How Can I Get Relief from Stress and Depression?

How Can I Get Relief from Stress and Depression

For the last 20 years, there was not even a single moment in my life when I did not experience fear. I was totally disturbed. I started experiencing increasingly great mental agony because of bad thoughts that kept invading my mind. Medicines have not been helpful in relieving my agony. I was going through all types of mental conditions, such as depression, panic disorder, mood disorder, etc. However, the time has not been helpful in healing my wounds at all.

"What are your problems?"

"I am feeling sick." "I am not feeling normal."

• Tightness in the chest
• Burning sensation
• Constant fear
• Inability to relax
• Anxiety
• Impatience
• Lack of concentration
• Anger
• Lethargy
• Sleeplessness or oversleeping
• Increased heart rate
• Dry mouth
• Increased sweating
• Shortness of breath
• A constant feeling to visit the toilet
• Headache

"Is there no escape for me from all these?"

There are people who don’t have anything to feel sad about. They are people who are healthy, wealthy, famous, and good-looking. However, there are also people who harbour bad thoughts and have no way of experiencing happiness in their lives. They are people who see the bad side of everything in the world. If the elements that contribute to the development of a feeling of happiness are not working in your head, then you will only be pursuing stupid things. Your mind will go astray. And this will only lead to the development of fear, sadness, fear, and suicidal thoughts.

Negative thoughts, embarrassment, and unnecessary feelings are all caused by a person’s bad mental state. Besides, the feeling that "I am good for nothing" is a symptom that other people may not be able to digest. People who fail to realise this construe it as something else.

We seek happiness. That’s why we try to identify dangers that steal our happiness. This is also because we love our lives and want to live longer. Furthermore, we are constantly searching for ways to avoid death. Besides, even those enjoying the best of circumstances experience difficult situations in life. The very thought of inauspicious things that can happen in the future, and the pain they may cause, make their heart beat faster and feel suffocated.

Studies show that the reason for experiencing mental agony is attributable to certain chemicals that have the potential to upset a person’s mental balance. A simple explanation that emotional distress and mental problems are mainly caused by variations in the production of chemicals such as dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine would not suffice. There are many brain factors that are responsible for us going astray. Our capabilities, memories, consciousness, and emotions are not all properly formed and organised in our minds. Moreover, our brain does not evolve very rapidly with the passage of time.

Humans lead an emotional life. They are emotionally attached to others and have a feeling of sympathy for their own situation. They lead a life of compromise, adjusting to their sad emotional memories and imperfections. They also come to terms with their mental anguish. Those who experience physical and mental distress right from their childhood keep recording their experiences in a part of the brain called the amygdala. They find it very difficult to deny the strong emotional memories that have been coded into their brains during their childhood, even when they are grown up and are conscious of their implications.

This happens because of a mismatch in the interaction between the amygdala, where their childhood experiences are coded, and the hippocampus, the conscious part of the brain that confronts these experiences. This leads to the development of mental health issues.

The reason for the development of imbalances in human behaviour, thoughts, and emotions is not due to changes in chemical levels in the body alone. There can be problems with the way their brains are wired. Humans are not creatures that have been created using a perfect mould. Man's life has evolved over time by confronting each situation in a variety of different ways. Men never had access to a perfect solution for every problem they came across. The human brain is hard-wired with elements such as irrationality and hyper-emotionality that exercise excessive control. Man has gained a great deal of rational, irrational, and emotional experiences by confronting each situation in life. He also has memories etched in his subconscious mind. However, in his conscious state of mind, rationality has little or no influence. As such, the main cause of mental agonies and disorders is a flaw in the balancing of intense emotional situations and experiences etched in the subconscious mind.

Treatments are needed to negate the effects of emotional memories that create grief. Man's inner world definitely needs care. You should be able to spend some time quietly and enjoy inner peace. Medications and therapies may be of help in this regard. You just have to implement and follow certain simple strategies. However, it is important to reduce the impact of stress hormones to experience inner peace. Cognitive behavioural therapies may be required as they help to mitigate the influence of emotion through reasoning.

Prasad Amore