How To Cope With Depression

Can physical injury cause depression?

I suffered a pretty serious compound fracture to my ankle last year, followed by an infection, five surgeries, three rounds of IV treatment with PICC lines, hyperbaric oxygen treatment, and now physical therapy and oral antibiotics.

I feel like I've let my family, my company and myself down. I find it hard to concentrate and my limited mobility makes everything worse. I am in constant pain (bone-on-bone in the ankle) and even though the infection is finally gone, I find that an alarming amount of my thoughts are related to doing away with myself. When I was really hurt, I had getting better to look forward to. Now that I am there (sort of) it isn't that much better. Right now my life seems pretty joyless.

Is this typical for a Type A after an injury? Should I be (even more) worried?

Dear John,

I am really sorry to hear of your difficulties. I've recently had a close family member undergo a prolonged period of chronic pain, so I am especially sensitive to your situation. Until one has experienced the horror of prolonged physical pain, its endless, grinding hours and sense of hopeless eternity, one cannot understand how easy it is to become clinically depressed.

I am very concerned about your suicidal thoughts, but know also that these types of thoughts are very common at the bad crossroads where physical and emotional pain meet.

Let me make some practical recommendations aimed at improving your situation. First, it is absolutely imperative that you get treatment for your depression ASAP. In addition to the grave danger posed by suicidal thoughts, emotional pain has been shown in study after study to worsen the perception of physical pain.

Scientists have shown that the brain uses the same areas to register both types of pain - essentially treating them as being to a large degree equivalent - which may explain why physical pain so often produces depression and why depression worsens physical pain.

One particular class of antidepressant, called serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, or SNRIs, has been shown to help reduce several types of physical pain in addition to treating depression. Although your type of post-fracture-related pain has not been studied, you might still receive some relief from your physical pain in addition to the depression with this type of antidepressant.

Your pain might also benefit from treating with either gabapentin or pregabalin, both of which affect a type of calcium channel. In the case of my family member who has recently struggled with chronic pain, use of one of these calcium channel agents and an antidepressant has significantly improved her situation both physically and emotionally.

How To: Cope With Depression in a Relationship

Here are a few tips on how to cope with depression in a relationship.

Depression is a universal phenomenon and quite possibly there is no one on the face of earth who has not gone through the course of depression at least once in his or her lifetime. When someone is in a love relationship, the chances of suffering from depression become higher.

It is very important to know different strategies for coping with depression, otherwise the depressed person may end up making fatal decisions in their life. This article focuses on discussing different strategies in the format of tips with the purpose of educating the readers to cope with episodes of depression in their life.

Build Your Knowledge about Depression

The first and most important thing for coping with depression is to understand all the necessary details about depression, its causes and effects, symptoms and treatments. For that purpose, you may consult with doctors specializing in mental health or you may depend on mental health journals. Apart from that, there are huge resources available on the net which can offer you plenty of information for depression and different strategies for coping with depression.

Learn How To Discern the Difference between Myth and Reality

The next important step for coping with depression is of course to increase your knowledge about the significant differences among myths and reality concerning depression and its different aspects. Many people believe that depression is not a treatable disease; hence there is no question of any specific possible treatments. Some people simply lable it as an experience of ordinary sadness; however, the fact is totally different. In fact, depression is a complex process and if not encountered at early stages, it may get out of hand and even cost lives..

Value Yourself and Your Unique Presence

Sometimes when we are in a relationship, we simply forget to value our own existence and unique identity by putting our family members first, which results in suffering from inevitable depression from identity confusion and identity distortion. You should respect yourself and know how to value your own decision and actions in a rational fashion. Set some time aside for yourself, give yourself a reward as an appreciation of your efforts, While coping with depression, you should first look at yourself from a dignified perspective.

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