MENTAL HEALTH IS NOT A LUXURY

What can we do, when in certain times in our lives, every activity feels overwhelming and draining. When we feel a little shaky and our heart beats fast, but there is not an apparent cause we can think of. What can we do when we feel it most of the time in our days and nights.

Even though I haven't said the words depression and anxiety, I am sure most of you know what I am talking about. Generalized anxiety disorder and depression are considered the "common cold" of psychiatry and some of the top causes of disability (defined as: productive days of life lost") [1]. 

Nowadays there is a raising awareness among these conditions. It would be foolish to say "all is in the head". Recent research shows that these states go beyond our mind and soul, past our heart and our bloodstream, and go all the way down into our cells: into our telomeres [1,2,3]. 

The depression-telomere connection has a solid scientific literature behind it. Large-scale studies show that depression is related to shorter telomeres. The more severe and prolonged the depression, the shorter the telomeres [3]. Also, depression has a strong imprint on our telomeres, as they, unfortunately, don't recover from it [1].

The research on anxiety and telomeres, on the other hand, is a recent subject. Anxiety is hard to spot and can seem normal when you are accustomed to feeling it. But it is indispensable to identify and treat it. Research shows that people who are suffering clinical anxiety tend to have significantly shorter telomeres [2]. The longer it persists, the shorter the telomeres [1]. But when the anxiety is resolved and the person feels better, telomeres eventually return to a normal length [2].

Telomeres carry scars from the past, but they can be stabilized and possibly lengthened through activities that help boost telomerase (the enzyme responsible for telomere growth) [1]. 

These activities will be explained in the next entry. But for now, it is essential to focus on how to protect ourselves from depression and anxiety, preventing these conditions to develop further from a single episode.

PROTECTING OURSELVES FROM DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY

While we might have some proclivity towards these disorders because of our genes, not everything is out of control.

Depression itself it is a complicated illness that lives in the emotions, in the thoughts and in the body. But it can be simplified as a dysfunctional response to stress [1].

DYSFUNCTIONAL RESPONSES TO STRESS

Instead of just feeling the stress, depressed people tend to cope with it by using negative thought patterns. They try to suppress the bad feelings so they can't be deeply felt, or try to keep their problems alive by ruminating about them over and over and over, and usually feel irritable and angry, not to the causes of stress but to the fact that they feel sorrow and stress [1].

All of these are a set of dysfunctional responses. They are understandable, but dysfunctional nevertheless. Over time, this cycle can pull a person down past stress and into depression [1].

These counterproductive mental reactions are part of anxiety too. It is really common for anxious people to avoid the situation that creates the discomfort [1]  . 

The problem with avoidance is that it actually perpetuates the feelings of anxiety preventing us from learning how to tolerate and cope with the stress that is making us feel anxious. We never get used to the stressful situation and instead, we learn that we cannot manage it, creating more anxiety. 

We need to learn that we can ride through the waves of anxiety and survive them [1].

Stress and avoidant coping style can lead to clinically diagnosed conditions such as depression and anxiety. Understanding how the mind works, why and how it gets stuck in these cycles of thoughts, is a key part of overcoming these common disorders [1]. 

This entry is based on the book: The telomere effect: a revolutionary approach to living younger, healthier, longer.