Can Depression Cause Heart Problems?
Can Depression Cause Heart problems? Depression is one of the most widespread mental illnesses that mankind is faced with today. According to the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) handbook of mental disorders by the American Psychiatric Association. Depression is a mood disorder marked by feelings of hopelessness and a lack of interest in daily activities.
How is Depression Different From Sadness?
Many usually confuse sadness with depression, although both are not the same. Sadness is just an emotion humans experience, whereas depression is a mental order that requires treatment.
What makes depression different from sadness is the fact that its symptoms usually persist for a long time. A depressed person, for instance, finds it arduous to even carry out the daily activities with interest. Thus, they are at a loss of energy and experience constant feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness that bar them from functioning normally.
What are the Symptoms of Depression?
Since usually depression is mistaken for sadness, the DSM explains some of the symptoms of depression. Such that if persist for two weeks or more, can help lead to a diagnosis of clinical depression or major depressive disorder.
The symptoms include:
- Feeling hopeless, worthless, lethargic and guilty all the time
- Finding no pleasure and showing a lack of interest in otherwise enjoyable daily activities
- Having suicidal thoughts
- Palpitations (Anxiety)
- Disturbed sleep cycle and appetite marked by sudden loss or gain in weight
- Loss of energy and the lack of ability to concentrate or make active decisions
Does Depression Cause Heart Problems?
On the one hand, we see that depression is such an illness that can cause disruption to normal human life with its far-reaching impacts. On the other hand, it is a truth established after extensive research that heart disease or Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. Additionally, considering the severity of both these issues, health professionals have usually linked depression and heart problems with each other. Palpitations are a common symptom most patients experience with severe depression and anxiety. Heart palpitations can feel like your heart is racing or thumping rapidly.
Although depression is a mental illness and heart disease is physiological, doctors and scientists often talk about the interconnectedness of the two. Some health professionals usually regard that there is a two-way relationship between the two. Therefore, they say that depression often leads to cardiovascular disease and CVD, on many occasions, leads to depression.
Impact of Depression
A depressed person loses interest in daily activities, as a result of which their sleep, eating habits, and daily activities are affected. Many usually end up physically inactive and lose or gain weight drastically. Due to these reasons, the body often fails to function normally, affecting blood flow and giving rise to cholesterol, which, in return, can contribute to heart problems.
Depression may not directly be a cause of heart disease, but it certainly is a contributor due to the physical problems it gives rise to. Many studies have explored the relationship between depression and CVD and continue to do so.
However, it can still not be claimed that depression leads to heart problems in all cases. Rather, observation suggests that it can either aggravate already existing heart problems or give rise to one, depending on the severity of the disorder.
Treating Depression is as important as treating any other disease, which is why it’s important for you to find out the real cause of Depression and make sure that you know how to handle it.
