments like meditation and acupuncture can help reduce stress and related problems. These techniques are gaining mainstream acceptance as research demonstrates their positive health effects.
Managing stress calls for addressing the mind as well as the body, since both the brain and body contribute to symptoms.
Meditation and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
Meditation and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) are therapies proven to help manage anxiety and depression.
Meditation is an ancient practice that helps you reach a relaxed state by focusing on breathing and awareness of the body in the present.
MBSR is a program that draws on the principles of meditation to help people become more aware of how negative thoughts impact physical feelings. Research has shown that benefits of MBSR include:
- Reduced stress and worrying
- Improved memory and focus
- Fewer emotional ups and downs, and greater resilience
- Improved relationships
Evidence supports the idea that meditation and mindfulness-based stress reduction are very helpful for managing mood disorders, and experts recommend it.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of talk therapy focused on pinpointing and questioning negative, often mistaken thoughts that can lead to behavioral and mental health problems, such as anxiety.
Research shows that people who receive CBT have a greater reduction in mental health symptoms as compared to people who use medication alone.
There is solid evidence that CBT, meditation and MBSR are effective.
All of these techniques are safe and have no side effects. A motivated person can practice them on their own. While integrative medicine may support traditional medicine, it is not a replacement, so it’s important to talk to your doctor about your symptoms.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese practice involving the use of tiny needles to stimulate the nervous and immune systems. During the procedure, a licensed acupuncturist inserts hair-thin needles into the skin at specific points on the body. Acupuncture is painless, and research shows it helps support conventional treatment for a range of problems that include stress, chronic pain and digestive disorders. Experts note that it may be particularly effective for insomnia.
Massage
While many of us think of massage as a rare, indulgent treat, studies indicate massage helps treat a variety of stress-related disorders, including anxiety and insomnia. While one treatment is good, a series of massage treatments can be even more effective.
It’s important to talk to your doctor about whether massage is right for you. It may not be appropriate for people with certain conditions, such as bleeding disorders or osteoporosis.