Reactive depression: depression due to a painful and traumatic event that cannot be overcome
Reactive depression is a mental disorder that leads to complete withdrawal after a serious, sad, or traumatic event. Reactive depression can be cured but identifying the disorder and the most appropriate psychological therapy is essential to solve the problem quickly. Embarking on a path of healing is a choice that must be made in a conscious way: it will not always be easy but smiles can be reborn from tears. Watch the video!
- · Reactive depression: the triggers in most cases
- Reactive depression: failure to process grief and other events that can cause this personality disorder.
- · Reactive depression: in some of these cases it is essential the intervention of psychotherapy and the use of drugs to improve mood
- Reactive Depression: How Do You Recover From This Serious Personality Disorder That Affects Your Life?
- · Adolescent depression: when some adolescents manifest mood disorders and behaviors of withdrawal and sadness
- · The treatment of reactive depression: from psychological treatment to antidepressants, to other mood drugs
Reactive depression: the triggers in most cases
Reactive depression is a depressive state linked to a specific event. Its causes can be, for example, the loss of a loved one, a serious financial meltdown, an abortion, the abandonment of a loved one, a rape, a kidnapping. Unlike major depression, reactive depression is always connected to a triggering event of considerable entity. Obviously in cases like these, each one manifests his suffering as his character allows, but we speak of reactive depression, when the subject responds to the triggering event in an exaggeratedly dramatic and lasting way. The emotional response of the affection from this disease is excessively more intense and prolonged than the underlying cause. This pathology is widespread. In particularly vulnerable individuals from an emotional point of view, it can also be triggered by less dramatic events and can last for a long time, decisively influencing their social, sentimental and professional life. The symptoms of the many cases analyzed of subjects affected by this depressive disorder can be feelings of worthlessness, despair, apathy, sadness, emotional fragility, frequent crying, irritability, eating disorders, mood-king sleep, difficulty concentrating. They range from a sense of guilt to a lack of self-esteem. In this disease, other symptoms are added in most cases: discomfort due to loud noises, difficulty in breathing, dry mouth and fatigue. We speak of depression "masked" by the patient, one of the types of this reactive depression, when the depressive state is also unknowingly hidden behind various psychosomatic disorders.
If the disease is not dealt with in time and overcome there is a risk of depressive decompensation, which can be treated with drug-supported psychotherapy.
See also
Reactive Depression: Failure to process grief and other events that can cause this personality disorder.
When it comes to the loss of a loved one or a separation, it is not so much its vehemence and depth as the length of time and the person's way of managing pain that must be considered in a patient's reactive depression. This is obviously an event that creates immense pain and which must be worked through through various stages. In cases of reactive depression, the patient suffering from the disorder does not process the event, but relives it continuously in total discomfort. Over time this disease can be perceived as not exclusively linked to the loss, which was also the triggering factor. It is precisely the causes, the triggering factors, that make the difference between reactive depression and major depression, not so much the duration of the disorder, being the first linked to a specific traumatic event. Obviously not everyone has this same reaction in front of the painful events of existence, not everyone falls into a deep depression. In some predisposed subjects, or who go through a particularly hard period, the same events of this type can cause an inability to react: it is important to ask for help, and to be helped. The risk of finding yourself prisoners in your own life is very high!
Reactive depression: in some of these cases the intervention of psychotherapy and the use of drugs to improve mood is essential
If even months after a particularly painful bereavement the patient's suffering shows no signs of improving, it is absolutely necessary to resort to psychotherapy sessions for targeted help. Especially if you are unable to resume your usual haunts and work, if you avoid relationships with friends and family; if you accuse a very serious sadness for a large part of the day and night or guilt for not having done everything to save the life of the missing person, if you begin to consider life meaningless and continually return to the thought of death . In all these cases, those closest to people suffering from this depressed mood disorder should sensitively and tactfully invite them to seek help from a specialist in the field, especially if serious anxiety disorders, self-damaging thoughts, development of a disease are detected. cardiovascular or inflammatory, tumor or pain spread throughout the body.
Other typical symptoms of those suffering from reactive depression are also abuse of psychotropic drugs, drugs, nicotine or alcohol, difficulty in carrying out any work, low self-esteem, distrust in one's own possibilities, anxiety for a feeling of impending terrible events; severe tiredness, difficulty in falling asleep and in eating, restless sleep, amenorrhea, gastric pain, allusions to suicide. Other manifestations to look out for also to report them to the doctor are: continuous and desperate thought addressed to the missing person, to remember all the moments shared and avoid whatever reminds them of it; lack of interest in almost everything; non-acceptance of death as a natural event; anger and detachment from everything and everyone, inability to feel pleasure from any situation and even mentally relive the good times with serenity spent with the lost loved one.
Reactive Depression: How Do You Recover From This Severe Life-Affecting Personality Disorder?
The prognosis for reactive depression is usually much more favorable than that for major depression. Since reactive depressions originate from events that trigger them, remarkable progress and ultimately satisfactory results can be achieved in a relatively short time thanks to psychotherapy. Everything is about to begin. In fact, this is the most difficult moment for the patient who hardly places trust in psychotherapy. In all cases the depressive state acts on the physical state of his organism, depriving him of the energy necessary to face the psychotherapy process. Evening is a very difficult time for those with reactive depression. Darkness increases anxiety, silence elevates the perception of loneliness, fatigue affects mood and lowers the level of physical energy even more. Sometimes the doctor recommends the use of anxiolytic drugs as an adjunct, especially if the patient reveals severe emotional fragility. If the sleep disturbances are continuous, for long periods and can compromise the physical state of the subject, the specialist can prescribe hypno-inducing drugs if the continuous tension prevents the patient from carrying out his duties and facing the usual daily difficulties. Obviously, medicines alone are not enough to help the subject along this path. In cases of reactive depression frequent in adolescents and the elderly (especially women), very high states of conscious sadness are observed. Very often this type of depression can lead to drug addiction and alcoholism. One could confuse reactive depression with PTSD. In the first, however, the cause causes involves a wound in the self-love of the subject and causes the depressive reaction.
Adolescent depression: when some adolescents manifest mood disturbances and behaviors of withdrawal and sadness
Depression in the late 20th century spread like a pandemic to the West. Reactive depression, linked to a traumatic event, often also in adolescents is masked under behaviors that make them understand their suffering (use of alcohol and drugs, poor academic performance, anorexia, bulimia, anxiety, insomnia, hyperactivity). In these cases, psychotherapy must intervene at the family level to try to understand the causes that led the adolescent to that point. Often it is considered only a pathology of brain chemical imbalance, to be treated with drugs. But these very young people in difficulty do not need only drugs, but to be understood by adults, parents, professors, specialists. In cases of depressed adolescents it is necessary to understand whether it is a momentary depression due to age or a reactive depression, after a serious event, death of a parent or sibling, divorce of the parents, abuse, mistreatment, end of a romantic relationship or other. Adolescents often express their pain indirectly, they make silent requests for help: isolation in their room, poor care of appearance and personal hygiene, self-marginalization at school, continuous headaches, indifference to their hobbies, self-harm, violence against family members, who often only try to protect them, but are in urgent need of the help of a psychotherapist. With family-type psychotherapy, parents may be able to understand the causes (inner conflicts, unprocessed pain, malaise in relationships family members) of the depressive symptoms of the children, not alleviated by drugs.
They could be linked to interaction with intrusive friends and schoolmates who intimidate or torment them with bullying; relationships with teachers who are too repressive or mock them; fear of abandonment or guilt for conflicts between parents. Psychotherapy should also involve grandparents, as the relationship of parents with their families of origin is also important. A teenager often has an inner life complicated by relationships with parents who are very apprehensive or who demand the most of them. By working on the whole family, better ways of relating without dysfunctions are created and the adolescent gets rid of roles and expectations that do not suit him. Parents are terrified above all by the fear that their children, due to severe depression, can take their own life. Important it is above all that depressive symptoms are caught early for a more favorable prognosis.
The treatment of reactive depression: from psychological treatment to antidepressants, to other mood drugs
The treatment is essentially psychotherapeutic in order to normalize the patient's reaction to the triggering event. We try to avoid drugs to avoid addiction and addiction; antidepressants are not indicated unless the situation aggravates. Even those suffering from neurotic depression tend to get depressed in front of a traumatic or highly stressful situation; it differs from reactive for the link between the onset of symptoms and the triggering factor. The causes of the endogenous one are inherent in man, such as internal fights, previous negative experiences, traumas. The help of a psychologist is essential in reactive depression, as long as the patient overcomes his indifference to everything and his lack of energy. Regular sleep, healthy eating, conversation with relatives and friends, a support group, and finding new hobbies are needed to alleviate the symptoms of reactive or situational depression. Often, however, the depressed mood and distrust prevent you from taking good therapy. Friends and relatives should try to help the subject with this as well. Some studies believe that it is a hereditary genetic factor that determines in some cases the predisposition to depression, due for others to previous experiences, therefore mainly for psychological reasons. In both cases, if you are a victim of reactive depression or know someone who suffers from it, ask a psychologist for help and find the strength to face this moment, let yourself be helped and react.
