Self-Care Tip #202 – Be aware of your feelings and your body.
Image by madamepsychosis via Flickr
Wordsmith SuziCate commented to our post three days ago on finding depression in those of us who appear “fine.”
It can be more apparent in what is not said…. When I was depressed it was the absolute last thing I wanted to talk about. I evaded the subject, and if forced to talk it was about anything but what “I” was feeling.
Yet again, the comment completing the post. It was on my mind and in my face somehow over these sum of days. When I would start thinking about something else, a patient would nearly quote SuziCate and I wondered if you all have met behind my back on some other blog site with intent to trip me out. (Grandiose delusions….)
Margo said yesterday in clinic, with hands moving, eyes wide and leaning in,
When I was really down, I just quieted down, stayed low, did my thing. The last thing I wanted to talk about were my feelings. I felt afraid of the Nothing that waited there.
She was talking more quietly now and her whole body receded a little.
You aren’t interested or interesting to anyone. You don’t have anything to say.
We were both quiet for a bit.
These flattening-of-the-spirit symptoms used to be called “Pseudodementia” because they resembled dementia so much. A muting of the mental and physical function. A disease progression slowing the nerves and body. We now refer to them as “Neurovegetative Symptoms.” **
When thinking about getting friendly with ourselves, we can’t forget about what we don’t say or feel emotionally. We remember also, that the brain is connected to the rest of our body. Brain is sick, the rest of us is sick too. This can be a good check point once we start realizing that something is wrong either by insight or by comments from others.
It can be more apparent in what is not said….
Hear more than words.
Not all depressions are these muting processes. Some of them are activating and agitating types leading to anger and irritability. Those are hurtful too.
All types of depression are dangerous when left untreated. The reason isn’t only the risk of suicide or the distance it creates from others. The reason also includes the less familiar brain changes that it causes on the brain function. The sooner we are able to pull out of a depression, heal and return to ourselves, the better health our brains will have the long term. The longer a depression is left untreated, the more damage is caused to the brain’s health.
Questions: How did you figure out you were depressed now or then? Or that someone else was depressed? Please tell me your story.
**Neurovegetative Symptoms are the things about affective disorders that most of us don’t know about. We think about emotions – depressed, sad, happy, angry and calm when we think about mood or anxiety. We don’t think about the body. We don’t think about cognition, concentration, memory and what SuziCate or Margo described so well.
It can be more apparent in what is not said….
Neurovegetative symptoms are called “neurovegetative” because they are caused by the changes in the nervous system and they limit our ability to function.
Related Articles
- Depression and anxiety differentially influence physical symptom reporting (physorg.com)
- What is Melancholic Depression? (brighthub.com)