The events in our lives trigger our emotions. While we know that life will occasionally throw painful experiences in our direction, we still feel unprepared for the emotional upheaval. Often, our feelings overwhelm us and tax our ability to cope with the changes in our lives.
Our traumatic life events often trigger feelings of sadness, loneliness, and grief. This is normal. It’s part of the human experience. Typically, these feelings subside when the stressful situation improves, or we learn to adapt to the impact and the changes they create.
When adaptation is difficult, when trauma triggers symptoms of situational depression, professional intervention is beneficial and often required. Situational depression can magnify the intensity of the emotional impact of our life experiences, and progress to other forms of depression.
Situational depression is typically defined as a short-term depressive disorder that occurs in the aftermath of a traumatic life change. Symptoms typically develop within 90 days of a traumatic life experience. Some of the more common triggers of situational depression include, but are not limited to:
Situational depression can strike when your personal experiences overwhelm your coping mechanisms. Developing the symptoms of situational depression suggest that you have not yet adapted to the changes in your life. Some of the typical symptoms of situational depression include:
A person living with situational depression typically feels more stress in their life than did before the event occurred. This treatable condition is often diagnosed when symptoms are determined not to be part of the normal grieving process, and when other forms of depression have been ruled out.
Although many of the symptoms of clinical depression and situational depression overlap, there are distinct differences between the two mental health disorders. Those with clinical depression have at least five of the symptoms of depression that last two weeks or more. Their symptoms are serious enough to interfere with or degrade the ability to function in their daily lives. Those with clinical depression often have noted chemical imbalances and may also live with delusions, hallucinations and other types of psychotic disturbances.
Situational depressive disorder is often considered an adjustment disorder, rather than true depression. That’s because a person living with situational depression is more likely to continue with their ability to function. While in comparison to clinical depression, situational depression may not sound like a serious concern, situational depression should not be ignored. For mild cases of situational depression, the following suggestions may help alleviate your symptoms:
Left untreated, situational depression can progress to a serious and often more difficult to treat, major depressive disorder. Depending on the severity of the condition, situational depression typically responds to counseling or therapy, the use of antidepressant medication, or a combination of medication and counseling. If you recognize the signs and symptoms of situational depression, it important to consider the services of a qualified professional, especially if you recognize the following symptoms or behaviors:
The goal of the treatment plan for situational depression is to help you cope with your stressors and get back to feeling like yourself.
A qualified counselor or therapist can help you:
Many people, just like you, delay getting appropriate treatment for their situational depression because they assume their symptoms are part of a natural grieving process. To help you differentiate between sorrow and situational depression, you may want to consider this, any emotion or behavior that interferes with your job, your relationships, and your enjoyment of once pleasurable activities should be evaluated with the help of a counseling for depression.
Depression can change the way you think and how your body responds to stress. You do not have to battle the symptoms of situational depression on your own. Contact us and a therapist or counselor will help you learn practical, effective techniques to manage your symptoms and reduce the risk of your situational depression progressing.
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