Common Behaviours / Vices / Acts (etc) for Depressed / Stressed / Sad (etc) People?

Dougal O

Hi.

I tried to make the title as clear as possible.

What are the most common or typical behaviours or acts or vices that people turn to when they're suffering from depression, anxiety, stress, sadness?


Thanks.

JuliusCaesar

Are you talking about dysfunctional coping strategies? Alcohol, social withdrawal, inactivity, rumination......

Sardonicat

Anxious, depressed, stressed and sad are not mutually inclusive by implication. One can exist without the others or can induce or exasperate the others. They are not always a job lot. Perhaps the word "vices" could be softened a little?:)

Odysseus

Sardonicat wrote: »

Anxious, depressed, stressed and sad are not mutually inclusive by implication. One can exist without the others or can induce or exasperate the others. They are not always a job lot. Perhaps the word "vices" could be softened a little?:)

Subjective states maybe:)

Dougal O

Mods, I know boards is accessible to all ages, so please feel free to edit or delete as you deem necessary - it's not my intent to cause any problems with this thread.

Yes, dysfunctional behaviours.

I should have used "and/or" rather than commas between the words depression, anxiety, stress and sadness.

I'll leave "vices" in there - I'm primarily wondering if excessive sexual pre-occupation or activity (and I don't mean anything other than "normal" hetero sex here - not anything destructive, dis-respectful or illegal) is a behaviour typical of someone who is suffering or experiencing depression and/or anxiety and/or stress and/or sadness?

It's the "excessive" aspect that I'm mostly interested to know about - obviously, "excessive" for one person could be "normal" for another, so how about the ability to focus on day-to-day stuff - both the simple & mundane as well as more important things - being impaired by the persistent and dominant presence of thoughts about sex, along with the persistent need to suppress the associated urges?

Thanks

Odysseus

Dougal O wrote: »

Mods, I know boards is accessible to all ages, so please feel free to edit or delete as you deem necessary - it's not my intent to cause any problems with this thread.

Yes, dysfunctional behaviours.

I should have used "and/or" rather than commas between the words depression, anxiety, stress and sadness.

I'll leave "vices" in there - I'm primarily wondering if excessive sexual pre-occupation or activity (and I don't mean anything other than "normal" hetero sex here - not anything destructive, dis-respectful or illegal) is a behaviour typical of someone who is suffering or experiencing depression and/or anxiety and/or stress and/or sadness?

It's the "excessive" aspect that I'm mostly interested to know about - obviously, "excessive" for one person could be "normal" for another, so how about the ability to focus on day-to-day stuff - both the simple & mundane as well as more important things - being impaired by the persistent and dominant presence of thoughts about sex, along with the persistent need to suppress the associated urges?

Thanks

Your post seems fine to me, just remember we are talking about behaviours associated with certain disorders, not individual problems.

Can you expand on this sexual element, using the appropriate adult terms, are you speaking of sexual addiction? That is what I'm seeing in your post. I see no reason why we cannot discuss the generalities of sexual addiction, though whether such a disorder exists is open to debate. Have a quick goggle of the term and let’s see if that is what you are referring to.

Dougal O

Odysseus wrote: »

. . . we are talking about behaviours associated with certain disorders, not individual problems . . .

Of course.


Yep - sexual addiction.

Whether or not this is recognised by professionals or society generally, I'm aware of more than one person that suffers or has suffered from what I described, though in one case, the urge was to masturbate, rather than to have sex. And in my observation, this could be more of a problem than sex addiction, where, presumably, the sufferer at least has a "partner in crime", even if not always the same actual partner, so the feelings of embarrassment, shame, isolation, etc, could be worse for the masturbation addict than for the sexual intercourse addict.

Rather than go into "how much is too much", and whether masturbation addiction (as a specific sub-addiction of general sex addiction) is bona fide, or simply a convenient "excuse" for what society might call a w****r, I guess what I'm really I'm asking is whether masturbation addiction could be a behaviour typical of someone who is suffering or experiencing depression and/or anxiety and/or stress and/or sadness?

Or could masturbation addiction be an indicator of some other issue or problem?


Thanks

Odysseus

Dougal O wrote: »

Of course.


Yep - sexual addiction.

Whether or not this is recognised by professionals or society generally, I'm aware of more than one person that suffers or has suffered from what I described, though in one case, the urge was to masturbate, rather than to have sex. And in my observation, this could be more of a problem than sex addiction, where, presumably, the sufferer at least has a "partner in crime", even if not always the same actual partner, so the feelings of embarrassment, shame, isolation, etc, could be worse for the masturbation addict than for the sexual intercourse addict.

Rather than go into "how much is too much", and whether masturbation addiction (as a specific sub-addiction of general sex addiction) is bona fide, or simply a convenient "excuse" for what society might call a w****r, I guess what I'm really I'm asking is whether masturbation addiction could be a behaviour typical of someone who is suffering or experiencing depression and/or anxiety and/or stress and/or sadness?

Or could masturbation addiction be an indicator of some other issue or problem?


Thanks

I personally don't believe in the term as I said, but I have done some training on it and I also lecture about it on a course I teach below you will find:

Levels of Sexual Addiction
[Arterburn 1991]

Solitary activities such as fantasy, pornography or masturbation.
Activities involving another person, affairs, telephone sex etc.
Minor criminal activities, exhibitionism, voyeurism, prostitution.
Major criminal activities, child abuse/pornography, incest, rape.


It could be either, some people may used an adapted version of the criteria for substance use disorder see a sexual addiction there, other may look beyond it and see some other disorder.

The is an old joke about an alcoholic who seeks help from a psychiatrist and is told they are depressed because they are drinking, they also seek help from an Addiction Treatment Centre and are told they are depressed because of their addiction.

Is the above of any help with your question?

Dougal O

Yes, Odysseus - thanks.

Odysseus

Dougal O wrote: »

Yes, Odysseus - thanks.

Do you need more info? I have a lot of material on it, even though I don't believe in it as a condition, I do have to lecture on the topic and I'm happy to pass on educational material if you wish. Just let me know.

Mark#1

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