Working Hard - Can It Cause Depression?

Depression manifests in different people in different forms. The manifestations of the symptoms also vary a lot between men and women. While women may feel apathetic, empty, sad and lifeless many men tend to be angry and restless. The anger and restlessness as well as the sadness and emptiness usually come from the same feelings of hopelessness that nothing ever in their life is going to change. In working adults, this will disrupt their family life, relationships and most importantly their career as well.

This is a very common misconception that depression is just a phase in a person s life triggered by an event or problem. However, this is not the case, even if the depression is triggered by an event, such as the loss of a close one. Depression is caused due to a chemical imbalance within the brain and no one can simply snap out of it. Therapy, consultation, counseling and medication may be required over a period of time to help someone come out of it.

Depression brings along with it memory and concentration problems. While you can push through work or sit and watch a movie or TV, reading becomes an almost insurmountable task. You may find it very difficult to concentrate or read. This may happen not just with a book, but reading material that may be related to your profession. You tend to get easily distracted and have memory problems trying to retain information.

The common theme in depression is a deviation from sleep patterns. Some people may get very little sleep, while others may sleep too much. Some others may sleep for longer hours but have very disturbed sleep patterns. Most of them may complain that even after a good night s sleep, they don t feel rested and thus have to drag themselves through the daily activities the next day.