Depression And Anxiety Can Appear Simultaneously

Depression and anxiety are distinct, and particularly
common, emotional disorders. In fact, depression and
anxiety are the two most common emotional disorder forms.
While depression is unique from anxiety, it is not uncommon
for depression and anxiety to overlap in persons having
emotional disorders.

When depression and anxiety appear together, either
condition can be the cause or the result of the other. A
depressed person, for example, can sometimes develop
agitation or anxiety, perhaps especially as their
depression lingers on. An anxious person can become
withdrawn or begin to feel overwhelmed by their condition,
an outlook that may bring about a depressed state. If there
is a more likely scenario for a lead in between the two
conditions, it may be anxiety leading to depression.

Depression, as its name suggests, is typically marked by a
reduced state of being. Depressed people are often, though
not always, emotionally down and physically listless. The
depressed state is not classically a state of displaced
energy, a description that matches anxiety quite well. The
depressed person who goes from a listless downcast mood to
expressing anxiety-like agitation may actually be
presenting the symptoms of bipolar disorder. Bipolar
disorder is marked by lethargic depression swinging to
agitation, but the agitation in bipolar disorder is mania,
not anxiety. Mania is a form where a person displays
irrational, often bizarre and extremely extroverted
behavior. Anxious people are typically not extroverted in
their behavior and don't outwardly behave in ways that most
people would consider extreme and strange.

People with chronic anxiety are uptight certainly, and this
uptight and upset can become an enormous drain on the
chronically anxious person. After a time of feeling
chronically anxious, a person can become physically and
emotionally run down, and depression may set in additional
to the anxiety already present. Anxious people are also
prone to withdraw, or to use alcohol or drugs to medicate
their anxiety, and both of these behaviors can lead not
only depression but to extreme depression.

As with all human conditions, emotional disorders are not
uniform but do have similarities. An anxious person need
not develop depression, while someone with depression may
go on to develop an anxious state that is not in fact
symptomatic of bipolar disorder. If there is an important
reflection to keep in mind it's that a case of depression
or anxiety does not automatically discount the possibility
of some other emotional dysfunction also being present.
Different emotional disorders can be present at the same
time.

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Zinn Jeremiah is a freelance writer. Find help with
depression or anxiety by visiting
http://www.hubonline.biz/get-better-now.htm or
http://www.hubonline.biz/healthy-mood.htm .