The Life Experiences Of A Depression Sufferer

Depression doesn't just occur without an external catalyst to make it start, the catalyst is normally an occurrence that would constitute something emotionally extreme. So what life experiences cause a person to suffer with depression?

Extreme emotions that cause depression

Emotions felt as a child

Extreme emotions felt as a child can come back to haunt a person as an adult causing depression. These emotions can range quite widely depending on the person.

The early death of a parent can cause underlying issues that surface as a person grows into adulthood, sometimes they can feel like they have missed out on parts of their childhood or felt guilty for one reason or another.

Abandonment, rejection or neglect can have a huge impact on a child, and in some case it can manifest itself into depression later on in life as the person finds it hard to manage their distress, usually because they do not have someone to talk through their problems with.

Physical, psychological or sexual abuse as a minor can result in depression later on in the life as the person does not have someone to talk too or has reoccurring thoughts about the stress they endured.

Life experiences

Bullying as a young adult may bring on depression later on in life as the effects are felt in to adulthood.

Losing a job, long term unemployment, financial problems and gambling addiction can cause a lot of stress, which over time may turn into depression.

The death of a family member or the end of a marriage or relationship can cause a lot of stress and grief that can turn into depression if it is not controlled.

Traumatic events such as car accidents, criminal activity or seeing the death of another individual can cause a lot of stress and reoccurring images, over time this can become worse and depression can set in.

Alcohol and drug abuse can bring on depression over time, although at the time of taking these drugs it can seem like all your problems are far away the truth is that alcohol and a lot of drugs have negative mood affects (known as downers).

Poor diet, yes even a poor diet can bring on the effects of depression. If a person does not eat a varied diet providing them with all the nutrients (like Omega 3 fatty acids) needed then there is a possibility that they will start to become unhappy, and over time become depressed.

Summary

As you can see there are a wide variety of life experiences that can cause depression. We have even shown that it doesn't have to be something that happened at that period in time, it could be something that happened decades before that has been deep in our minds for many years but has only just decided to surface fully.

It can be amazing what life throws at us, but it is how we deal with the different things in life that determines whether we fall victim to the low depths depression can bring.