Anxiety preventing depression?

[kathrynlovely]

Hello all,

I've posted on here before about my being in a constant state of anxiety, all the time and it having begun to affect my sleep and eating etc. And it very much affects how I interact with people.

I'm still a bit nervous about going to the doctors about all this but I did manage to get myself along to an initial interview with a counselling service last week. This went very well and I am now on the waiting list for the new year to recieve some counselling about these issues.

Anyway, one thing that we discussed at quite some length was that I may be generating and encouraging (subconsciously) my anxiety as a way of preventing myself from falling into a depression. I have a history of some depressive episodes and I thought it was quite an interesting way to look at it, and one that I'd never really thought of before, but seems quite legitimate as the two can be linked.

I was just wondering if anyone else has/ has had experience of this and whether you've found ways to overcome both anxiety and depression or just general advice about the whole thing.

Thanks, K.

 

[DillJenkins]

I have always had kinda a low level constant depression called Dysthymia. I was on a drug called mirtazapine that helped with this a lot but it made me gain weight.

I have some pretty hardcore anxiety that has left me housebound in the past and causes me to have IBS as well. The time when I was housebound was probably the lowest point of depression I have had.

I would say that in my case, anxiety caused the depression. I started to get sad because I couldnt do everyday things cause of anxiety. It sort of spiraled from there.

If your in a constant anxiety state you should have your thyroid checked. Most people dont have constant anxiety even if they have an anxiety disorder.

Like housebound people generally feel safe in their house/room, people with SA generally feel non anxious in situations when there is no chance of interacting with a human, etc.....

 

[DarkSeeker]

I think I've been suffering from depression since age 7 (probably even before that), but I rarely felt the reality of it until I left home at age 19. I was constantly feeling anxious about anything around me, and my one solution of all time was thinking about tv and video games, but overnight, watching tv and playing video games stop feeling enjoyable. Initiating anything had almost been impossible without the Fatman kicking me in the ass and throwing insults at me, and he wasn't there anymore. My anxiety of a lifetime was gone.

I guess that anxiety does prevent depression, but quite frankly that's a very poor and underdeveloped coping mechanism.

What you really ought to do is to consciously take that source of anxiety and tear to shreds, and make the other parts of your brain that are still trying to protect you understand that you're not a kid anymore and that you got complete control over your life.