Agitated Depression And Irritability: How They Are Connected
Published on November 20th, 2018
Updated on January 2nd, 2024
When we hear depression, we think of someone who cannot stop crying, cannot get out of bed, or is feeling hopeless. While these can be ways that a person shows their depressed mood, depression can be felt in other ways. We can feel depressed sometimes without realizing it.
Not all people feel their depression through sadness, hopelessness, and despair. They may instead feel their depression through anxiety, stress, anger, and irritability.
Depression can cause a person to be easily annoyed or agitated. Sometimes, a depressed person may have irritability be their most prominent symptom. This causes them to suffer from what is referred to as agitated depression.
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Click HereAgitated depression is not a clinical diagnosis. It is a term that is used to refer to people who feel the following ways when depressed:
- Irritable
- Restless
- Angry
- Agitated
- Short-tempered
- Stressed
When a person suffers from agitated depression, they may engage in behaviors that are not good for them. These behaviors can make their mood worse and impact their quality of life. Such behaviors that may be caused by agitated depression include:
- Lashing out at others
- Being impatient
- Aggressively expressing anger
- Having inappropriate fits of rage
- Breaking personal property out of anger
- Struggling to manage stress at work or school
Agitated depression is not uncommon. It is different than typical depression. A person with agitated depression may not be fatigued or feel like they are “in a fog”. They will be short-tempered and have a low tolerance for being bothered. They may also be hyper-alert and struggle to calm racing thoughts.
Agitated depression is often misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder or intermittent explosive disorder. The irritability, anger, and bursts of rage that can occur with agitated depression are similar to the symptoms of these disorders. Agitated depression can be tricky to identify, but can be treated and managed if properly diagnosed.
Symptoms of Agitated Depression
Symptoms of agitated depression will look different than the typical symptoms of depression. A person with agitated depression will struggle to cope with anxiety and changing levels of energy. This difficulty to cope causes irritability. They may also struggle with ruminating thoughts. Ruminating thoughts are persistent and recurring thoughts that keep a person’s mind in a dark place. This dark place may often be consumed with:
- Anger
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Self-defeating thoughts
- Feelings of resentment
- Hopelessness
- Helplessness
Agitated depression causes hypersensitivity to stimulation. It also causes high reactivity. Along with typical symptoms of depression, a person with agitated depression may also exhibit any of the following symptoms:
- Restlessness
- Reactivity, or having a “short fuse”
- Snapping at friends and family
- A short temper and high irritability
- Acts of rage
- Racing negative and (sometimes) violent thoughts
- Ruminating thoughts
- Discomfort with keeping still
- Excessive complaining
- Yelling
- Anger that is difficult to understand
- Being critical of others
- Difficulty sleeping
- Picking at skin, hair, clothes, or nails
- Extreme difficulty or inability to cope with stress
- Difficulty understanding the source of their anger
- Episodes of being easily and visibly agitated
Causes of Agitated Depression
A person suffers from agitated depression when they do not know how to cope with their mood. They may not understand what causes their irritability and depression. A person with agitated depression may not understand their feelings or how to recover from their depressed mood. They may feel like a prisoner to their anger and depression.
Some people with agitated depression learned to use aggression to cope from a family member. They may have also learned that expressing any negative emotions besides anger is unacceptable. This results in a person not knowing how to express their depression and emotional pain in a healthy way.
People with agitated depression may suffer from other mental health disorders, like:
- Bipolar disorder
- Insomnia
- Anxiety
- ADHD
- Borderline personality disorder
- PTSD
- Addiction and substance use
There is a key identifier for agitated depression. It is displaying outbursts of anger out of frustration for not being able to cope with their depressed mood.
Treatment for Agitated Depression
Treatment for agitated depression is much like treatment for clinical depression. It will include therapy methods that teach coping skills. These coping skills will help the affected person learn how to control their anger, anxiety, and depression. Therapy for agitated depression may also incorporate anger management skills. In some situations, medication may be recommended.
Therapeutic techniques used for agitated depression include:
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps you learn how your behaviors are connected to your depression and negative thoughts. It also teaches you how to manage thoughts and feelings to prevent outbursts.
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) teaches you how your emotions affect your thought processes and decision-making skills. It also teaches mindfulness skills. These skills help you manage unwanted feelings and behaviors in the moment, so they feel less intense.
- Talk therapy can teach perspective. Perspective helps you to learn about the reason behind your anger and depressed mood. It teaches you how irritability and depression are affecting you. It can also teach you how they are affecting your relationships with yourself and others.
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