Can Hormones Cause Anxiety And Depression In 2024?
If your hormone levels fluctuate, so does your serotonin level. Serotonin is the “happy” chemical. It regulates our moods and keeps us feeling calm and positive. Hormonal imbalances can also cause mood swings and even panic attacks. So if you were googling “Can hormones cause anxiety and depression?”, the answer is definitely “Yes”. In this article, I aim to explain all about hormonal changes in both women and men, and we’ll take a closer look at what you can do to restore your quality of life.
Which Hormone Is Responsible For Anxiety?
Actually, there’s more than just one hormone that can trigger anxiety. The main culprits are:
- Thyroid: If your thyroid gland is acting up and producing too much of your thyroid hormones (overactive thyroid) or too little of your thyroid hormones (underactive thyroid), your anxiety levels will be higher.
- Estrogen: Levels of estrogen drop during the menstrual cycle leading to higher levels of anxiety during premenstrual syndrome. This can also be experienced if you suffer from premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Women who are going through perimenopause and menopause can become more anxious as drops in estrogen are to be expected at times of hormonal change
- Testosterone: Low testosterone levels can lead to feelings of anxiety in your daily life.
- Cortisol: Otherwise known as stress hormones, your cortisol levels can spike during periods of chronic stress leading to anxiety symptoms.
Can Lack Of Estrogen Cause Anxiety?
Studies conducted by researchers at Harvard University revealed that “Some women’s vulnerability to anxiety and mood disorders may be explained by their estrogen levels“. Most females already know that they become more emotional and edgy at that time of the month, Many partners of women who are experiencing perimenopause or full menopause will confirm that they can experience significant mood changes and show symptoms of anxiety.
Research has also found that as estrogen levels drop, cortisol (the stress hormone) rises. It is theorized that these two hormones always act in this way. In other words, it may be impossible for your estrogen levels to drop without your cortisol level rising. This means it is inevitable that you will feel more stressed if your estrogen levels drop. Because estrogen always drops during periods and during the onset of perimenopause, this may mean more stress and anxiety at these times, is unavoidable without a treatment plan.
Can Low Iron Cause Anxiety?
Low iron is more commonly called anemia. Basically, your body is not getting enough oxygen and the reason is that you don’t have enough red blood cells. This can be diagnosed by a simple blood test. You might expect that just taking iron supplements should sort out the persistent anxiety that was caused in the first place, by having a low red blood cell count.
However, it has been found that experiencing anxiety regularly creates habit patterns in your thoughts, which may not cease just because you have taken care of the physical reason for the problem. It may require some form of psychotherapy to help return your thought patterns to normal.
How To Control Hormonal Anxiety
Getting hormonal anxiety under control requires a holistic approach which includes:
- Healthy Diet: Eating a healthy diet can help by giving you more of the B vitamins that help regulate your mood. Cutting out foods high in sugar has been shown to help with anxiety. My self-hypnosis recording entitled “Overcome Sugar Addiction” can help you with this.
- Lifestyle Changes: Things such as lowering your caffeine intake, lowering alcohol consumption, getting regular exercise, cutting out smoking, etc. My self-hypnosis recording entitled “Stop Smoking Successfully” can help.
- Stress Reduction: Keeping your stress levels low can help with lowering the production of hormones linked with anxiety. Listening to a self-hypnosis recording like my “stress Management” hypnosis download can help lower stress consistently every day.
- Mental Health Issues: Getting the appropriate help for any mental health problems you may have helps your serotonin levels to be higher. Anxiety disorders, panic disorder, bipolar disorder or general depressive symptoms all affect your hormones. When one is out of kilter, it has a domino effect on every other hormone.
- Hormone Therapy: In certain cases, hormone treatments such as HRT or testosterone injections can help. In the case of thyroid disorders, medication is essential to protect against the higher risk of serious health conditions such as heart attack or stroke.
Self-Hypnosis Audio For Reducing Anxiety Symptoms
Self-hypnosis can be a great tool to reduce anxiety and feel calmer every day for the rest of your life.
What Does Hormonal Anxiety Feel Like?
Hormonal anxiety symptoms are very similar to most forms of anxiety. Here are some of the common symptoms:
- Heart Racing
- Chest Pain
- Breathing Rapidly
- Headaches
- Sweating
- Stomach In Knots
- Dry Mouth
Can Menopause Cause Depression And Anxiety?
Human beings are complicated. There is no test that can definitively prove that your depression and anxiety are solely caused by hormonal changes. The best we can say is that, by observing symptoms of hormone imbalance, they may contribute to the depression and/or anxiety you are feeling.
Can HRT Stop Anxiety?
It would be impossible to say for definite if HRT can stop anxiety in people suffering from hormonal-induced anxiety. However, many women have reported a significant lowering of their anxiety levels as a result of taking HRT. Your doctor will advise you as to whether HRT is suitable for you. Because everyone is different, and there are many factors at play, it is important to consult a healthcare professional with experience and expertise in this area.
Self-Hypnosis Audio For Reducing Anxiety Symptoms
Self-hypnosis can be a great tool to reduce anxiety and feel calmer every day for the rest of your life.
How To Calm Anxiety
- Breathing: If you observe an anxious person, their breathing is faster than that of a person who isn’t anxious. One of the first things you must focus on is keeping your breathing slow and steady. I recommend, especially to my older clients, that they imagine counting 1-2-3 as if they were waltzing and match their breathing to the count of 3. So, breathe in for 3 and breathe out for 3.
- Relaxation: Many of us con ourselves into believing that we do relax, but, in truth, we may not be actually relaxing. Learn how to relax deeply. A very good way to practice deep relaxation is by listening to a self-hypnosis recording once a day. You could download and listen to my recording “Overcome Anxiety” if you wish.
- Sleep: Make sure you are getting good sleep. If your sleeping is disturbed, and you’d like to get it back on track, you could download and listen to my self-hypnosis mp3 “Natural Deep Sleep“
- Food: Eat as healthily as you can. Remember, eating foods high in sugar tends to raise anxiety levels, which is not what you want. If you’ve got a problem with sugar addiction, you could download and listen to my self-hypnosis download “Overcome Sugar Addiction“.
- Alcohol: Try to keep your consumption of alcohol to a minimum. The reason is that many forms of alcohol contain high levels of sugar, which fuels anxiety. If you have a problem with drinking too much alcohol and can’t seem to stop, you could download and listen to my hypnosis download entitled “Overcome Alcohol Addiction“
Hormonal Depression Symptoms
Many of these symptoms are exactly the same as if you were suffering from depression without it being caused by hormonal imbalances. They are:
- Loss Of Interest: Have you lost interest in activities that you were interested in
- Low Sex Drive: Loss of interest in intimacy or having sex
- Close To Tears: Feeling like you are close to tears quite often
- Indecisive: Finding it more difficult to make decisions
- Self Worth: Feeling worthless or useless
- Intolerance: Finding it more difficult to tolerate other people
- Overthinking: Constantly thinking of the worst-case scenario
- Suicidal: Having suicidal thoughts
Self Hypnosis Audio To Overcome Depression
Self hypnosis can be a great tool to learn how to overcome depression. This powerful audio is 25 minutes long.
How To Treat Hormonal Depression
There are three main strands of treatment and, depending on the individual, it may be appropriate to use all three methods. They are
- Medication: In cases of moderate to severe anxiety and depression, anti-depressants or anti-anxiety medications may be helpful. Depending on which hormone is causing the problem, some form of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may be appropriate. In the case of a testosterone deficiency, this may be treated by testosterone injections. The appropriate route is to consult your doctor for a proper diagnosis and treatment plan.
- Psychotherapy: Some form of psychotherapy such as hypnotherapy, CBT, or counseling may be suggested by your doctor.
- Self-Help: You can download and listen to my “Overcome Depression” self-hypnosis download once a day for at least thirty days. This will help you to let go of whatever you need to let go of from the past and visualize a bright future. This can have a positive impact on the production of certain hormones and help your recovery.
What Hormone Causes Depression In Men?
The most common hormone involved in male depression is testosterone. The common misconception about testosterone is that is solely related to your sex drive. In actual fact, testosterone affects your level of red blood cells, your muscle and bone mass, and even the way that fat is distributed in a guy’s body. It is not only a male hormone. Females also have testosterone in their bodies, just much less. A dip in testosterone can be caused by a number of issues including, obesity, your age, pituitary gland problems, etc.
Self Hypnosis Audio To Overcome Depression
Self hypnosis can be a great tool to learn how to overcome depression. This powerful audio is 25 minutes long.
Self Hypnosis For Anxiety And Depression
I hope you are now much clearer about the question “Can Hormones Cause Anxiety And Depression?”. As regards self-hypnosis for anxiety and depression, it will probably not cure hormonal depression just by itself but when used in combination with correct medical treatment and the appropriate lifestyle changes, self-hypnosis can make a big difference.
If you’re unsure about hypnosis, have a read of this article – “Is Hypnosis Suitable For Everyone?”
Author: Paul Hunter
Although thousands of people read his blog every month, Paul's path to success was not an easy one. Click here to read his amazing story "From Unwanted Baby And Adopted To A Respected Self Help Blogger". If you want to send Paul a quick message, then visit his contact page here
