How Does Depression Affect the Body?

Most people recognize the main emotional symptoms of depression: low mood, lack of energy, persistent sadness, and so on. But what about the physical symptoms of depression. These symptoms get less recognition, but they are worthy of attention. Depression can affect the entire body, not just your mood, and learning to identify its physical symptoms can help you see the whole picture, which is a crucial step toward wellness and healing. So how does depression affect the body? Here's an overview of the potential effects of the condition, as well as steps you can take to treat it and progress toward a healthier body and mind.

How Does Depression Affect the Body?

Not everybody with depression develops physical symptoms, but if you have dealt with depression for a significant amount of time, you might identify with these symptoms:

• Changes in appetite: The brain regions affected by depression also influence how we eat and how we sleep. With depression, food cravings or appetite loss can cause weight gain or weight loss.
• Trouble sleeping: Up to 90 percent of people with depression report insomnia. Have you been waking up earlier than usual or oversleeping? Do you feel unrefreshed after a full night of rest? If so, these could be physical symptoms of depression. People with depression are three times more likely to feel exhausted or chronically fatigued.
• Gastrointestinal issues: Have you experienced stomach cramps, bloating, nausea, or a change in bowel habit? If so, it might be because the brain and the gut are intimately connected. A Harvard Medical School report says that a troubled brain can send signals to the intestine (and vice-versa): "A person's stomach or intestinal distress can be the cause or the product of anxiety, stress, or depression."
• Pain: If everything hurts more than it once did, depression might be the cause. People with depression are three times more likely to develop chronic pain. Back pain, joint pain, and headaches are common. How does depression affect the body in this way? The chemical messengers that are disrupted by depression (including serotonin, noradrenaline, and dopamine) also regulate our response to pain. Research using brain scans suggests that some people with depression find it more difficult to tolerate pain.
• Sexual dysfunction: Up to one-third of people with depression report decreased sex drive, and up to one-third of men with depression report erectile dysfunction. Depression medications can also trigger these issues.

If you believe your physical symptoms have been neglected in your medical journey, it is normal to feel frustrated. Fortunately, there are proactive steps you can take to treat your depression and ease the physical symptoms it can cause, or even eliminate them entirely.

When you're ready to improve your mental and physical health with depression treatment, what are the next steps? Treatment for depression usually begins with talk therapy and medication. However, you may have treatment-resistant depression that will not respond well to medication. This is the case for one in three people.

If this applies to you, there are non-drug possibilities. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, or TMS, is an effective treatment for when at least two medications have not been effective for depression. It is a gentle and non-invasive treatment cleared by the FDA. TMS applies highly focused magnetic pulses to brain regions that regulate mood, helping to relieve some, or even all, symptoms of depression in many patients.

About two-thirds of patients report a reduction in depression symptoms at the completion of the acute phase of TMS therapy, which takes six to nine weeks. In the course of treating the mental and emotional symptoms of depression, TMS may help to restore aspects of your physical health as well. With depression, it is possible to find your own path to wellness. Once you have developed an understanding of how depression may be impacting you physically, you can seek treatment options that support both physical and emotional health.