Asthenic depression is one of the most common depressions, the name of which is translated as “mental exhaustion.” This disease appears at any age; people of any gender and profession can get it. Asthenic depression is a psychopathological condition manifested by general weakness, severe fatigue, disturbances in normal sleep patterns, hyperesthesia, and emotional instability.
Asthenic depression responds well to drug and psychotherapeutic treatment if it is started on time.
Causes of asthenic depression
Asthenic depression is characterized by a long onset, a relatively mild course and the absence of psychopathology. Most often, it develops in emotionally healthy and prosperous people who, for some reason, have had to experience prolonged physical or psycho-emotional overload. The reasons that give rise to this disease are not yet precisely known. It is believed that this can be anything that entails physical or nervous exhaustion. There are a number of factors that can provoke them:
- Infections, causing acute inflammation in tissues and severely depleting the body.
- Pathologies that also deplete the central nervous system(tumors, angina, anemia, arthritis and even bronchitis).
- Severe intoxication with various substances.
- Depressed mood and lack of positive, life-affirming emotions.
- Chronic physical fatigue, especially in physically unprepared children and adolescents.
- Poor nutrition. The lack of proteins and fats, essential vitamins and minerals very quickly affects the well-being and state of the central nervous system.
- Suspicious, unstable, receptive character.
A feature of asthenic depression is that it is difficult to differentiate from other depressive conditions with similar symptoms.
Symptoms of asthenic depression
The following symptoms may indicate that asthenic depression is present in the body:
- apathetic state, which progresses more and more every day: the patient loses interest in what previously interested him;
- weakness and weakness throughout the body, the origin of which is difficult to explain;
- drowsiness, does not disappear even during the day;
- low productivity and work ability;
- irritability and aggressiveness;
- urinary disorders,
- lower back pain;
- inexplicable tearfulness;
- strong thirst;
- increase or decrease in body weight, which did not exist before;
- forgetfulness;
- pressure surges;
- impotence in men.
A person suffering from asthenic depression feels very tired and gets tired quickly, even without sufficient physical, mental or emotional stress. He also exhibits other symptoms of depression: he becomes irritable, indecisive, tearful, lethargic, develops apathy, and loses interest in what he used to enjoy doing. The ability to concentrate on the task at hand and work performance are significantly reduced.
Appetite also decreases, but the feeling of thirst increases. Normal sleep processes are disrupted - a patient with depression cannot fall asleep for a long time or, conversely, wake up.
If asthenic depression is mild, patients maintain normal activity, but even simple everyday activities, such as washing, brushing teeth and getting dressed, tire them and require more time to complete than before. If depression is severe, the depressed person feels an absolute loss of strength and has no desire to do anything. The fact that even everyday work must be done through force forces the patient to waste not only a little physical, but also mental strength, and this only aggravates the disease.
The peculiarity of this depression is that its symptoms become most severe in the morning, and by the evening they gradually decrease and the patient’s condition improves slightly.
Treatment of asthenic depression with medications
How is this depression treated? Doctors prescribe comprehensive long-term treatment to their patients. Depending on the patient’s condition, it can take from 1 to 6 months. During the treatment of depression, the patient is prescribed sedatives, tranquilizers, and antibiotics, vitamin-mineral complexes, physiotherapy, massage - procedures that are necessary to relieve symptoms and best restore the body after asthenic depression.
Drug treatment of depression consists of taking psychotropic drugs that improve the patient’s condition:
- stimulant antidepressants, reducing and relieving apathy, anxiety, melancholy, lethargy, improving mood, restoring appetite, normalizing sleep;
- sedative antidepressants, removing irritability, excessive excitement and anxiety, improving mood, eliminating anxiety, helping to restore restful sleep;
- SSRI to relieve excessive anxiety, feelings of fear, improve mood;
- sedatives based on St. John's wort and other natural ingredients.
If you start treating depression as early as possible, the disease can be defeated very quickly: with timely treatment, asthenic depression has a favorable prognosis.
Non-drug treatment for depression
It should be noted that medication alone is not enough to cure depression. Psychotherapy has a huge therapeutic effect: conversations with a doctor should bring positive results: relieve the symptoms of the disease and gradually return the patient to lost health. The following psychotherapeutic methods are used to treat depression:
- psychoanalysis;
- analytical psychotherapy;
- individual psychotherapy;
- pathogenetic psychotherapy;
- expressive psychotherapy;
- supportive psychotherapy;
- emotional-rational psychotherapy;
- gelstatt therapy, etc.
It must be said that one of the most important conditions for the success of treatment of asthenic depression and depression in general is the desire of the person suffering from the disease to get rid of his problem, as well as to contact a psychotherapist to achieve this goal and unquestioningly follow all his instructions. Only in this case will the treatment of depression symptoms be successful.
Maintaining the health of your own body at the proper level is also of great importance for the treatment of this depression. To do this, patients need to eat right, quit bad habits, get a good night's sleep, go for a walk fresh air or even take up a feasible sport: running, swimming, cycling, etc.
You should also set aside time for communication with family and friends and for entertainment: attending cultural events, exhibitions, concerts, sport competitions. You can start pet to raise him and care for him or find some other activity to his liking. All these measures will lift your mood no worse than antidepressants and will help you cope with both asthenic and any other depression.
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I just love trading turning points when a Forex pair goes from an uptrend to a downtrend or a downtrend to an uptrend. These turning points are very difficult to trade, but at the same time, once you understand how to read them, you will move on to the next level and understand almost any price chart.
Two very important principles in this trading context are “exhaustion” and “deviation”, and these price action concepts can always be found at turning points. In my trading, and the area I work in (teaching students), I talk about turning points all day long because once you can identify turning points, your trading will transform. And whether you are a trend following, change, or range trader, knowing about transition points will improve your trading.
Types of attrition
After strong trend phases, it is quite easy to observe steps of exhaustion. Exhaustion patterns show a gradual change in trend sentiment and a slow transition.
Exhaustion I - Loss of Momentum
First, let's start with a bare price chart. On the left we see a strong bullish trend with long green candles and momentum. Then suddenly we have one long wick and then the candles get smaller and smaller and finally we start seeing red candles. It's like throwing a ball into the air: it starts out fast and then slowly loses momentum until it stops moving upward. Tendencies often behave the same way as a ball.
Exhaustion II - Head and Shoulders
Head and Shoulders is by far my favorite model and it shows exhaustion beautifully. At the top we have the head and then when we see the right shoulder we know the trend is over because price is unable to move as high and then makes lower highs. This means that buyers have lost interest and sellers have intervened early. When the neckline is finally broken, the pattern is confirmed and the market reverses.
Exhaustion III - Momentum Divergence
Lastly, we can also use RSI divergence to find tired Forex pairs. Divergence means that the trend waves become shorter and less strong, which means the market is depleted. While the move may still look like a downtrend (lower lows), the price action loses momentum when we compare the trend waves and the size and number of bearish candles.
Types of Deviation
Rejection patterns, or trap patterns, are common at the end of a trend and are more volatile and impulsive than exhausted moves. While exhaustion shows a gradual transition from one trend direction to another, deviation can only occur in one or a few candles.
Deviation I - hitting resistance/support
The figure below shows a classic deviation at a support/resistance level. At the time the candle formed, it probably looked like a breakout and continuation down, but once the candle was completed, all the premature sellers were trapped and the price began to trade higher. Rejection bars generally tend to have long wicks piercing the previous low or high. But engulfing candles can also occur in general rejection patterns.
Deviation II - Double bottom
The screenshot below shows the deviation in a double day. The price pierced it and then immediately reversed and moved up. Many traders use previous swing points as a benchmark in their disruption and deviation trading, and thus have good trades.
A FOMO trader who missed a downtrend is eager to get into a downtrend, and he believes that breaking support is a good signal. He enters prematurely and then hits a Deviation. If this happens to you, be sure to read one of my latest articles in which I share very important trading principles, which I use in all my transactions: .
Deviation III - Bollinger Bands ® volatility spikes
Finally, Bollinger Bands ® volatility spike can also be a rejection pattern. Bollinger Bands measure the strength of a trend and provide us with information about the likely price movement in the corridor, and violation of the bands shows extreme behavior after a long trend.
In the screenshot below we can see that after a long trend, the price makes one last attempt to move down, but the smart money unloads the shorts and then brings the price back up.
Tip: I set the Bollinger Bands to 2.5 degree deviations to only catch absolute extremes and avoid a lot of false signals. Without going into detail, a 2.5 degree deviation means that 99% of all price movements will occur between the two bands. Thus, the spike is a rare and important signal.
The Attrition and Deviation models are useful for everyone. Trend traders can use this information to follow the trend or exit a trade when a reversal is likely; And as a reversal trader, I use them when opening new orders and getting into the trend early.
Has this ever happened to you? Come after a hard day of work, full difficult decisions, and the other half is planning a vacation. And suddenly you find yourself saying: “Do what you want - everything suits me.”
Or this: you wake up later than usual, you are late - and tell yourself that you will do exercises in the evening. Only in the evening I have no energy for anything.
And also: you return home exhausted - there are three beautiful hours left summer evening. You can take a walk, meet friends, cook a delicious dinner, or finish reading a book. But instead, you grab a bag of salty cookies, turn on the TV, collapse on the sofa and mindlessly watch “The Shawshank Redemption” for the thirty-fifth time.
What's happening? This is chronic fatigue. Marshall Goldsmith, author of the book Triggers, is sure that it is not that we are weak-willed, but that we are exhausted. This article contains a recipe that will help you not get so tired and maintain vital energy.
The phenomenon of exhaustion
In the 1990s, social psychologist Roy Baumeister coined the term “ego depletion.” He argued that we have limited cognitive resources, which he called "ego power." During the day they spend time on self-regulation: resisting temptations, working, suppressing desires, controlling thoughts and beliefs, following established rules. According to Baumeister, while
the ego is depleted.
Scientists have studied wasting in different situations. They first examined self-control. Most often they seduced people with chocolate. It turned out that trying to avoid the offer of a treat weakened people's ability to resist other temptations in the future.
Our self-control, like the amount of fuel in a gas tank, has its limit and runs out with continuous use. By the end of the day we are completely exhausted and can do ridiculous things.
Fatigue of decisions, or Why “the head doesn’t think well”
Exhaustion attacks more than just our ability to self-control. It extends to many forms of self-regulation. Most of all, it influences decision making. The more decisions we have to make—from buying a new car to scheduling conference attendees—the more difficult it is for us to continue to act in the same spirit.
Researchers call it “decision fatigue,” a condition that causes us to do one of two things:
- make frivolous choices;
- To do nothing.
Due to decision fatigue on Wednesday, we return the ridiculous purchases we made on Tuesday, because the next day, when the fatigue passes, our heads are clearer. This is why we put off making decisions when we are too tired to do it now.
But exhaustion affects more than just decisions. Under attack interpersonal relationships and the ability to change. If purchases, decisions and resistance to temptation are depleted, then so will complex species behaviors are also subject to exhaustion (scientists confirm this).
Our main enemy
Work that requires us to be extremely focused causes fatigue. While putting on a good face while working alongside leaders, you should not show weakness. Multitasking is also draining. Trying to convince people to agree to your terms is also exhausting. It is extremely tiring trying to win over people who are prejudiced against you. Containing your worries - any occasion that requires you to control your thoughts and feelings - is difficult, which also leads to exhaustion.
However, unlike physical fatigue, we are not aware of this kind of exhaustion. When we make a serious physical effort, we know in advance that we will feel weak in our muscles and will need to rest. Exhaustion of another kind, like stress, is our invisible enemy.
Not invented yet measuring device, which will tell us that our emotions are close to zero.
When exhausted, we are more likely to engage in inappropriate behavior, such as excessive talkativeness, divulging personal information, or arrogance. We are also more likely to violate social norms, for example, we engage in fraud. We become impolite. We can be more aggressive; under the influence of such impulses it is difficult for us to restrain ourselves. But we can also become more passive when our intellectual resources diminish.
How to deal with exhaustion and fatigue
Structure it! Structure will help solve this problem. It slows down the process of exhaustion and weakening of self-control. When we have structure, we don't have to make as many decisions - we follow the plan. And as a result, we do not deplete our psyche at such a rate. Of course, we cannot structure everything: no space is as malleable as, for example, a daily plan. But we all rely on structure in one way or another, at least from time to time.
For example, a box of weekly pills has become a blessing for millions of people who have to take medications every day. We wake up on Thursday, swallow the contents of the “Thu” cell without effort. And we consider a box of medicines convenient, but in essence it is a structural surrogate for self-organization. We don't have to remember to take medications. The box does it for us.
We don't even realize how many of these protective structures we use in life. When we write a meeting agenda in advance or clear the table before opening our laptop, we maintain self-discipline. Routine actions protect us.
The more structure you have in your life, the less you need to worry about it. Yes, not everyone is ready for such control over their life. Some people are extreme individualists. They are irritated by any rules or routine, as if their self-discipline has moral superiority over external circumstances. But if you are constantly tired, it makes sense to try to unload your brain. Why reject such a possibility?
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