Depression for many people is actually a result of poor treatment or lack of treatment for an anxiety disorder.
For some people they will have depression be diagnosed as their starting factor when in fact it is secondary, and many times the true culprit is anxiety that has gone undetected and/or untreated.
Understanding Depression and Agoraphobia There are many symptoms of depression.
Look for these: -Having no hope for the future -A sense of constantly being overwhelmed -Being tired a lot -Being very moody -Either an increase or decrease in the amount of food you eat -Not being able to sleep or sleeping all the time -Not being able to concentrate on things -No longer in the mood to perform sexual acts -Having thoughts of hurting yourself or thoughts of committing suicide Because a person feels as though they are no longer in control of things, they often experience a great sense of helplessness.
They feel bad about what they are putting their family through.
What they once found as an easy task is now becoming something that is causing them great anguish and stress.
Needing to depend of loved ones for help with daily routines adds to the feeling of worthlessness that they already have.
Depression is actually a disabling condition.
It leaves you having less energy and you are just no longer motivated to do even the simplest of tasks.
You are no longer interested in the things that used to make you happy and all you feel like doing is sleeping because you always have the feeling of being run down, despite the fact that you aren't really doing much of anything anymore.
Once depression sets in the person no longer takes proper care of themselves and many times will stop treating their anxiety which causes the depression to worsen.
Many people that go untreated for anxiety will develop depression.
A lot of times the person will feel ashamed or guilty for the way they are feeling.
Not having anxiety treated causes the person to develop depression and once this happens they have no choice but to seek treatments for depression.
Nowadays it is not uncommon for someone to seek help for their anxiety or depression.
Hopefully, we can continue to grow as a society and the stigma for depression and anxiety will go away completely.
Agoraphobia is the fear of being in open spaces.
It is now said that this is due to the fear that you will have an anxiety attack.
This is recognized as a avoidance behavior which is quite commonly used when trying to prevent the oncoming of a panic or anxiety attack.
Avoiding situations does have temporary benefits, but in the end it is actually more hurtful than helpful.
Avoidance actually leads to Agoraphobia.
Overcoming Agoraphobia is very difficult because, like depression, it is often a secondary condition of an anxiety disorder.
Most often people are taken by surprise the first time an attack hits them.
They immediately try to figure out what caused the attack.
Most times they attribute it to having something to do with where they were or what they were doing, but this is not correct.
Naturally, as a result, people will start to avoid those places and situations so as not to create another attack.
Only those who have a better understanding of what an anxiety attack really is knows that it has everything to do with your anxiety level and not the location that you were in when it hit.
There really is no set degree in which an individual uses avoidance.
What it comes down to is where they are with their anxiety and what seems to trigger the attacks.
Avoidance, while it does give them temporary relief, does not address the actual cause, which is having a high level of anxiety.
The more a person experiences the greater the list of places and things to avoid becomes.
In a worst case situation a person can actually become housebound in order to avoid all areas in which they think an attack will be triggered.
Some people are able to avoid a few areas without it interfering with their daily lives, but there are many that cannot.
Some even go to lengths to hide their avoidance from those around them.
They are often able to do this for a while, but eventually life changes will get in the way and they either have to face the circumstance they were trying to avoid, or tell someone about it.
An example of this would be if you were avoiding taking an elevator, and you got a job working on the twentieth floor.
You wouldn't take the stairs every day.
Therefore, you would either need to confront the elevator and your fears or tell your boss you can't take the job.
Treatment for Agoraphobia and Depression takes time.
This is only a secondary problem, and it will return if the primary cause is not rectified.