Am I anxious, depressed or just plain stupid?
Someone asked me this recently because sometimes it’s difficult to know what’s going on when you know you just don’t feel quite right but aren’t sure why either isn’t it?
Especially when you haven’t experienced it before, or it just seems to have crept up on you.
Well let’s get one of them out of the way, shall we?
I can pretty much guarantee without even meeting you that you AREN’T stupid!
In the same way it takes sanity to recognise insanity, it takes intelligence to recognise stupidity.
So although you may be BEHAVING stupidly it doesn’t mean you are stupid!
So that just leaves anxiety & depression.
In my experience anxiety usually comes before depression but stress often comes before both.
And this is why
Stress – stress can actually be GOOD for us, initially it fires up our fight or flight mode; releases adrenaline, fires up our metabolism and focuses the mind.
A bit of stress means we can get a project finished on time or dig deep to find an answer, the pressure is on and our mind & body responds.
Anxiety – too much stress, however, leads to anxiety, our bodies are now in constant fight or flight mode. This will affect our concentration, sleep pattern and ability to cope with everyday situations.
Depression – most clients I see with depression, have reported that it has developed following an EXTENDED period of anxiety.
Our fight or flight mode is ONLY there for emergency situations, but with anxiety we are constantly in emergency mode.
Our body is unable to cope and, in my opinion, starts to shut itself down to protect itself from burn out. We become lethargic, disinterested and depressed.
So in answer to the question, you aren’t stupid but you could be suffering with stress, anxiety or depression.
And if you want help with that, give me a call 😀
