Depression and Anxiety: Challenges and How to Deal with Anxiety & Depression

Anxiety and depression are two common mental health conditions that are known to occur together. They can cause major and/or minor changes in your life and relationships as well as the general well-being of the body. Because of the commonalities, they may be intersectional and go hand-in-hand in terms of symptoms and treatment although that isn’t always the case. 

What’s the difference between Anxiety and Depression?

Anxiety is typically characterized by uncontrollable feelings of fear, angst, and/or panic. Individuals with anxiety often feel inexplicably on edge and worried and experience symptoms like nausea, sweating and trembling. A survey conducted by WHO reported 4% of the world’s population experienced anxiety disorder, making an estimated population of 330 million people affected.

Depression is defined by persistent feelings of gloom or despair with individuals feeling continual sadness and experiencing symptoms like changes in appetite and sleep patterns, and withdrawal from their social lives. 

According to WHO, 5% of the world’s population comprising of 280 million adults reported to have experienced depression.

Nearly 50% of people experiencing depression also experience feelings of anxiety.

What Are the Common Symptoms that Overlap with Depression and Anxiety?

Depression and anxiety both have common overlapping symptoms. Let’s have a look at a few: 

1. Irritability
2. Problems sleeping
3. Difficulty in concentrating
4. Distress
5. Trouble staying on task
6. Fatigue
7. Mood swings
8. Loss of appetite
9. Low energy
10. Physical symptoms like headaches, stomach aches and muscle tension

If Your Answer is "Yes" to Most of These Questions, Then It's Time to Seek Professional Help

Here’s a quick and feasible self assessment that can help identify the need for professional intervention. If your answer is ‘yes’ to all or most of these questions, then its time to consult a mental health professional. 

1. Have you been feeling persistently sad, empty, or hopeless?
2. Do you frequently feel overwhelmed by worry or sadness?
3. Have you lost interest in activities you once enjoyed?
4. Are you experiencing changes in sleep patterns, either insomnia or oversleeping?
5. Have you had thoughts of self-harm or suicide?
6. Have you experienced significant changes in your appetite or weight?
7. Are you experiencing difficulty concentrating, making decisions, or remembering things?

If your answer is ‘yes’ to all or most of these questions, then its time to consult a mental health professional since they can assist with a formal diagnosis and appropriate treatment. 

We've covered: Depression self-Assessment Questions - Ask before you decide “I’m Depressed”

What Are the Most Challenging Parts of Dealing with Depression and Anxiety?

Living with depression and anxiety can be incredibly challenging. Let’s have a look at some of the common challenges:

1. Overwhelming emotions: The process of dealing with elevated levels of sadness, fear, and anxiety can feel quite draining. It can feel difficult to keep up with regular routines while juggling overbearing emotions.
2. Social isolation: Depression and anxiety can lead to withdrawal from social interactions, and activities once found to be enjoyable. This isolation from friends and family can further exacerbate the symptoms. 
3. Impaired functioning: Reduced ability to concentrate or make decisions, to perform daily tasks or work. This shows in terms of results in personal and professional productivity. 
4. Stigma: People are afraid of being discriminated against or judged, which makes them avoid seeking help.
5. Impact on daily life: Practical activities, occupations, and interaction with people can become strained and challenging to navigate.

Getting a Diagnosis for Both Anxiety and Depression

For a formal diagnosis, a healthcare professional will typically conduct a thorough evaluation, which may include but isn’t limited to:

1. Medical history: Assessing any past medical conditions or mental health concerns.
2. Symptom assessment: This would involve explaining the details of your symptoms including the time-frame and how it affects your usual life activities.
3. Physical exam: Among them may be blood tests to check electrolytes, Various organ functions including liver, thyroid and kidneys. Blood tests can also be important if your treatment involves presciption based drugs.
4. Psychological evaluation: Employing basic questionnaires or structured interviews to evaluate one’s psychological state.

Whether you're seeking breakthrough psychiatric solutions or simply looking for guidance on managing your symptoms, asking the right questions can make all the difference. Click here for some interesting questions for reference.

How to Deal with Anxiety and Depression?

Understanding and Managing Your Emotions

1. Validating Your Feelings: Emotional Responsiveness, Acceptance and Understanding

Emotional validation is all about acknowledging and accepting one’s emotional experience. It is important to learn to accept your feelings if you suffer from anxiety or depression. This is a part of the process. Accept your feelings because your emotions are real and it is normal to feel the way that you are feeling. 

Hearing things like, ‘You’re making a big deal out of this’ or ‘You’re getting upset over such a silly thing’ is invalidating and belittling. Compassion and mindfulness help with acknowledging emotions without labelling them as good or bad.

2. Mindfulness and Grounding: Staying Present to Manage Overwhelm

Mindfulness and grounding techniques can help you stay present and manage overwhelming emotions. Practices like deep breathing, meditation, and grounding exercises (e.g., focusing on your senses) can reduce anxiety and improve emotional regulation.

1. Boxed breathing technique involves breathing in for 4 seconds, holding your breath for 4 seconds, breathing out for 4 seconds, holding your breath again for 4 seconds and so on till you feel centred.
2. Performing stretches while focusing on deep breathing, allows you to divert your attention onto physical sensations. 
3. Practising “5, 4, 3, 2, 1 exercise,” — where you identify 5 objects you can see, 4 different sounds, 3 textures, 2 smells, and 1 taste - helps with alleviating moments of panic and feeling grounded.

3. Building a Strong Foundation for Well-being

A. Establishing a Consistent Routine: Creating Structure and Predictability

Establishing a daily routine can offer a measure of comfort in an otherwise chaotic experience of anxiety and/or depression. Some structure to the day can help navigate that chaos. 

A simple step can be to start by identifying what areas of your life can accommodate a routine, and then build some structure around it. Implement a routine time for waking up, eating, working, as well as resting and relaxing in order to have an orderly schedule. A sense of stability can be comforting in times when you are overwhelmed. 

• Create a routine that’s not too overbearing - these are meant to make you feel less stressed. 
• Make sure to add breaks since they are known to boost productivity and reduce the risk of burnout. 

B. Nourishing Your Body: The Importance of Sleep and Nutrition

Daily sleeping and adequate and healthy eating are essential for mental wellbeing. Adults should have between 7 to 9 hours of sleep in a day while teenagers aged 14-17 require 8 to 10 hours every day. On the nutrition front, a healthy diet is known to alleviate and avoid a number of health concerns, like heart conditions, diabetes and stroke. Accommodate a diet containing fruits, vegetables, lean foods, proteins and whole grain foods. Limit caffeine and sugar intake because they are known to worsen the condition further.

• Establish a routine wherein you aren’t eating too late since that can often result in unhealthy weight gain, digestive issues and disruptions in sleep
• Limit caffeine, refined sugars and processed foods in your diet since the ingredients are known to worsen mental and physical symptoms. 

C. Moving Your Body: The Benefits of Physical Activity

Daily physical activity helps enhance mood and decrease anxiety levels. It helps with maintaining a healthy weight, promotes mind-body balance and boosts immunity. It is recommended to have at least 150 minutes per week or 30 minutes of moderate exercising on most of the days of the week. Specific exercises that may be helpful include walking, yoga, and dancing.

Regular exercise provides a number of benefits: 

• Promotes better sleep
• Regulates the mood
• Boosts immunity
• Combats diseases especially cardiovascular diseases
• Helps promote bone health
• Enhances brain functions like memory, focus and information processing

4. Seeking Support and Connection

A. Building a Supportive Network: Reaching Out to Loved Ones

Surround yourself with loved ones who offer understanding and encouragement. Talk to trusted friends and family members about what you are going through. It can be comforting and encouraging to know that they are there for you and vice versa.

1. Be vulnerable: It can be difficult to open up about the emotions you are experiencing. Establish a circle that you can trust and with whom you can be honest about your feelings. Remember, people in your life care and want to help. 
2. Understand what kind of help you need, and who can best provide that support.
3. Invest time and effort into nurturing the relationships you have with your family and friends.
4. Ask for help: Don’t be afraid to be the one to reach out even if you have to be the one to initiate it. 
5. Practise active listening and be mindful of people’s boundaries. It is important to respect their need for space. 

B. Effective Communication: Sharing Your Feelings Openly

Sharing your feelings with trusted individuals can help alleviate emotional burden. Open and honest communication about your feelings can strengthen relationships and provide emotional relief. Be clear and direct about what you’re experiencing and what you need from others.

1. Understand your emotional needs and feelings and how they affect your life.
2. Describe how you feel clearly, so the person you are talking to is able to understand to the best of their capacity. 
3. Avoid judging yourself or others when it comes to emotional experiences. We all struggle with one thing or another, and it’s a sign of strength to be able to be vulnerable. 
4. Look for empathy when you are disclosing how you feel, in yourself and others.

C. Professional Guidance: When to Seek Therapy or Counseling

Navigating emotional challenges can be hard for anyone. Psychotherapy or counseling can help gain insight and learn how to deal with anxiety or depression. If the symptoms are severe, persistent or interfering with daily life, it is advisable to consult a health care practitioner. 

If you or a loved one is experiencing any of the following, seek or recommend seeking therapy or counselling:

• Compulsive behaviours
• Sleep irregularities
• Substance abuse
• Intrusive thoughts
• Eating irregularities
• Emotional Overwhelm
• Self-harm tendencies
• Low mood for no apparent reason 
• Irritability
• Difficulty managing tasks 
• Feeling hopeless and helpless 
• Stuck in unhelpful patterns of behaviour or emotional connection 
• Interpersonal conflict

5. Self-Care and Relaxation Techniques

A. Relaxation Techniques: Finding Calm Amidst Chaos

Find ways of practicing relaxation exercises in your everyday life to reduce the levels of stress and anxiety. There are many easy to learn techniques such as deep breathing, relaxation, progressive muscle relaxation, and mental imagery, which can help you establish calm when there is confusion.

1. Deep breathing exercises can help alleviate feelings of stress and anxiety. 
2. Progressive muscle relaxation involves tensing and relaxing individual muscle groups periodically. This helps stimulate the nervous system, thereby calming the fight-or-flight response. 
3. Guided imagery or visualisation involves painting a picture of a peaceful setting in your mind. This helps navigate stressful situations by grounding you, kind of like a safe space for you to enter when you feel threatened. 
4. Simple activities like reading a book, or journaling can be stimulating to the mind and relaxing at the same time. 

B. Setting Boundaries: Protecting Your Time and Energy

Setting boundaries is self-care of sorts. It would help if you learned how to say no effectively in order to be able to guard your time and energy. By saying no to activities that don’t necessarily serve you, you create space for those that are nourishing to your mind and well being. If you aren’t feeling up to it, it’s okay to turn down invites and tasks! This may also help in avoiding burnout or stresses.

1. Make yourself a priority. Take care of yourself like you would a loved one.
2. Establish boundaries and make it clear what you are and what you aren’t okay with. Make rules for your own time and space and communicate them effectively. 
3. Please yourself before pleasing others. Your loved ones will come to respect your time and energy. 
4. Make time for hobbies and passions that do well for your mental health.

Healthy relationships and connections are essential for our mental well-being. Boundaries play a crucial role in building these relationships, as they ensure mutual respect and understanding. By setting boundaries, we create a space where relationships can flourish, providing support and positivity, rather than becoming sources of stress and exhaustion.

Can Anxiety and Depression Be Treated Together?

Yes, anxiety and depression can be treated together since the causes and symptoms often overlap. In fact, addressing both conditions simultaneously can be more effective than treating them separately. Integrated treatment approaches, including therapy, medication, and lifestyle changes, can help manage both conditions and improve overall mental health.

6. Treatment for Both Anxiety and Depression

A. Therapy

Therapy is a cornerstone of treatment for both anxiety and depression. It can provide you with established means to cope with emotional complexities

• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): This therapy focuses on identifying and changing negative thought patterns and behaviours. It’s a structured type of talk therapy that can also help with concerns like coping with grief and insomnia. 

It works based on several principles. Some of them include the notion that psychological issues are rooted in problematic core beliefs including your perception of yourself and your surroundings. 

In Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy CBT, one works on introducing healthier ways of coping. CBT helps view your thoughts and feelings through a closer lens and understand how your thoughts affect your actions. It can be used independently and alongside other therapies.

• Interpersonal Therapy (IPT): IPT is based on common principles of psychotherapy wherein a therapist engages with you, helps you feel understood and arouses affect and success experiences. It’s a diagnosis-targeted, time-limited, present-focused treatment that encourages to regain control of mood and functioning. IPT makes a practical link between your mood and disturbing life events and helps introduce positive interpersonal behaviour. This therapy also helps improve relationships and communication skills.
• Mindfulness-Based Therapies: These therapies emphasize present-moment awareness and acceptance. Two of the more commonly employed treatments are mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). 

MBSR is a meditation-based therapy applied for a number of concerns like depression and anxiety as well as chronic pain and immune disorders. Research indicates that MBSR improves the condition of patients suffering from chronic illnesses and helps them cope with a wide variety of clinical problems.

MBCT is based on principles of cognitive therapy employing meditation techniques to allow users to closely pay attention to their thoughts and emotional experiences without any judgement. It provides you with the means to control the body’s automatic response to stresses linked to negativity.  MBCT educates users to become aware of their thoughts and emotions and avoid getting caught up in a loop of negativity. 

Considering Online Therapy for Treating Both Depression and Anxiety?

The use of technology in delivering therapy services has been embraced widely when it comes to treating depression and anxiety. It affords comfort and convenience as it enables you to consult with a therapist from the comfort of your own space. It helps to address the problem by offering an opportunity to find, contact, and obtain individualized professional assistance from therapists. Studies have indicated that the population can benefit from online therapy as much as in person therapy.

B. Medication

Medication can help treat anxiety and depression. Sometimes, the use of certain drugs might be prescribed alongside therapy. Prescribed drugs, such as antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications, may assist in easing symptoms and enhancing functioning. Select SSRIs and SNRIs are used for the treatment by psychiatrists. It is highly recommended that you consult your healthcare provider to decide on the most suitable medication and which dosage is most appropriate for you.

C. Other Approaches

In addition to therapy and medication, several other approaches can help manage anxiety and depression:

• Lifestyle changes: This involves doing routines such as exercises, taking balanced meals and ensuring one gets enough sleep.
• Complementary therapies: Yoga, acupuncture and massage are examples of activities that can have positive impacts on one’s wellbeing. And there are other methods to treat mental health issues using different therapies.. 
• Support groups: Attending support groups can also be helpful in giving and receiving support from like-minded individuals.

Conclusion

Coping with anxiety and depression can be incredibly challenging, but it's important to remember that help is available. By understanding and managing your emotions, building a strong foundation for well-being, seeking support, and exploring various treatment options, you can take significant steps towards managing both conditions. You are not alone, and with the right support and strategies, you can find relief and improve your quality of life. Remember, seeking help is a sign of strength, not weakness.

References

What’s the difference between Anxiety and Depression?

https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/diseases/depression-anxiety.html

https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/pain-anxiety-and-depression

https://www.webmd.com/depression/looks-like-depression-but-not

https://nyulangone.org/conditions/anxiety-disorders/diagnosis

Grounding techniques