Anxiety and Depression: 2 Sides of the Same Coin?

Mental health specialists see anxiety and depression as two distinct disorders, but often times in the real world, there are many who suffer from both. Most mood disorders actually manifest as a combination of both anxiety and depression, and surveys have shown that 60-70% of people with depression also suffer from anxiety. On the flip side, half of those with chronic anxiety also have clinically significant symptoms of depression.  When the two conditions coexist it is called co-morbidity, and having this carries some serious repercussions for ones health, making the disorder more chronic, and substantially raising suicide risk.

How do I know if I have an anxiety disorder?

It is important to understand that there is a normal amount of anxiety that is characteristic of most people, and anxiety in small amounts actually helps with learning and general performance. However when you experience anxiety in excess, it starts to work against us, reducing attention and performance, and can be aggravated by the unique blend of emotions such as anger, shame, guilt or sadness, that make up individual anxiety.

Anxiety and feelings of stress are a response to pressure, and the more persistent the pressure, the worse the anxiety.  Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is possibly the most common anxiety disorder, affecting 5-6% of the population and characterized by chronic worry about all sorts of life problems and circumstances and differs from normal worry through the intensity, frequency and perceived uncontrollability of the worry thoughts.

Am I depressed?

Depression can affect anyone, but, as can be seen with anxiety disorders, there do seem to be certain 'risk factors' that make the problem more likely such as childhood abuse, severe trauma, having a grandparent or parent with the problem, or losing a parent at a very young age.

Like anxiety, the term depression is used to cover a very wide range of problems, from short periods of low mood to a lifetime of inability to function. The majority of cases that involve low mood do not require medical intervention but at any one time, between 5% and 10% of the population are suffering from depression at a level that needs support, and it is likely that 20% will have a depressive episode of some kind during our lifetime.

Interestingly, the genetics of both disorders are probably two sides of the same coin, as the psychological and biological nature of each vulnerability are the same. However, some people with such vulnerability react with anxiety to life stressors and some in addition, go beyond that to become depressed, shutting down.  At the root of the double disorder is some shared brain mechanism gone awry, such as an over-reactivity of the stress response system, which sends emotional centers of the brain into overdrive.

One potential treatment which has been used to treat both conditions is Zoloft or sertraline, which is as effective for depression as older tricyclic antidepressants, but with fewer side effects.  Though sertraline shares common side effects and contraindications of other SSRIs, it does not cause weight gain, and its cognitive effects are mild.  In addition, sertraline has safely and effectively treated millions of people with depression and certain anxiety conditions for over 15 years so it’s a product you can trust.