Many people may have some form of anxiety or depression. However, many people may not realize that it is possible to experience depression and anxiety together. To help you learn more about the conditions, here are some facts you ought to know.
What Is Anxiety?
Anxiety is a feeling of anxiousness, nervousness, or fear, and a person who has an anxiety disorder would have extreme symptoms for 6 months or longer. The symptoms can often begin at childhood or adolescence and usually continue into adulthood.
There are many different kinds of anxiety disorders. This includes generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, etc. And it is important to know that you can have more than one kind of anxiety disorder. They can overlap.
Other than fear and anxiousness, symptoms of anxiety include rapid breathing, sweating, and trembling, among others. It can also make it hard for a person to focus on things that are not related to what they are worried about; they may feel restless or tired, which can lead to insomnia.
What Is Depression?
Depression is a mental health condition that is caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. It often causes a person to feel a huge amount of despair, isolation, and sadness. It would be important to note that depression is not the same as being sad or lonely because of difficult life experiences such as a breakup or a loss of a loved one.
Like anxiety, depression can disrupt a person’s life. It can affect the way a person functions, feels and thinks. Additionally, there are many different kinds of depression, such as major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder, etc.
A person may also experience a variety of symptoms if they are depressed. Most common symptoms of depression include restlessness, agitation, lower sex drive, oversleeping or insomnia, thoughts of suicide or death, tiredness, etc.
How Can You Tell the Difference Between Anxiety and Depression?
It can often be difficult for many people to spot the difference between depression and anxiety because the symptoms can be similar. While most people think the main difference may be stress and sadness, the symptoms can still overlap, and a person can have both conditions.
For a simple marker, anxiety is usually defined by worry about the long-term or immediate future. Uncontrollable thoughts that something would go wrong may also disrupt a person’s life, even if nothing is wrong.
For depression, a simple mental marker would be thoughts of thinking that the future is hopeless, worthlessness, etc. People with depression may also assume that things will not get better, for the world, themselves, or their relationships.
Additionally, people with depression no longer take delight to things and activities they previously enjoy doing. They also feel hopeless or down most of the day, almost every day.
Overlap of Depression and Anxiety
While there are differences between the two conditions, a person can have both at the same time. Around 45% of people that have one mental health condition also have one or more other conditions. So, many people who get diagnosed with anxiety can often be diagnosed with depression, and vice versa.
Notably, anxiety can be a symptom of major depression. Moreover, anxiety disorder can trigger bouts of depression.
When a person has both conditions, they may have mixed feelings. They may have brief periods of feeling anxious. Then the next they may feel very down on their luck. They may worry about many things yet they’ll feel as though they are unable to do anything about it.
If you get diagnosed with both conditions, there will be overlapping of symptoms. For example, you may have impaired sleep; you might oversleep on some days, and on some days you may not be able to sleep at all. Additionally, irritability is a common symptom that people with both conditions may have.
What Happens if You Ignore It?
There are some side effects when you ignore either or both conditions. For instance, if you ignore your symptoms of anxiety, you can develop depression. Untreated depression can also lead to anxiety.
For anxiety and depression, both conditions can lead to suicidal behavior and thoughts along with substance abuse. Interestingly, both conditions can weaken the immune system which could make a person more prone to infections. And these conditions can make a person feel fatigued or tired.
