HOW ARE DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY RELATED?

It is common for depression and anxiety to co-occur. People often ask which comes first, the anxiety or the depression. There is no clear answer to this question. These emotional difficulties are bidirectional. For many people, the more depressed they feel, the more anxious they get; the more anxious they get, the more depressed they feel; and it becomes a vicious cycle. Here are some ways that anxiety can contribute to depression:

Through self-talk. If a woman is suffering from panic attacks and telling herself “I'm weak…I should be able to get over this…There is something wrong with me,” that kind of talk is going to lower her mood. Now, instead of just struggling with the panic attacks, she is also depressed.

Through avoidance of normal daily activities. The more people avoid their family or friends, their jobs, and tasks they enjoy, the less fulfillment they experience. A man who stays home from work, for example, can feel a temporary sense of safety. The problem is that he is stuck in his house all day without the chance to have rewarding interactions with coworkers and opportunities to feel like he is accomplishing something. So, at the end of the day he may have succeeded in not having a panic attack by staying at home, but he now may be telling himself “I'm useless, I did nothing all day, I can't even manage my job anymore.” The avoidance, and then the thoughts about it, can lead to depression.

Depression can also increase anxiety. It causes people to overestimate the risk of doing anything outside their home and to underestimate the benefits. When struggling with depression, individuals commonly think, “I can't do what I need to do, it's no use, why bother? There's no point, I don't really care about those things anyway.” If you are feeling really depressed, isolating and withdrawing seem like the best things to do. For example, after a poor night's sleep, you might decide to stay home from work so you don't have to get out of bed. At the time, that decision feels good. Later in the day, however, you might start thinking “Oh no…I've missed work again…That's three days now…I'm so behind I'll never catch up…What if I get fired?” Having not performed the required activities can actually lead people to become really scared about what the consequences are going to be, which can increase the likelihood of a problem with anxiety.

Source: The Anxiety Answer Book by: Laurie A. Helgoe, PhD, Laura R. Wilhelm, PhD, Martin J. Kommor, MD