Depression Anger Anxiety Understanding the Relationship

Hi, everybody, and welcome back. Today we're going to be discussing depression, anxiety and anger. What's the connection? I'm your host, Dr. Donnelly Snipes. Anger and anxiety are two emotions that result when our brain thinks that there might be a threat. And the key word there is might. Just like your fire alarm or smoke alarm in your house sometimes goes off when there's not really a fire. Our body may perceive that there might be a threat and cause us to start feeling angry, irritable or anxious in an attempt to help us prepare to fight or flee. Anger is akin to fight, and anxiety is like fleeing when we get stressed, when our body thinks there's a threat, when we decide that there is a threat, we have our threat response system. And what happens is cortisol is released. That's our main stress chemical. Cortisol causes another brain chemical called norepinephrine to be released. When norepinephrine is released, it causes our body to do a bunch of other things, but one of the side effects is it causes our body to dump blood glucose so we have the energy in our blood in order to fight or flee. Sounds like a great system, doesn't it? It does. The other things that happen, or some of the other things that happen during this stress response is our body says, you know what? Now is not the time to relax, so I'm going to turn down that serotonin. So we're not going to relax. Now is not the time to procreate. There's a threat. It's not the time to bring in, you know, little spawn. So I'm going to reduce those sex hormones. Okay, well, again, that makes sense if there is a threat. But when anger and anxiety goes on for too long, then we can have some other side effects from it when serotonin is low. And serotonin is one of those brain chemicals that is responsible for a whole lot of things, from heart rate to mood to sleep, leap to appetite, and to a certain extent, libido. But when serotonin levels are out of whack, then we're going to start experiencing disrupted sleep. When we don't get enough good quality sleep, it's going to be harder to concentrate, harder to focus. We're going to feel fatigued. You know what you feel like when you haven't had good sleep. The other thing is the disrupted sex hormones. When we are under what our brain perceives as attack or exposed to a threat, it's not time to procreate. So our sex hormones are altered. So our libido goes down. The other thing that happens when our sex hormones are altered is it alters the availability of some of those really important brain chemicals like serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine. When those are out of whack, then we are going to feel depressed, anxious, fatigued and have difficulty sleeping. And changes in our appetite, anger and anxiety are normal emotions. And when they happen, that is your brain's clue that there might be a threat. But when we feel angry or anxious on an ongoing basis for a while, it's kind of, kind of like driving a car with your foot to the floor on the gas pedal for hundreds of miles. That engine is going to get really, really, really, really hot. And that's not good for the car. And eventually the engine block may crack. But with us, we start feeling depressed, we run out of gas, so to speak. Depression can occur when we've been too angry or too anxious for too long. And some of the symptoms that may result when depression occurs for this reason include lack of pleasure. When we don't have norepinephrine and we have altered levels of dopamine, it's going to be hard for us to feel happy. Feelings. It's going to be hard for us to feel those excited feelings. Difficulty concentrating. This goes back to all three serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine. All three of those are involved in helping us focus and learn and remember things. When those are out of whack, we're going to have difficulty concentrating. Sleep changes. When we're under threat, we are not sleeping restfully. Our body's saying you need to be alert, you need to be ready to fight or flee at a moment's notice. So we're not getting good sleep. When you don't get good sleep, it impairs your ability to think clearly, to remember things, and it impairs your energy level. Eating changes happen when we're not sleeping well. Our circadian rhythms can get out of whack, which will alter our sleep hormone regulation. Additionally, foods that are high in fat or sugar also prompt the release of serotonin and dopamine, which are some of our feel good chemicals. So a lot of us, when we feel anxious or depressed, we may look toward self medicating, if you will, with food. And so those eating changes can be a sign that your neurochemicals are out of whack. On the other hand, some people just don't want to eat at all. When they're angry, anxious, depressed, they just have no appetite and that's also a sign that your serotonin and your brain chemical levels may be out of whack. And finally, guilt. When we're angry and anxious for a long time, we may start seeing things as negative everywhere. We may start seeing ourselves negatively, and we may start feeling guilty for not having the energy, not having the concentration, not having the desire to get up and do things with the people we love or do the things that we really think we should be doing. So the long and the short of it is, depression can be caused by a lot of things, but one of the major causes is persistent anger or anxiety. And it's important to recognize if your depression or your depressive symptoms are caused by persistent anger and anxiety. You need to figure out where those threats are coming from and develop tools in order to help you address your anger and anxiety. So your brain chemicals can rebalance, your sleep can improve, your appetite can improve, and your libido can improve. I hope that was helpful for some of you who are curious about why sometimes we can feel anxious and depressed at the same time.