Depression Hurts Right Down In The Gut

What does depression feel like?

Here are the 5 brutal truths you need to know:

1. Depression is painful.

Did you know that depression hurts? Yes, it is a physical pain that you carry around with you along with the low mental and spiritual feelings that are part of your very existence.

It is a postural thing at times. When we feel down or depressed or simply gloomy, our bodies reflect that in the way we carry ourselves. This slouching leads to physical pain throughout the body, particularly along the spine from the lower back up to the neck.

Constant pain can wear you down and create depression. So, the cycle begins and never ends. You go for a massage, manipulation, physiotherapy, and many other treatments, but the pain just moves from one place to the other. How do I know this? I've experienced it.

2. Pain flows where attention goes. 

Because depression is a negative feeling, one is more inclined to focus on the pain. For anybody else in a healthy frame of mind, it's a passing thing.

Thus, a seemingly innocuous pain could turn into something much worse than what it really is. Therefore, mind over body plays an important part in depression and pain.Negative feelings lead to the brain chemicals changing, which in turn, create chemical changes in the body, resulting in inflammation of the cells.

3. Depression eats away your guts — literally.

I am of the holistic school of thought, based on many of the experiences I have had as well as those which I have seen others go through.

Depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain which is brought on by various situations or experiences — we all know that. But how and why does it affect us, physically? Why is it that our gut clenches and causes acid reflux or that stress causes candida?

Candida begins to eat up our gut, causing leaky gut syndrome and then later begins to affect our bodies, making us sick without knowing why.

4. It makes you want to comfort eat.

"Serotonin is manufactured in the brain and the intestines. The majority of the body's serotonin, between 80-90 percent, can be found in the gastrointestinal tract," according to Medical News Daily. 

This is probably one of the reasons why we head for the sweet cupboard or the cake counter when we feel stressed, but this in itself has a negative effect on our bodies as our blood sugar shoots up as a result of a surge of adrenalin and cortisol and then crashes, leaving us feeling low.

Candida feeds off this sugar and slowly but surely begins to eat us alive, creating a cycle of pain.

5. There is a connection between stress, chronic pain, and depression.

So how do stress, chronic pain, and depression connect? When we get stressed, adrenaline kicks in. But, because we cannot use it (fight or flight), it starts coming down and cortisol, which is produced in the pituitary gland, begins to build up. The more your body produces cortisol, the more stressed you become.

"Excessive cortisol also hypersensitizes the brain to pain, such that even the slightest twinge can excite the nerves of the brain, causing headaches," says New York Times Bestselling Author and physician Lisa Rankin.

This hypersensitivity applies not only to headaches but also makes you aware of other pains within the body.

Constant pain is a sign that there is inflammation which is caused by autoimmune diseases such as osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, myopathy, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic pelvic pain, temporomandibular joint dysfunction, chronic lower back pain, sciatica, and more.

Due to stress and the constant onslaught of pain, one can eventually experience depression, fatigue, memory impairment, and numerous other inflammatory responses. 

How do we stop the pain and depression cycle?

It starts with an internal clean up in your bowel and your brain. Thinking toxic thoughts affects us negatively and this, in turn, affects our stress levels and our coping mechanisms which, in turn, breaks down serotonin and so the cycle continues. 

In other words, we need to take control of our thoughts, in order to take control over our chemical responses which in turn affect our bodies.

Another way of clearing up the pain caused by depression and autoimmune disease is by getting our gut flora healthy, as it plays a vital role in the production of neurotransmitters which in turn affect our moods. Mood and energy improve significantly when gut flora is healthy and blood sugar is balanced.