They definitely go hand in hand. Anxiety is new to me. Never had it at all in all these years of depression. Then five years ago it started coming on and got totally unbearable in the last two and a half years. I have no idea why. Probably has to do with my life circumstances. I had to beg my pdoc for a year to give me something that would work. Finally he gave me Klonopin, low dose, but it has totally knocked out the anxiety. I know all the risks with benzo's but I just could not handle the anxiety and paranoia.

I think anxiety and depression are symptoms of a much deeper underlying cause and that is really what should be treated by all the different ways there are to treat it. It sure can be difficult figuring out what that underlying cause is. I my case I think it is mostly genetic and biological, but environmental causes and triggers play a big role too.

They really try to treat the symptoms of the anxiety and depression itself in a lot of ways. In my case maybe it is all they can do. Even with me and total biology there are other ways to treat it besides just meds. They certainly haven't come up with the magic pill yet to fix it.

So I think going after the underlying causes which are the same for both the anxiety and depression is the best strategy. What you do to do that kind of eludes me because I have done and tried so many things. I guess we have to go with what is currently known to work. But for me damn it none of them seem to work.

I should say however my current new meds are working great. I just have no clue how long it will last.