Many people are entering a new year with anxiety because of general societal uncertainty, financial instability, relational instability, and challenges with their physical and emotional health. According to The American Institute of Stress: “About 33 percent of people report feeling extreme stress. 77 percent of people experience stress that affects their physical health. 73 percent of people have stress that impacts their mental health” (Sep 5, 2022). “Major depressive disorder affects approximately 17.3 million American adults, or about 7.1% of the U.S. population age 18 and older, in a given year (National Institute of Mental Health, “Major Depression,” 2017).
The Following Are Ten Primary Reasons For The Increase In Personal Stress And Depression:
- No Boundaries For Family And Self
Every individual must create personal boundaries to protect their personal and family space. These boundaries should include carving out specific work hours, Sabbath keeping, and allotting personal private time with spouse and children. When set boundaries are not in place, many situations or people will invade your privacy, not granting you enough alone time to emotionally process important issues or spend adequate quality time with your family. These continual interruptions to one’s personal and family life can eventually cause stress and even depression. - Ambiguity Regarding Goals And Purpose
When people have no clear sense of calling or purpose, they are open to doing anything with their time. Since a sense of purpose provides a sustainable anchor for the soul, a lack of purpose and goals cause ambiguity and incoherence in one’s cognitive self, causing a person to emotionally unravel. To compensate emotionally for this feeling of “lostness of soul,” many continually attempt to medicate themselves with drugs, porn, excessive entertainment, and so on, to obtain a fleeting sense of happiness. - Transference
Most people have unresolved issues with some significant people (their parents, siblings, co-workers, or former lovers and friends). The result of this is a spill over effect in which other people become objects of their pain and wrath to cope with their emotions continually boiling up. Some people describe this as transference. Transference describes a situation where one person’s feelings, desires, and expectations are redirected and applied to another person. This happens when a person views another person in their life, either as a parent figure, sibling, or another significant person who wounded them. They transfer these feelings regarding past hurts onto this person as a proxy. As a result, people transferring blame to others experience broken relationships since “hurt people, hurt people.”
This inability to sustain deep relational connections can result in severe depression, loneliness, and isolation. - Activity Overload
Many people are constantly involved in one activity after another from morning till night without taking a reasonable break. They equate activity with productivity. However, sometimes less is more. Prolonged activity leaves less time to reflect and plan one’s day to objectively make the best decisions in life. Furthermore, many people don’t understand our divinely designed circadian rhythms on a 24-hour day. The human body is meant to shut down, rest and relax in the evening, so that it can be properly energized for the next day.
Circadian rhythms are the natural cycle of physical, mental, and behavioural changes the body goes through in a 24-hour cycle. Circadian rhythms are mostly affected by light and darkness and are controlled by a small area in the middle of the brain. When we violate these divinely ordained circadian rhythms, it negatively impacts our emotions, causing undue stress, and depression. - Poor Physical Health
God designed humans to functionally integrate with their spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:13). Hence, when a person violates this by neglecting one of these areas, it negatively impacts everything else, including their spiritual and emotional health. For example, if a person has poor nutritional habits, it can cause anxiety and depression and hurt one’s ability to think clearly and focus. However, when one sticks to a diet of nutrient-rich foods, one can set oneself up for fewer mood swings and improved overall quality of life. Studies have even found that clean diets consisting of whole, unprocessed foods can help with symptoms of depression and anxiety.
One reason is that adopting a diet of nutritionally dense food promotes the growth of “good” bacteria, which positively affects the production of dopamine and serotonin, which send positive messages to the brain. Conversely, eating a diet mostly of processed foods and soda negatively impacts the brain and causes inflammation and possibly even disease in the body.
6. Stress Management And The “Ball In A Box Syndrome”
Many of us have experienced the loss of a loved one through death or alienation. This can change the contour of our whole being, often resulting in severe pain that can be continually triggered by a hurtful memory or by daily life routines and experiences. Severe pain may stay with us for the rest of our life; however, the nature of grieving is that it will eventually dissipate gradually as time elapses. Many psychologists use the metaphor of a bouncing ball in a box with a pain button to describe the above. This helps to explain “grief triggers” at random moments when painful emotions return at unexpected times when “the bouncing ball hits the pain button in the (metaphorical) box.”
For example, when a person’s grief is fresh, the ball takes up most of the box and continually hits the pain button repeatedly, which is why the pain is fairly constant. As time elapses, the ball gets smaller. Hence, the pain button gets hit less frequently.
7. Vulnerable Narcissism
This is when a person compensates for being psychologically neglected as a child by acting overly self-focused and narcissistic. Hence, they subconsciously act out in this manner to protect themselves from inadequate feelings. Many often go between feeling inferior and superior when comparing themselves to others, and they often feel offended or anxious when others do not give them special treatment. This up-and-down cycle of continually being offended based on unrealistic expectations and feelings of superiority often results in broken relationships and internal anger, leading to stress and depression.
8. Sedentary Lifestyle
By sedentary, I am describing a person tending to spend much time seated, somewhat inactive. According to many experts, “Sedentary behavior increases feelings of nervousness, restlessness, hopelessness, or even tiredness. Adding regular exercise to your daily routine can have a positive impact on depression, anxiety, ADHD, and more.”
Furthermore, this lifestyle raises the risk of obesity and various diseases, including heart and coronary artery disease, heart attack, and high blood pressure, furthering the likelihood they will experience stress and depression. Negative sedentary habits include sitting for long periods in front of a television, various forms of entertainment, and excessive social media feeding. This contrasts with mentally active sedentary behavior patterns, such as reading, writing, and participating in group games (I.E., board games like scrabble, playing cards, and chess) and dialogical meetings that are not always associated with risk.
9. Social Media Feeding
Some people are so addicted to social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and more that they waste countless hours reading random posts and fake news every day. They constantly post things about their life merely to get likes and affirmation from others. While I am a fan of social media as an incredible resource for communicating with others, it can also distract us from doing purposeful things.
“Experts have linked excessive social comparison behaviors to depression. I.E.Teens who spend their time envying others’ lives or mulling over their own shortcomings tend to have higher levels of depression.”
“More than half of social media users who are adversely affected by apps report depression (56%), dissatisfaction with life (52%), fear of missing out (52%), and body image issues (51%).”
10. Not Developing A Robust Spiritual Life
The main thing that got me through many challenging seasons of my life over the past 45 years as a Christian is a robust prayer life, continually seeking the Lord, and feeding on His Word. Many people I speak to experiencing either burnout or continuous bouts of anxiety and depression because they do not consistently spend time in the word of God. The Bible clarifies that when we wait upon the Lord, God renews our strength (Isaiah 40:31).
Jesus said if we abide in Him, we will bear much fruit (John 15:1-7). The book of Psalms describes a person who practices a lifestyle of meditating on the Scriptures like a tree planted by the streams of water that bear continual fruit and who prospers in whatever he does (Psalm 1:1-4). Furthermore, God commanded Joshua to meditate on the book of the Law day and night so that he would be courageous and prosperous (Joshua 1:8-9).
In conclusion, it is important for all believers to properly steward their time, their bodies, and their divine assignment. For this to happen, we need to be self-aware and understand the triggers that manifest the unresolved issues within our souls. Ultimately, only Jesus can heal the broken places of the human heart and deliver us from anxiety and depression. Let us continually look unto the Lord to sustain us and deliver us.
As King David said several thousand years ago:
“I Sought The LORD, And He Answered Me
And Delivered Me From All My Fears.
Those Who Look To Him Are Radiant,
And Their Faces Shall Never Be Ashamed.
This Poor Man Cried, And The LORD Heard Him
And Saved Him Out Of All His Troubles.”
Psalm 34:4-6
May the Lord deliver you as you look towards Him. Amen
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