The anxiety and depression link
If you have suffered from depression and anxiety, you may have noticed that one often follows the other, or there is a mix of the two.
For many people anxiety occurs before the depression overtakes. Many people go through the experience of anxiety, which is the unconscious fear associated with feeling the deeper emotions of grief and anger. This is why there is a feeling that ‘something bad is about to happen’ or ‘something is wrong’ associated with anxiety, even though we know rationally that nothing ‘bad’ is around the corner and there is nothing actually wrong. If an anxiety sufferer never goes into the grief or anger that is causing the anxiety, they may simply stay ‘stuck’ in the anxiety permanently.
After the depression runs its course – and through it, part of the grief and anger is processed – another bout of anxiety may occur before the next layer of emotions comes to the surface, before the next phase of depression comes on.
Sometimes the reverse of this occurs. When someone who did not ‘get the message’ to allow themselves to connect with the significant emotions their depression was trying to get them in touch with, and through sheer willpower managed to squash down their depression and all of the emotions that went to make up the depression, they will later suffer from anxiety as these emotions try to surface again.
This cycle explains manic depression or the extreme form of this, bipolar. These two ‘versions’ of depression exist due to the most common way we avoid our deeper painful emotions . . . by trying to outrun them through too much activity and becoming a “do-aholic” – hence the manic/up phase of the bipolar depression sufferer.
Read about depression treatment
For treatment of manic and bipolar depression in Sydney call 1300 500 881
Sydney NSW
