Stress, Depression, and Lack of Sleep Leads to Mental Illness, Suicide, and Poor Health - Anti-Schooling Series part 4
The goal of this part in my serious in Anti-Schooling is to establish the negative effects of stress, depression, and sleep deprivation. Later articles will link school and academic pressure to stress, depression, and sleep deprivation. Many parents and people in general think it is no big deal for someone to go through stress and depression but they do not know or consider that mental hardship may have long term effects and may lead to suicide.
Many of the articles I reference discuss how different people respond to stress and depression differently. Some are able to handle it better than others. How do you know if your child is the type that can handle stress or depression well or the type that will be more prone to mental illness and suicide? You take a risk by forcing your children to undergo stress and depression through school because you hope that the negative effects of school will be worth the positive effects, but in reality the positive effects come no where close to the negative for many children.
Suicide statistics
From Preventing suicide: Teen deaths are on the rise, but we know how to fight back:
Suicide is a growing public health crisis. The Centers for Disease Control reported recently that suicide rates for teenage girls in the United States have hit a 40-year high. The suicide rates doubled among girls and rose by more than 30% among teen boys and young men between 2007 and 2015, according to the CDC report. Today suicide is the number one killer of teenage girls worldwide and the second leading cause of death in teenagers in the U.S. (only accidents cause more deaths).
There were more than twice as many suicides (44,965) in the United States as there were homicides (19,362) in 2016.(Suicide Statistics)
Psychosocial job stressors and suicidality: can stress at work lead to suicide?
Approximately 800 000 people die due to suicide every year and the number of suicide attempts is more than 20 times higher. This leads to millions of people to be affected or experience suicide bereavement every year. In young people aged 15–29 years, suicide is the second leading cause of death. Suicide occurs throughout the lifespan; suicide accounted for 1.4% of all deaths worldwide, making it the 17th leading cause of death in 2015. Suicide accounts for the largest share of the intentional injury burden in developed countries and it is projected to become an even greater contributor to the global burden of disease.
Stress and depression can have long term bodily health effects.
How stress affects your health states:
In one study, for example, about half the participants saw improvements in chronic headaches after learning how to stop the stress-producing habit of “catastrophizing,” or constantly thinking negative thoughts about their pain.3 Chronic stress may also cause disease, either because of changes in your body or the overeating, smoking and other bad habits people use to cope with stress. Job strain — high demands coupled with low decision-making latitude — is associated with increased risk of coronary disease, for example. Other forms of chronic stress, such as depression and low levels of social support, have also been implicated in increased cardiovascular risk. And once you're sick, stress can also make it harder to recover. One analysis of past studies, for instance, suggests that cardiac patients with so-called “Type D” personalities — characterized by chronic distress — face higher risks of bad outcomes.
Mental stress as a causal factor in the development of hypertension and cardiovascular disease states:
Examples of things causing mental stresss include earthquakes, job stress, and several measures of negative affect; all have been shown in prospective studies have adverse effects on the development of hypertension and coronary artery disease. After the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake in Japan, there were increases of blood pressure and deaths from myocardial infarction that persisted for several months. Job strain, which is defined as a combination of low control and high demands at work, has been associated with increased blood pressure and coronary heart disease outcomes, particularly in men. Negative affect, which may manifest itself as depression, anxiety, anger, or hostility, has similarly been related to hypertension and coronary heart disease. Depression is emerging as the most important component with respect to cardiovascular disease. A common link for all these factors is a perceived loss of control over one’s environment.
From Stress and Health:
Stressors have a major influence upon mood, our sense of well-being, behavior, and health. Acute stress responses in young, healthy individuals may be adaptive and typically do not impose a health burden. However, if the threat is unremitting, particularly in older or unhealthy individuals, the long-term effects of stressors can damage health.
From Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Stress — Including How to Manage It
Beyond the damage you might do by engaging in unhealthy behaviors, over the long term, stress can have more insidious effects on the body. “People who are chronically stressed tend to have an elevated level of the stress hormone cortisol, which causes inflammation,” says Haythe. And while there is not a lot of data directly linking stress to disease, we do know that inflammation is associated with a host of serious illnesses, including heart disease, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, and autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis, she says.
“It’s hard to say with absolute certainty that stress directly causes these diseases,” says Dossett. “Usually, there are a number of factors at play. But I do know that people can get high blood pressure in response to stress, or heart arrhythmias; others will have problems in the gastrointestinal tract, like acid reflux or inflammatory bowel disease. I have patients with multiple sclerosis who say that their symptoms started after a particular stressful event,” she says. “Stress may not be the precipitating factor for these illnesses, but it can tip people over the edge.”
No health without mental health states:
About 14% of the global burden of disease has been attributed to neuropsychiatric disorders, mostly due to the chronically disabling nature of depression and other common mental disorders, alcohol-use and substance-use disorders, and psychoses
Stress and depression can lead to the development of mental disorders
Depression itself is considered a mental disorder.
From Stress May Trigger Mental Illness and Depression In Teens:
"I think most clinicians would agree that adolescent stress can cause major changes in adult brains," Dr. Sawa says. "The adolescent brain is at a unique stage of development. It is a time when the brain is very sensitive and in the process of forming its wiring network."
"Among the most common types of mental illness in young adults that may be triggered by stress are schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe depression, and substance abuse,"
The biggest risk from stress overload and mental illness in young adults is suicide, the third leading cause of death in young adults.
This quote and article covers both the physical and mental harm childhood stress and depression can cause.
From Is the Drive for Success Making Our Children Sick?:
A growing body of medical evidence suggests that long-term childhood stress is linked not only with a higher risk of adult depression and anxiety, but with poor physical health outcomes, as well. The ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Study, a continuing project of the Centers for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente, shows that children who experience multiple traumas — including violence, abuse or a parent’s struggle with mental illness — are more likely than others to suffer heart disease, lung disease, cancer and shortened life spans as adults. Those are extreme hardships but a survey of the existing science in the 2013 Annual Review of Public Health suggested that the persistence of less severe stressors could similarly act as a prescription for sickness.
The article The beginnings of mental illness proposes some possible biological reasons stress can lead to mental illness.
Mental And Emotional Impact Of Stress states:
(Psychoneuroimmunology) research suggests that chronic stress can lead to or exacerbate mood disorders such as depression and anxiety, bipolar disorder, cognitive (thinking) problems, personality changes, and problem behaviors.
Stress can lead to depression -Stress and Depression :
Stress -- whether chronic, such as taking care of a parent with Alzheimer's, or acute, such as losing a job or the death of a loved one -- can lead to major depression in susceptible people. Both types of stress lead to overactivity of the body's stress-response mechanism.
Sustained or chronic stress, in particular, leads to elevated hormones such as cortisol, the "stress hormone," and reduced serotonin and other neurotransmitters in the brain, including dopamine, which has been linked to depression. When these chemical systems are working normally, they regulate biological processes like sleep, appetite, energy, and sex drive, and permit expression of normal moods and emotions.
When the stress response fails to shut off and reset after a difficult situation has passed, it can lead to depression in susceptible people.
Depression and stress can lead to suicide
No health without mental health states:
Preventable risk factors of suicide include mental disorders, such as mood, impulse control and substance use disorders, as well as psychological factors such as feelings of hopelessness, anhedonia and impulsiveness.2 Stressful events, such as family and romantic conflicts, legal problems and job loss often precede suicidal behaviour, and persistent stress among some occupations, for example, physicians, military personnel and police officers, has been suggested to contribute to increased risk of suicide in those occupations.
Does depression increase the risk for suicide? states:
it is estimated that about 60 percent of people who commit suicide have had a mood disorder (e.g., major depression, bipolar disorder, dysthymia). Younger persons who kill themselves often have a substance abuse disorder, in addition to being depressed.
Sleep and mental health
Sleep problems also increase the risk of developing depression. A longitudinal study of about 1,000 adults ages 21 to 30 enrolled in a Michigan health maintenance organization found that, compared with normal sleepers, those who reported a history of insomnia during an interview in 1989 were four times as likely to develop major depression by the time of a second interview three years later. And two longitudinal studies in young people — one involving 300 pairs of young twins, and another including 1,014 teenagers — found that sleep problems developed before major depression did.
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Insomnia may also be a risk factor for developing an anxiety disorder, but not as much as it is for major depression. In the longitudinal study of teenagers mentioned earlier, for example, sleep problems preceded anxiety disorders 27% of the time, while they preceded depression 69% of the time.
But insomnia can worsen the symptoms of anxiety disorders or prevent recovery. Sleep disruptions in PTSD, for example, may contribute to a retention of negative emotional memories and prevent patients from benefiting from fear-extinguishing therapies.
Teens and Sleep: The Cost of Sleep Deprivation discusses how lack of sleep in teens can cause an inability to self-regulate, an increased risk of injury, and correlate with substance use and risky behavior.
Lack of sleep is linked with depression, weight gain and even death.
A study of chronic sleep deprivation in teens found:
The results suggest that sleep deprivation in the tween and teen years may interfere with how the brain processes rewards, which could disrupt mood and put a person at risk of depression, as well as risk-taking behavior and addiction.
References and Links
The effects of stress and depression
Stress and Health
Stress May Trigger Mental Illness and Depression In Teens
Preventing suicide: Teen deaths are on the rise, but we know how to fight back
Suicide Statistics
How Stress Affects Mental Health
Stress and Depression
New evidence that chronic stress predisposes brain to mental illness
Chronic Stress and Mental Illness in Children and Teens
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Stress — Including How to Manage It
The link between childhood trauma and depression: Insights from HPA axis studies in humans
No health without mental health
Depression's link to suicide
Does depression increase the risk for suicide?
Depression and Suicide — Breaking the Link
The effects of sleep deprivation
Sleep and mental health
Why a lack of sleep makes us depressed … and what we can do about it
Sleep deprivation can cause anxiety and depression—and the problem goes both ways
The Complex Relationship Between Sleep, Depression & Anxiety
Lack of Sleep Linked With Depression, Weight Gain and Even Death
Teens and Sleep: The Cost of Sleep Deprivation
Lack of Sleep May Be a Cause, Not a Symptom, of Mental Health Conditions
Lack of sleep could cause mood disorders in teens
New Clues About Why Sleep Loss Is Linked To Depression, Anxiety