Most people that have an anxiety disorder spend lots of time preoccupied with anxiety (fear) symptoms like palpitations, chest pain, malaise, or any number of horrible feelings.  However, as an anxiety sufferer winds their way through the maze of constant worry and panic, depression could be sneaking up on them or in many cases already present.

Anxiety disorders over the long haul rarely appear by themselves.  The comorbidity rate for anxiety disorders, that is anxiety add-ons like depression and obsession, is high.  It’s a screwed up reality that has to be anticipated and dealt with.  This is because anxiety and depression taken together can be dangerous.

It may start out with fatigue, constant boredom, resentment, apathy, anger, and the general sense that everything sucks, then all of sudden things get weird.  Weird in the sense that you may start thinking about things that you have never thought about before like suicide, hurting others, or something less sinister like just not wanting to get out of bed in the morning.

Developing depression while anxious for long periods of time is normal and to be expected in some way.  How can anyone be this anxious and just be alright with it?  Very few.  I entitled this post “Beware of depression” because it is in fact a warning.

I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression for years.  But, I think, my recognition of what I had helped me to help myself.  And although my coping skills were inadequate for a long time I had to frequently use them and I ended up getting a lot of practice at coping and not being so frightened and impressed by my anxious thoughts.

This is an extremely important subject because I think many anxiety sufferers either can’t tell the difference or simply don’t realize that they could be depressed.  In this case G.I. Joe got it right, knowing is half the battle.  I’m planning a few more post on depression this week because I want people to know how to tell the difference between anxiety and depression, and most importantly how to cope.

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