11 Health Risks Of Not Treating Your Depression

If you have depression, or you suspect you might, then you should, of course, try whatever means are necessary to have it treated.

However, there are those who do not, or can not, get treatment. For example, they may:

• be unwilling to admit, to either themselves or others, that they have a problem
• not be able to afford it
• not trust medical professionals – maybe because they have had a particularly bad experience in the past
• think they will get better by themselves without taking any action

The problem is, there is no way of knowing how bad your depression will become if you don’t do something about it, and there are actually some pretty serious consequences of not treating your depression, which is what this guide is all about.

As usual, these health risks are listed alphabetically so as not to imply degrees of seriousness, since those may vary from person to person.

Auto-Immune Disorders

These are disorders where the body’s immune system starts to attack itself, and according to the National Institutes of Health, more people in the US suffer from these disorders than either cancer or heart disease.

So far, researchers have identified somewhere between 80 and 100 different auto-immune disorders, with many of them even affecting children (e.g. with juvenile arthritis, juvenile scleroderma, and paediatric lupus).

Two common factors between depression and auto-immune disorders are inflammation and stress.

And inflammation, which is believed by some scientists to be the root cause of a large number of health issues, affects every single system in your body – including your immune system.

Chronic Pain

One study demonstrated that over two thirds of people who meet the diagnostic criteria for depression had consulted their doctor for various aches and pains. Some of these problems include backaches, bloating, and joint pain.

Another study correlates depression with fibromyalgia, with over one third of those suffering from fibro also being depressed. The review suggests that the two are different manifestations of the same underlying problem.

I have a couple of friends with fibromyalgia, and you do not want to end up with this if you can possibly avoid it.

Cognitive Decline

One study, published in The Lancet in England, showed that the brains of people with depression become physically different. Specifically, their inflammation levels are significantly higher, especially in certain brain regions including the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for concentration, reasoning, amongst other functions.

And brain inflammation can be serious. (Think encephalitis, for example.)

Even worse, just like other conditions such as Alzheimer’s, it can become progressively more serious the longer it remains untreated.

Diabetes

There is a strong association between being depressed and suffering from diabetes (primarily Type 1).

It is believed this risk of diabetes is largely the result of the unhealthy lifestyle (e.g. not eating right, not exercising) that depression often incurs.

Interestingly, diabetes sufferers are also prone to depression – more evidence that the mind and body are inextricably interlinked.

Gastrointestinal Problems

The link between brain and gut is now largely undisputed – what happens in one can affect the other, and vice versa.

And people suffering from depression frequently complain of various digestive issues, including constipation, diarrhoea, nausea, and vomiting, as well as IBS.

This is likely because depression can negatively affect various systems in our body, which are designed to absorb and digest food, by interrupting the normal processes, leading to, at best, mild discomfort, and, at worst, serious problems.

Heart Disease

The association between depression (as well as anxiety) and heart disease is well known.

These mental health problems can affect your heart rhythms, cause higher blood pressure, increase your cholesterol and insulin levels, and stimulate the production of stress hormones such as cortisol.

The National Institute of Mental Health reports that there are three times as many people with heart disease that also suffer from depression compared to those who do not have heart disease.

Another study found that a co-morbidity of heart failure and depression increases your risk of an early death by as much as four times.

Increased Mortality

According to the USA’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people with depression may die up to 25 years (yes, that’s an entire quarter of a century!) sooner than people without depression.

Some of this is accounted for by a few of the problems on this page, of course.

Migraines

Again, there is a strong association between depression and migraines – i.e. having the one can cause the other.

It’s been posited for a long time that low serotonin levels can lead to depression, but it now seems that migraines are also linked to a deficiency in this neurotransmitter.

I didn’t start getting migraines until my 40s and although I never connected the two at the time, I can now see that this was probably an early physical symptom of my depression.

Osteoporosis

An interesting study from Israel discovered that people with depression have a significantly lower bone density than non-depressed people.

This is more prevalent in women than men (which is usually the case with osteoporosis anyway), and with younger women who are at the end of their periods.

The researchers also found that depression stimulates the release of noradrenaline, which has the ability to interfere with bone-building cells.

Substance Abuse

If you are unwilling to have depression treated using the more “normal” methods, there is a risk you will try to self-medicate, and this can in turn lead to substance abuse issues.

The dangers of this practice are, of course, well-known, and are likely going to make an already bad situation even worse.

Suicide

The connection between depression and suicide should come as no surprise, but the longer you suffer from depression, the more likely it is that your thoughts will turn to killing yourself.

In my case, I think I had been depressed for over five years before I was beginning to think I’d just throw in the towel – and I hadn’t accepted I was depressed at that point, which means I hadn’t sought treatment yet either.

Also, bear in mind that some studies have demonstrated that side-effects of some antidepressant (e.g. those referred to as SSRIs) include tendencies toward violence, and suicidal thoughts!

Conclusion

Not included in the above, which is looking largely at physical health issues, is the effect your behavioural changes, because of the depression, can have on you and your family.

These changes include irritability, which will definitely affect those close to you, problems sleeping (which can lead to all manner of secondary issues), memory problems, and more.

So, if you, or somebody you know, have depression (or even think you may), then please take the necessary steps to start some form of treatment – because untreated depression can literally take years off your life.

Additional Resources

These are suggestions for those who wish to delve deeper into any of the above:

1. Find A Counsellor (USA Only)