Effects of depression on your body

Depression is a mental condition that can begin to take a toll on your physical health too. When you’re experiencing depression, you are bound to feeling constantly dejected and hopeless. Sometimes, symptoms common to depression are felt when a person is grieving or has undergone some form of trauma. However, when these symptoms last for longer than 2 weeks at a stretch, it is time to take note. So let’s find out what are some ways in which depression affects our physical health –

• Disturbs our sleep patterns – Depression takes a toll on your sleep habits. You may feel overtly sleepy or not drowsy at all, contrary to the amount of sleep you actually need to function well. The changes in your sleep pattern will influence your day-to-day activities, hampering your productivity and affecting your body.
• Inability to concentrate – It becomes extremely difficult to focus on task completion when you’re suffering from chronic depression.
• Changes in appetite – A person with depression is highly irregular with their meals. They either eat more than they should or not enough. If they eat more and gain weight, they open themselves up for developing other chronic diseases. It also affects their self-esteem and they begin to avoid social interactions as a result. Sometimes, they can skip meals and eat less than they ought to, becoming nutrient deficient in the process.
• Exhaustion – Tiredness or exhaustion are common side-effects of depression. Those suffering from depression can feel inexplicably fatigued throughout the day. One may think it’s because they haven’t gotten enough sleep, but it actually is because they are depressed.
• Change in gait – If you’re depressed you may feel your walking pace slow down and notice that your movements take longer to complete. This is because of the dejection and hopelessness you are currently experiencing. You will notice your movements returning back to normal as soon as you’re cured of this depression.
• Chronic pain – Hypochondria is closely associated with depressives. They may experience pains and aches that they can’t quite explain logically. The same pain can worsen a person’s depressive symptoms.
• Increase risk of heart disease – Stress is a major cause of heart disease in individuals. Eating a poor diet and not getting due exercise can worsen a person’s heart health.
• Problems in deriving erotic pleasure – Depressed people report a weaker sex drive and lesser orgasms. They have trouble getting aroused and may no longer derive the pleasure they did formerly from orgasming.
• Digestive problems – Depressives tend to suffer from gastrointestinal problems like vomiting, nausea, IBS, constipation, and so on.

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