Every individual has varying reactions to different unpleasant events or experiences that they may have encountered. Some people may react to unpleasant situations by feeling nervous or panicky. They may run and hide to protect themselves from the impending terror that haunts them. They can also act violently, hurting themselves and becoming a threat to others. Others can choose to battle this anxious feeling by developing compulsions or ritualistic activities to diminish the fear. While these may be the case for some, others can also react to unpleasant situations by wallowing. Instead of letting the feelings out, they absorb it causing them to start loosing sleep and becoming depressed. They lose interest in their surroundings and feel gloomy most of the rime.
These varying reactions presented above manifest anxiety and depressive disorders. In order to properly treat them, one has to know the difference between anxiety and depression.
Anxiety is commonly an uncomfortable feeling prior to doing or encountering something. It is usually situational – manifesting itself when a person is confronted by what he may think as an unpleasant experience. Even the mere thought of possibly encountering the situation makes the person uncomfortable and uneasy. Anxiety can occur without warning or at gradual levels lasting several minutes. It is the emotional state of having a nagging worry that something wrong might happen, anticipating a negative outcome. The person with anxiety disorder avoids the cause of his fears to a point that renders him dysfunctional.
Depression, on the other hand, traces the cause of fear to an unpleasant experience that is very emotionally painful. It may be the loss of something or someone, which sometimes the afflicted blames himself as the reason for the loss. The person experiencing depression may show signs of lack of interest on anything or even the will to live. He feels so hopeless and believes that the future holds no bright possibilities.
Despite the difference between anxiety and depression, these feelings may co-exist. Persons with anxiety feel depressed of their inability to normally react when confronted with a normal situation, while those who are depressed feel anxiety about what their future may hold for them.
Both conditions can be treated either with drug therapy, behavioral therapy or sometimes a combination of both. The difference between anxiety and depression treatment is the level of care given to the patient. Depression may call for a more extensive, deeper mind adjustment. Anxiety will only need exposure therapy or cognitive -behavior. Both however have lifelong benefits. With proper treatment, a person can be guided to full recovery so he can start living a fairly normal life again.
