Correlation

It is important to remember that correlation does not equal causation. However, the following have been found to be closely associated with depression. As you go through each descriptor, consider if any of them apply to you in your experience.

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Anxiety

Anxiety is the most common double diagnosis with depression. Depression and anxiety are similar in how they work. They both affect our moods, but they cause different types of disruption. While depression causes numb or irritated feelings, fatigue, and low energy, anxiety can make you hyper-vigilant and constantly worried. Though the symptoms are different, the same negative thinking patterns that drive depression also often drive anxiety.

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ADHD

ADHD connects to depression because often ADHD symptoms can create a poor fit with social requirements. Society requires a person with ADHD to sit still for hours at a time in an office or classroom. This is not natural for this brain type. Trying to suppress natural inclinations, or not being able to, can lead to a lifetime of self-criticism and poor performance. This can lead to negative beliefs about one’s personal abilities, especially if someone is undiagnosed. A lack of understanding of how you work, and societies’ failure to accommodate this learning style, can cause negative thought patterns of worthlessness, guilt, and inferiority that can fuel depressive episodes.

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Addiction

Addiction generally includes legal or illegal substances and activities (i.e. eating, gaming, shopping, technology usage, etc.) that drive chemical reactions in the brain or body that is detrimental to one's long-term health . Depression may fuel addiction and addiction can also fuel depression. Addiction and depression are often twin diseases. People may feel driven to self-medicate depression with addiction, most dangerously with drugs and alcohol. Futhermore, these addictions can worsen depression. In many instances, the same things that can improve alcoholism or drug addiction can also improve depression.

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Eating Disorders

Eating disorders include anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating. Much like with alcohol & drug addiction, eating disorders can work as a self-medication for depression, or as a trigger of shame and guilt that propels depression. The same solutions often improve both. Addressing negative thought patterns, seeing a professional, and staying engaged in positive, fulfilling, and mindful activities help to battle these devastating diseases.

Emotional Habits

Depression often occurs with learned emotional habits from our family of origin. This plays a large role in how we behave because these are the only ways we know to cope with life. Small habits, like poor diet, problematic relationship patterns and addictive behaviors, combine to create compounded deep-seated issues that can fuel or indicate depression.

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Guilt and Shame

Being in an environment where one is constantly being made to feel guilty or ashamed may also be a factor for depressive episodes. Emotions like guilt, shame, inferiority, and worthlessness fuel depression. If someone constantly tries to control you through guilt trips and humiliation, this may create beliefs and emotions that come with depression. Depression thrives on the harsh or dejected inner voice, which fuels numbness, low mood, and even thoughts of self-harm or suicide.

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Codependency
(“Unprocessed Trauma”)

Codependency is a pattern of having poor boundaries in relationships. This behavior can ultimately lead to depression. Often, having poor boundaries is a learned behavior that stems from childhood. This usually involves an environment that constantly breaks healthy boundaries and teaches you that you and your personal boundaries do not matter. This can cause one to be attracted to unhealthy situations because it feels most familiar to them. This usually causes us to develop negative beliefs about ourselves. Codependency, depression, anxiety, and PTSD all are often intertwined in varying combinations, causing problematic thought patterns, low moods and ultimately depression.

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Major Life Challenges

Experiencing any kind of adverse or unpleasant event can trigger episodes of depression. Depression can also be triggered by significant changes in our lives. Illness, death, relocation, home loss, perceived failures, and relationship loss are all examples of these distressing changes. These changes are often out of our control, and are unwelcome. The way we handle our grief over these difficult issues can result in us getting stuck in our emotions. Thus, difficulty adjusting to major life changes can be a significant factor in developing depression.

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Difficult Life Circumstances

Depression is strongly associated with difficult life circumstances. Poverty, divorce, abuse, or other family stressors create mental stresses that correlate strongly with depression. Vulnerable populations such as the poor, disabled, homeless, etc. are more likely to suffer from depression. Dealing with difficult issues, whether temporary or long-term, may propel the depression or depressive episodes.