Anxiety/depression ?

So, is anxiety some sort of cover up for depression? I tend to feel anxious a lot - I thought it was normal, and how everyone feels, but I'm learning in therapy that it's so NOT normal. Which sucks. So, I took a xanax today - I don't have a prescription (yet?) - a friend gave it to me. And I started to feel REALLY depressed. I don't know if I've ever felt depressed. I'm in therapy to try to learn to feel, actually. Pretty much my only feelings are "anxious" and "fine". I just feel kind of teary and sad. Which makes me wonder....when my anxiety is gone, is that what will be there??

Anxiety and depression seem to go hand in hand for a lot of people. I know I've been Dx'd with and am on meds for both. Learning to get in touch with your feelings can be really hard, so maybe with the anxiety gone you were able to access some old feelings that you've been surpressing for a while. But being sad doesn't mean that you're or will become depressed.

Finally - I can't help but be a mother hen and point out that you should never take other people's medications. You never know how you're going to react. If you think that you need meds to help you deal with your anxiety - then talk to your Dr.
--splitimage

Some of the common symptoms resembling anxiety which are seen in the context of depression include tension, worrying, and irritability. It could also be physical symptoms such as headaches, loss of energy, and fatigue, and it could be behavioral symptoms -- fidgeting, restlessness, sleep problems -- as well as gastrointestinal problems such as diarrhea, abdominal pain, and indigestion.

I don't know that it matters right now, if they are separate or not, if you are experiencing anxiety and depression, treat them both.

I cycle back and forth between anxiety and depression. My T thinks my main issue (my words not hers, I can't remember exactly how she said it) is anxiety and that the high anxiety eventually exhausts me and I become depressed. Sounds like this may be happening to you too.

My T gave me handout with a visual model to explain this. It shows the up and down curve like you'd see on a heart rate monitor. the anxietity is the top part of the curve and is called Hyperarousal. The bottom of the curve is when I dip down into depression/hypoarousal.

In my experience Xanax can easily thow me into depression.

I sometimes think that depression is a way of getting relief from anxiety and vice versa. It seems like they are 'flip sides' of the same coin.

Now my anxiety is so much improved. What's there is not necessarily depression but a peacefulness that had been gone so long it was a little hard to get used to again. It felt more like something missing for a while and sometimes still can feel that way.. and I can actually miss the anxiety that would have me pacing and frantic and unable to sleep.

I hope it's peacefulness that's there for you, too.

Echoes, what helped to relieve your anxiety?

I think part of why I'm feeling so down is just the realization that anxiety really is a huge problem for me. When I started therapy, I had this idea that I would go and just spew out everything that had happened in my past, and that that would somehow magically make me feel better and I could move on. I think I'm finding my issues go quite a bit deeper than I thought. I have every reason to be wired to be anxious thanks to my childhood, but somehow, I never realized how freaking anxious I really am. I'm not sure I'm even explaining this well, but it's really got me down and kind of sucked away all of my hope. I don't know the way out.

earthmama, anxiety and depression seem intertwined for me. I am realizing more and more how anxious I am. I have had major depression but am out of that now. The anxiety remains. I know some anti-depressants are better than others for people who have co-presenting anxiety (e.g. paxil, lexapro), so I guess this is a common thing.

I try to deal with anxiety by taking things off my plate so that I have fewer worries to attend to. That does help somewhat, but it's kind of an avoidant strategy. I guess I'm trying to get at the cause of my anxiety by doing that, which isn't a bad thing. But I think a big part of my problem is that I don't know how to deal with anxiety well. It feels like I will not survive. I need to go through the anxiety and learn to deal with it, rather than always just trying to reduce the cause of anxiety.

For me, I think the depression causes the anxiety. Currently juggling meds. Check with your pdoc. BusPar is a nonaddictive anti-anxiety med.

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Echoes, what helped to relieve your anxiety?

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