Are You Stressed or Depressed?

Key points

Mounting pressures can lead a person to think they are depressed.

Many people ignore signs of stress at their own risk.

Seeking help is a sign of strength, not weakness.

Whether the source is stress or depression, there can be a better future ahead.

“How are you doing, Sharon?” asked her cousin Tina.

“I’m holding on,” Sharon said.

“Holding on? Holding on? That’s not great. I think you’ve got to speak to a therapist, Sharon. You can’t just stay in a mode where you are barely surviving.’

Sharon relayed this conversation to me when she explained what brought her to therapy . The reason for her dire answer to her cousin, she explained, was that she had just returned from two weeks in Arizona, where she had been caring for her aging mother, who has dementia . She told me