Anxiety Symptoms

A lot of people think that depression and anxiety are the same disorder, but in reality, they are two separate disorders that can occur independently or together.  Over 50 million people in the United States suffer from depression, making it a very common mental disorder.  For a long time, depression and anxiety symptoms were often confused as being the same thing.  Depression is the body shutting down and giving up.  On the other hand, anxiety is the body actually looking towards the future and worrying about or anticipating every little thing as being a huge danger.

When depression comorbidly occurs with anxiety symptoms (that is, when they are both present at the same time), both the depression and anxiety are typically more severe than when they occur individually.  The treatment of anxiety symptoms when depression is present is a lot more difficult and takes a lot longer to conquer.  Both disorders together can disrupt the sufferer’s life and work, and increase the likelihood of suicide.  In fact, in a study recently done, 92% of those who attempted suicide were reported to be experiencing both major depression and anxiety symptoms.

Having depression and anxiety symptoms at the same time is pretty common.  About 60 - 70% of those who suffer from depression are also suffering with anxiety symptoms.  Over half of chronic anxiety sufferers are also battling significant symptoms of depression.

When treating a person with depression and anxiety symptoms, the doctor often looks at the family history and the age of the patient.  For example, if someone starts to experience anxiety after the age of 40 for the first time, they will probably also be diagnosed as having depression.  If they get anxiety symptoms for the first time after 50, it’s likely that they have a history of depression, or are currently experiencing depression.  Anxiety can really slow down the treatment of depression, and depression can really slow down the treatment of anxiety.

Those who are suffering from anxiety symptoms relating to obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder and social phobias are more likely to experience depression, because these types of anxiety disorders isolate the sufferers and make interactions with people even more difficult. 

Anxiety symptoms are bad enough as they are, adding depression symptoms to the mix can make a person’s life very difficult to bear.  Those suffering from anxiety symptoms and depression at the same time are not alone.  There are millions of people suffering from both of these disorders in America, and getting the needed help as soon as possible will speed up the recovery.