Your treatment may include counseling, medicine or both.

Depression symptoms include:

•  Feeling sad or “empty” most of the time
•  Loss of interest or pleasure in ordinary activities
•  Fatigue or feeling “slowed down”
•  Sudden trouble sleeping or oversleeping
•  Sudden loss of appetite or weight gain
•  Being unable to concentrate, remember or make decisions like you used to
•  Feeling worthless or helpless
•  Feelings of guilt
•  Ongoing thoughts of death or suicide, suicide planning or attempts
• A sudden change in how easily you are annoyed  Crying all the time

  Some useful tips:

   Make the most of rehab; the more you recover, the better you will feel

  Spend time with family and friends

   Maintain your quality of life by staying active and doing things you enjoy

   Seek help soon after you note symptom

Having Extreme Anxiety

Anxiety is an overwhelming sense of worry or fear. It can include increased sweating or heart rate. Among stroke survivors, feelings of anxiety are common. Often, stroke survivors suffer from both depression and anxiety at the same time.

Anxiety can affect rehab progress, daily living, relationships and quality of life. So, be sure to seek help right away.

Anxiety symptoms include:

•   Ongoing worrying, fear, restlessness and irritability that don’t seem to let up
•   Low energy
•   Poor concentration
•   Muscle tension
•   Feeling panicky and out of breath
•   Scary rapid heart beat
•   Shaking
•   Headache
•   Feeling sick to your stomach

  Again, treatment may include counseling, medicine or both.

Uncontrolled Emotions

Do you find yourself laughing or crying at all the wrong times? If so, you may suffer from Pseudobulbar Affect (PBA). Also called emotional incontinence or pathologic lability, PBA is a common medical problem among stroke survivors. It can cause you to laugh at a funeral or cry at a comedy club. It can even make you cry uncontrollably for little or no reason. For this, it is often confused with depression. But, PBA is not depression.

People with PBA are unable to control their emotional expressions the way they used to. When this happens in social settings, they feel embarrassed, frustrated and angry. They also sense that others are uneasy. They may avoid work, public places and family get-togethers. This can lead to feelings of fear, shame and isolation.

There is no treatment approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) for PBA, though antidepressant drugs can help.

These things may help you cope with PBA: