Anxiety and Depression: Which one do I have?

[Karmaman]

The anxiety or social anxiety mostly brings on my depression I think.

 

[Karmaman]

Yes. It's a hard one to shake off. It got a grip of me in my early twenties. I didn't know what it was at the time. I just went through the merry-go-round of Antidepressants which didn't help. I drank a lot in social situations which made things worse the day after. I went through a cycle of heavy drinking to curb it until a horrible time after a bad binge.

 

[Troubledbubble]

More than likely you could suffer from both.

 

[woodyG]

David Carbonell, a psychologist who does a lot of work around anxiety has published a useful page on his website which helps one understand the difference between anxiety and depression. Take a read .... you may find it useful.

Anxiety and Depression: Telling Them Apart

Depends on what you want to believe is the truth. 10 docs might give you 10 differing opinions. What do you think?

 

[Jray1220]

I have been told i habe seperation anxiety. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what might help.

 

[Marthhugo]

I believe my anxiety is causing me to become depressed, i feel there is no hope for me getting better, my mind is exhausted and i feel drained from constantly being anxious in my everyday life. Being axious has caused me to not be able to make friends very easily this makes me feel unwanted lonely and definitely depressed. They definitely can go hand in hand its truely torture desperately wanting to be normal and putting on the show on the outside of being ok just enough so people dont worry about you, but youre slowly breaking on the inside

 

[Inie]

I have bad anxiety which causes me to be depressed.

 

[StillDepressed]

I had severe depression from Pre-teen that caused me to withdraw from others.
This got worse until I was removed from university into my parents care by Doctors who advised I was unable to care for myself.
What followed was A year of being so depressed I never left the house.
By mid 20s I was coping with my depression, accepted it and felt like I was winning the fight until 1 December I walked into a shop to buy a present and the noise, the people suddenly it was Anxiety I had. Panic attacks became more frequent incurring some psychosis along the way. My Head was still battling me. I eventually gave up my job because of anxiety.
Ever since it has been an endless cycle of various levels of depression and anxiety they are just the tools my mind can use against me.
(Long Term) Anxiety and Depression are both caused by the same chemical imbalance in the brain or as I say they are the same beast

 

[stevie_sloth]

I have both anxiety (GAD) and chronic major depression, and I didn't realise which caused the other until last year. I must be a little dumb, as now it seems SO OBVIOUS! lol

My long term anxiety since age 4 eventually wore me down and resulted in depression.

What made me wonder was in early 2017 when I first started taking Xanax and it was such a HUGE relief for my constant fear / anxiety AND it also seemed to "magically" bring BACK my motivation, interest and desire for things that the depression had mostly taken away. At the time, I just thought Xanax must have some very specific chemical structure that helped both of my issues.

What confirmed it beyond any doubt was in mid 2020 when I tried Effexor. The starting dose made me VERY emotionally blunted but also, every 2-3 days, I'd feel SO horribly anxious I just didn't want to do anything. I felt trapped in my own fearful head. I'd just lie on the couch, feeling SO bored, dull and...yep. Depressed! I kept asking myself "Why am I so stressed!?" I couldn't answer my own question.

I assumed it was side effects from the Effexor and waited it out. Thankfully, when I increased to the standard dose, the heightened anxiety reduced back to its normal already high level. The emotional blunting and lack of motivation / apathy worsened though, so ultimately after several months I went off it.

So that's when I realised that my anxiety was the thing making me depressed, by holding me down and not letting me feel safe enough to even try to enjoy things, or want to do things at all.

I think this is why no antidepressants have helped me much. Because they're not targeting the actual source problem.

 

[Anxietyhell]

I have struggled for many years with bouts of anxiety /depression and experienced psychotic episodes... But in the days before all these issues were really recognized /talked about..So just got on with it, and tried to pretend all was OK - otherwise I was made to feel abnormal... I had a physical/painful condition that contributed to my anx /dep alongside other things.... I guess now we at least share /talk about it on forums such as this, and know we are not the only ones.. Although unfortunately it doesn't make it any easier
..