Anxiety and Depression - Tips on Dealing with Both

Anxiety and depression can go together like a hand in a glove. Often, one leads to the other. It's a double-whammy but you can deal with it and we'll look at ways to do just that.

If you feel anxious and depressed at times, you’re not alone. Most people feel anxious or depressed at times…this is a part of life. For example...

Losing a loved one
Being fired from a job
Having a mid-life crisis (link opens a new window)
Going through a divorce
Etc.

…can lead to sad, lonely, scared, anxious, or depressed feelings. These feelings of despair are normal reactions to the down times we feel in life.

Unfortunately, some people experience these negative feelings daily or nearly every day for no apparent reason. This makes it difficult for them to carry on with normal, everyday functioning. As it turns out, these folks may have an anxiety disorder, depression, or both.

Please understand that anxiety and depression aren’t the same thing. They are actually different, but people with depressive symptoms often find they are similar to the symptoms of an anxiety disorder. These depressive symptoms can include:

Nervousness
Irritability
Problems sleeping
Poor concentration
Feelings of despair
Anhedonia (an inability to experience pleasure)

Anxiety and depression each have their own causes and their own emotional and behavioral symptoms. Many people who develop depression have a history of anxiety disorder earlier in their lives. There really isn’t any evidence that one causes the other, but there is very good evidence that many people have both disorders.

Nearly half of the people who are diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Both of these disorders are treatable, both separately and together.

What is Depression?

A mood disorder in which someone feels discouraged, sad, hopeless, unmotivated, or uninterested in life.
When such feelings of despair last for less than two weeks, it may just be “the blues.”
When these feelings last longer than two weeks and when they get in the way of daily activities like taking care of the family, spending time with friends, or going to work and/or school, it’s likely to be depression.
Depression is very treatable.
Depression affects the way people think, feel, behave, and function.

The Three Main Types of Depressive Disorder

There are basically three main types of depressive disorder:

Major depressive disorder
Dysthymia
Bipolar disorder

If you have an anxiety disorder, you can also experience any one of the above three depressive disorders at the same time you're dealing with your anxiety disorder.

Family problems, problems at work, financial problems, relationship problems, etc., can cause anxiety and depression.

It is normal – and human – to feel anxiety over financial problems, stress over problems at work, sadness about family problems, and depression over relationship problems…but, these feelings can get to the point where they become problems in living your life.

When these types of feelings are very intense, impair everyday functioning, and affect your quality of life, they become pretty serious problems.

And of course, in addition to anxiety and depression, there may be something else going on...bipolar disorder. This is a condition that involves shifts in a person’s mood from severe depression to extreme mania.

If you’ve been diagnosed with or think you have depression, you may wonder what caused it.

As best we know, there is no one single cause of depression. Depression usually results from a number of things.

We do know that whatever causes depression, it is not just a state of mind. Depression is related to physical changes in your brain. It may be connected to an imbalance of chemicals...called neurotransmitters...that carry signals to your brain and nerves.

Treatment for Anxiety and Depression

Of course, if you are suffering from anxiety and depression, you’ll want to know how it’s treated.

When you visit the doctor, she will design a treatment plan for you. In addition to any other treatment plan, the doctor will usually recommend that you get some exercise because it lessens the symptoms of this mood disorder.

You may also be sent to a mental health practitioner to undergo psychotherapy, or counseling. This is helpful because psychotherapy’s goal is to help you learn to think differently about those things that you perceive are bothering you.

You may also be given antidepressants to take which will make you feel better and less depressed. The goal of this medication is to help you think more clearly and rationally so that you will have the energy and strength to work on the things in your life that may be causing your depression.

The key to any treatment plan is sticking to it and following the advice of your doctor and mental health practitioner. If you think you're not making any progress, talk to your doctor and mental health practitioner so that they can work with you to find the treatment plan that works best for you.