Resilience Rising: How To Battle Stress, Anxiety, and Depression

Resilience rising: how to battle stress, anxiety, and depression with self-confidence.

If you get stress induced depression, you’re not alone. I had stress, anxiety, and depression on my back, and I dug my way out of that hole.

Stress was the catalyst that fueled the anxiety and depression. And I had a lot of stress. Notice I said had. Now, I deal with stress in a different way.

It’s all in my reaction to it. I don’t blow up, I deal with it calmly. I’m not saying my life is perfect, I still get panic attacks (had one yesterday). I deal with them differently.

If you have a calming demeanor, you’ll get a calmer reaction to stress (most of the time). You won’t panic and have a meltdown.

How do you have a calmer demeanor…read further.

What’s the Difference Between Stress, Anxiety, and Depression?

Actually, stress is a good instigator for anxiety and depression. It’s the number one reason why there is anxiety and depression.

Anxiety is worrying about something in the present, past, or even future. Sometimes we worry about things that might not even happen in the future.

Depression is more than just feeling sad. It is feeling hopeless, worthless, and hating yourself because you are alive. If you weren’t alive, you wouldn’t be ‘feeling.’

Put them together in one pot and you’ve got disaster. Suicidal feelings may show up. You don’t know which way to turn.

Stress Can Cause Depression

Resilience rising: how to battle stress, anxiety, and depression to live a calmer life. As I have said, stress triggers depression.

Sometimes we create the stress by reactions to certain stimuli. I’m not doing this on a cellular level because I know certain hormones can cause depression.

I’m basing this from the perspective of how you deal with stress. Some people can’t handle stress at all and fly into a depression.

Still others react differently and become anxious. For example, I put an ad on Facebook for one of my posts. They were taking out more money than they should.

So, I was becoming anxious because I wanted the ad to keep running, but it’s cost was over my limit. Somehow, I ended up getting a panic attack (there’s more to the story).

Blowing things out of proportion, that was my reaction. Calmer demeanor would have just canceled the card (debit card). Eventually I did once I calmed down.

Resilience rising: how to battle stress, anxiety, and depression by knowing the symptoms.

Symptoms of Stress Anxiety and Depression

Stress, anxiety, and depression can all cause a range of symptoms, including:

Emotional symptoms: Feeling sad, anxious, hopeless, or irritable
Behavioral symptoms: Withdrawing from others, having trouble concentrating, or having trouble making decisions
Physical symptoms: Having aches and pains, headaches, stomach problems, or unexplained physical problems
Sleep disturbances: Having trouble falling asleep, sleeping too much, or waking up too early
Eating changes: Eating more or less than usual, or having no appetite

The main difference between depression and anxiety is the duration of symptoms:

Depression: Symptoms must occur most of the day, almost every day, for at least two weeks.
Anxiety: Anxiety is characterized by excessive or persistent feelings of worry or fear. There are several types of anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and phobias.

Stress can also cause a range of symptoms, including feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or nervous.

However, it can be difficult to recognize when stress is the cause of your feelings or actions.

What Does Stress, Anxiety, and Depression Do to Your Body?

Physically?

Physically, you can get piercing headaches, muscle tension, digestive issues, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and increased heart rate.

You can also get weakened immune system, jaw clenching, chest pain, and changes in appetite. Just to name a few!

Mentally?

Stress, anxiety, and depression can significantly impact your mental state by causing difficulty concentrating, impaired memory, and negative thought patterns.

They can also cause feelings of overwhelm, excessive worry, mood swings, irritability, decreased motivation, and difficulty making decisions. Just to name a few!

For me, mental symptoms were far worse than physical symptoms. I can handle physical far better than mental. I can’t handle loosing my mind!

When Does Anxiety Become Unbearable?

Resilience rising: how to battle stress, anxiety, and depression by combating your inner evils

Anxiety can become unbearable the minute it starts. If your like me, anxiety is not on my best lists of dealing with circumstances.

For some, when it hits panic attack mode, it becomes unbearable for them. Although some people handle panic attacks like they don’t even exist.

I’ve learned over the years to try to not let the anxiety bother me. Basically, I’ve learned how to accept it as part of my life. Therefore, it has less control over me.

Instead of fighting and fighting it, just ackowledge and accept it and it will just become less of a nuisance. It doesn’t have full control over you.

Symptoms of Your Body Shutting Down From Stress

When the body can’t handle emotional overload, it can shut down. Some signs of this include:

Physical Symptoms

Headaches, dizziness, muscle aches and pains, stomach problems, chest pain, increased heart rate, shortness of breath, fatigue, and unexplained physical symptoms

Emotional Symptoms

Helplessness, cynicism, sense of failure or self-doubt, and sleep disturbances are some of the emotional symptoms.

Behavioral Changes

Avoidance, lack of appetite, compulsive or obsessive behaviors, and shunning social activity are some of the behavioral changes.

Weight Changes

Sudden weight gain or weight loss. For me, I gained a lot of weight because I was using food as a crutch for my anxiety and depression.

Other Symptoms

Blurred eyesight, sore eyes, rashes or itchy skin, sweating, changes to your period or menstrual cycle, and existing physical health problems getting worse.

What Happens When Your Body is Constantly Stressed

Resilience rising: how to battle stress, anxiety, and depression by getting off the stress cycle.

As I have noted earlier, I gained a lot of weight. I was eating sweets like they were going out of style (especially ice cream).

Also, you have a hard time shutting off that “panic” mode. You’re in a constant state of panic with no outlet for it. It builds and builds until you have a nervous breakdown.

Or the worst panic attack you’ve ever experienced. Either way, the outcome isn’t very good. Eventually, you have to pick up the pieces and start to try to live again.

That’s why it is of the upmost importance to learn to accept instead of fighting the anxiety or depression and just live with it.

Treatments for Stress, Anxiety, and Depression

Natural Remedies for Stress, Anxiety, and Depression

Herbal remedies and supplements: Some herbs and supplements that may help include chamomile, kava, passionflower, lemon balm, and St. John’s wort. You can also try taking B vitamins, amino acids, fish oil, and magnesium.
Aromatherapy: Use essential oils like lavender, ylang ylang, grapefruit, clary sage, or bergamot. You can use a diffuser, put a few drops on a bracelet, or mix it with a carrier oil.
CBD oil: Hemp-derived CBD oil may help with anxiety.
Saffron: Studies suggest that saffron can increase serotonin levels in the brain.
Light therapy: Sit in front of a special lamp that produces bright, sunlight-like light.
Fermented foods: Eating foods like yogurt and sauerkraut can improve gut health, which may help with anxiety and depression.
Organic Ashwagandha: An over-the-counter supplement that has been used for centuries to relieve stress, depression, and anxiety.

Meditation

Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive, “discursive thinking.“

Thus, this achieves a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state, while not judging the meditation process itself.

I love meditation! That’s mostly part of the reason why I have a much more calmer demeanor about stress, anxiety, and depression.

Meds for Stress, Anxiety, and Depression

Some medicines used to treat stress, anxiety, and depression include:

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs): These are the most commonly prescribed antidepressants and are usually the first choice for treating depression and anxiety. SSRIs increase the amount of serotonin in the brain. Examples of SSRIs include:
- Fluoxetine (Prozac)
- Citalopram (Celexa)
- Escitalopram (Lexapro)
- Paroxetine (Paxil)
- Sertraline (Zoloft)
Buspirone (Buspar): Similar to SSRIs, but is used to treat anxiety and not depression
Benzodiazepines: Can be used for short-term treatment of anxiety and insomnia, but can be addictive if used for more than a few weeks.
Mirtazapine (Remeron), trazodone (Desyrel), and nefazadone (Serzone)These antidepressants are usually sedating and are taken at night to help with sleep.
Bupropion (Wellbutrin, Zyban): An antidepressant that is also used to treat bipolar disorder and nicotine withdrawal.

***It’s all how you perceive*** **yourself.**

How to Pull Yourself Out of Depression?

Resilience rising: how to battle stress, anxiety, and depression by pulling yourself out of that hole you dug for yourself.

First of all, you have to learn to love yourself again. You can’t expect to recover from the depression if you continuously hate yourself. Or if you think you’re a piece of sh*t!

Time to throw those feelings to the side, discard them. Start over with a clean slate. How do you get to that point? Stop wallowing in self pitty.

You keep doing that, you’re going to be stuck down there and there is where you will stay. Give yourself a little love. Test the water. Do something nice for yourself.

One little thing that makes you feel good. Then capitalize on that, do another. Soon you’ll have a ladder to help you out of that hole that you dug yourself into.

It’s all a building block. If you do one thing and say “hey, this feels pretty good!” Then do something else like it over and over. Pretty soon you’ll start loving yourself again.

How I Got Rid of My Crippling Anxiety?

I hinted about it several times before: ACCEPT IT! Anxiety has been around as long as human beings. Except now, we let it rule our lives.

Once you acknowledge it and accept it, you’re in a whole new ballpark. Life is a lot clearer and easier to live the life you’ve always dreamt about.

The forseeable vision of the future becomes a lot clearer. No more looking through foggy glasses.

Never in a million thoughts would I ever be on this side of the window. I could always see the life on the other side but didn’t know how to get there.

I felt like I was stuck on the “bad” side and would be there forever until I read what someone had wrote of Reddit about his anxiety and how he overcame it.

Sum It All Up

Resilience rising: how to battle stress, anxiety, and depression by loving yourself once again.

So, I decided to try what he wrote and slowly it started to work on the anxiety part. The depression part I learned on my own. I got tired of living in that hole.

I get stressed out sometimes, but I’ve learned not to stuff it inside and let it ferment. That doesn’t do you any good.

There is a lot of crappy info on some of the social media platforms, but if you read between the lines, you can find some good information. I like Reddit.

So, now that you are armed with some info, are you going to put it to good use or let it sit by the wayside. It’s your choice, can’t help you with that one. Peace and love. Until next time…

Articles About Stress, Anxiety, and Depression

-How to treat anxiety naturally

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322396

-Stress

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/stress/signs-and-symptoms-of-stress

–Stress Symptoms

https://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress-symptoms-effects_of-stress-on-the-body

Have a Good One,

Cindee Murphy
“One Voice Dealing With All Three”

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”–Henry Ford

“No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That’s the only way to keep the roads clear.”-Greg Kincaid

“Worrying about outcomes over which I have no control is punishing myself before the universe has decided whether I ought to be punished.”-Sherry Thomas

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”-Henry S. Haskin

“You have dug your soul out of the dark, you have fought to be here; do not go back to what buried you.”-Bianca Sparacino

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