Why do some people never get depressed? 30 January 2012Last updated at 12:23 By Geoff Watts BBC World Service Confronted with some of life's upsetting experiences - marriage breakdown, unemployment, bereavement, failure of any kind - many people become depressed. But others don't. Why is this? A person who goes through experiences like that and does not get depressed has a measure of what in the psychiatric trade is known as "resilience". According to Manchester University psychologist Dr Rebecca Elliott, we are all situated somewhere on a sliding scale.
"At one end you have people who are very vulnerable. "At the other end, you have people who life has dealt a quite appalling hand with all sorts of stressful experiences, and yet they remain positive and optimistic. " Continue reading the main story A measure of resilience Aeron, a subject in the Manchester study: I used to have a business that we ended up having to close. I'm generally a happy person. I think that if there's a problem there's always a remedy.
Emotional memory. Are There Any Genetic Factors That May Enhance Or Reduce Our Response To Stress? Question: Are there any genetic factors that may enhance or reduce our response to stress? Answer: Of course genes are playing a very important role in our sensitivity or resistance to stress. There have been some very good examples in recent research showing that people who have a certain genotype on a serotonin-related gene -- gene that regulates the neurotransmitter serotonin in our brains -- people who have a certain variant of that gene are much more likely to become depressed if they experience stressful life events over a period of years.
Another serotonin-related gene has been found to identify men who, if they've been abused when they were children, are much more likely to be violent offenders when they grow up. So those are fairly extreme examples of how our genes make us more susceptible to the bad effects of stress on both our mental health and behavior -- even ranging up to criminal behavior. There are other genes that affect how our personality develops. Health | Evidence of 'risk-taking' brain. Scientists say they have found physical evidence of brain differences which may drive "thrill-seekers" to act impulsively or dangerously. A small study from Vanderbilt University in the US found the biggest "risk-takers" processed a brain "reward" chemical dopamine differently. Scans spotted fewer "receptors" for the chemical on the cells which make it. The Journal of Neuroscience study could help explain why some are vulnerable to drug abuse and other addictions.
Animal experiments have already shown that, like humans, some respond differently to novel environments - and those who explore them are more likely to self-administer cocaine when given the chance. This behaviour is believed to be bound up in the activity of dopamine, a brain hormone which, among other things, can produce a sense of enjoyment connected with certain activities. Dopamine-producing cells have an inbuilt self-regulating system which is supposed to stop them making too much of the hormone. Free-spenders. Zkpq8.pdf (application/pdf Object) Do We Know Why Some People Feel 'Less Stressed' Than Others Or Just Cope Better With Stress? Question: Do we know why some people feel 'less stressed' than others or just cope better with stress? Answer: Some people seem to be resistant to stress, whereas others are much more sensitive to stress. At one level, we can look at this at the level of personality. Some of us have a personality which doesn't experience negative emotions like anxiety, fear, anger, sadness as much as others when bad things are happening.
Others of us have a personality which means that we're very sensitive to experience those emotions when bad things are happening. Other people have had life experiences which tend to make them more resistant to stress. Next: Are There Any Genetic Factors That May Enhance Or Reduce Our Response To Stress? Previous: Are Certain Kinds Of People More Likely To Deal With Stress Better Than Others? Search Results for stress.