Persistent stress and its link to low mood

 

 

Low mood is complicated.  It has been the subject of thousands of clinical studies and all sorts of contributing factors have been identified, biological, psychological, social, behavioural…..  

 

One of the theories I find particularly helpful when thinking about low mood comes from Stephen Ilardi, a professor of clinical psychology in the United States. 

 

He suggests that low mood can be understood in the context of our stress response never having the opportunity to switch off.  As you know our brains have evolved with a survival system commonly referred to as the fight/flight/freeze (FFF) response.  This system evolved because for much of our time on this planet our ancestors were trying to survive in very hostile environments.   A typical scenario might look something like this, we come out of our cave and immediately spot a sabre-toothed tiger.  Our FFF system is activated, we fight or flee, the threat passes and we can return our bodies to a calmer relaxed state. 

 

If we fast forward a thousand years most of us (if we are very fortunate) are no longer facing imminent threats to our survival on a day-to-day basis.   However, what we are facing is an extremely fast paced life full of deadlines, social expectations, and pressure to do more.  You know the scenario, you work into the small hours of the morning to submit a report on time, you wake up early to get your kids to school, you chair a stressful meeting at work, you race from work to see your kid’s football game, you race home to cook and get the kids to bed and you wake up in the morning and you do it all over again.  And this is before we even contemplate the complicated world of parenting and managing the relationships in our lives.    Our brilliant but uber protective brain interprets many of these things as threats to our survival which means many of us are walking through life with our FFF system constantly switched on.   

 

And what happens when our stress response remains active over an extended period? Well, in addition to the very significant impact on our physical health, many of us also start to experience extreme exhaustion and intense hopelessness about our situation ever changing.   Two well established hallmarks of low mood and depression.   

 

 

So, what can we do to manage this in a different way.  For most of us we do not have the option of reducing the demand on our resource.  We must work to pay the mortgage and we want to show up for our kids so we keep spinning the plates and hoping something might change one day. 

 

But what if we could make some simple but significant life style changes which over time place us in a better position to reduce the possibility of longer-term low mood?   

 

Steven Ilardi has carried out extensive research in this area and identified 6 core life style choices that he identifies as natural anti -depressants

 

·      Moving our bodies

·      Daylight

·      Food

·      Connection

·      Rumination

·      Sleep

 

Moving our bodies is the single most effective way to release stress hormones that build up in our bodies.  So why do more of us not exercise……we all know it is good for us! We don’t exercise because our brains have evolved to preserve energy  - so when we are looking at our trainers and thinking about going for a run there is a part of our brain that is saying “this is a crazy waste of energy, let’s just stay here instead”.  It is imperative to our physical and mental health that we override this evolutionary glitch.  How? By starting so small we do not need any motivation to overpower our natural drive to preserve energy.  A five-minute slow walk, one push up, three star jumps.  Once we have managed to do this very tiny thing consistently we very gradually increase the intensity- walk for six minutes, increase to two push ups, five start jumps.  The benefits of movement cannot and should not be underestimated particularly in the context of low mood – run, swim, dance in your living room – literally anything that moves your body is an natural anti-depressant.  

 

 

Daylight - spending more time outside.  Not having enough exposure to daylight means that our bodies produce less serotonin which is important for mood regulation.  A deficit in serotonin leaves us feeling depleted which ultimately leaves us much more vulnerable to the development of low mood.  Prioritising time outside even on grey dull days is incredibely protective particular in green and blue spaces.  

 

Food – this is a growing area of research but it is now widely accepted that what we feed our bodies directly influences all the systems in our bodies including our brain.  In the context of low mood and depression we now know that improving our nutrition can have significant benefits.  Specifically we know that foods high is omega 3 like salmon and walnuts help the brain to use serotonin more effectively.  The research in this area is so compelling many psychiatrists now identify it as an alternative way to both prevent and treat low mood.  

 

Connection - as you know we are designed to connect with other people and our relationships have unequivocally been identified as the biggest predictor of our overall happiness.   The part we are interested in for the purposes of this blog is the fact that when we spend time with people we trust, it literally puts the breaks on our stress response.  How does it do this?  It does this because we all have a primal response when we are with people we trust.  This response tells our brain that we are with a safe group of people and everything is OK. Signalling to the amygdala that it can stand down our FFF response is not necessary.  So, say yes to the coffee with a good friend or prioritise a family gathering. This will not only increase our level of joy (most of the time!)  but it also has the added bonus of alleviating our FFF response.  

 

Rumination - we know that going over things in our heads again and again is one of the core drivers of low mood, and what this does is increase our threat response and reduce our ability to connect with others.  Sadly, we do not have very much control over what our mind shows up with but we can develop more control over how we respond to our thoughts when they do show up.  Learning and nurturing strategies like unhooking and acceptance gives us much more of a fighting chance of switching off the FFF response at least some of the time. 

 

Sleep – sleep has a profound impact on our amygdala, the part of our brain that is responsible for activating our FFF response.  Even small amounts of sleep deprivation mean a much more reaction amygdala.  We all have nights where we don’t sleep well this is being human but if you feel that your sleep habits are not as good as they could be it is a worthwhile investment to try and improve your sleep.   Some simple steps include

·      A warm bath before bed helps our bodies to reach the right temperature for sleeping

·      Being mindful of screen time and particularly the brightness of your screen in the hours before bed

·      The most natural light you get during the day, particularly in the morning, will help you to regulate your circadian rhythm

·      Avoid caffeine in the afternoon and evening and try and finish eating at least two hours before intend to go to sleep

These core life skills are not a panacea, they will not prevent us from experiencing low mood that is part of being human but they will reduce the likelihood of frequent and prolonged low mood and for this reason they are worthy of our time and investment.