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Does anxiety bring depression too?

33 Answers
Last Updated: 09/11/2018 at 11:48pm
1 Tip to Feel Better
United States
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Stacy Overton, PhD.

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I am an enthusiastic life-long learner and also a professor of counseling. I have a passion for peoples stories and helping to guide and empower the human spirit.

Top Rated Answers
ListeningOak
August 4th, 2015 9:07pm
Anxiety and depression are two sides of the same coin, one very often leads to and enforces the other, creating a downward cycle. The good news is that because it's a two part cycle breaking one half can help with the other, working on anxiety can help you deal with your depression and vice versa.
Anonymous
May 31st, 2015 9:55am
Anxiety can quickly sap you of massive amounts of energy which can quickly result in a feeling of depression.
Anonymous
August 15th, 2016 5:47am
It can, but it doesn't have to. It totally depends on the person and their experiences! You can be anxious about something without feeling sad or depressed.
Anonymous
August 31st, 2015 9:16am
It can. Say you stop doing things that made you happy and decide to just sit in your room all day because you are too anxious to go out. It doesn't always but it can.
blissfulCupcake
November 17th, 2015 10:19pm
in some cases it can because you worry excessively which can be unhealthy so it can become difficult to deal with that's when it is important to seek help no matter how much you don't want to
Anonymous
December 22nd, 2015 7:33am
It may be true, both anxiety and depression starting with stresses. So these stresses might bring both of these.
frankiefan
February 1st, 2016 1:51am
Everyone is different, so it's can be a hard thing to answer. Since everyone will react differently, there isn't a yes or no answer to this, but in my opinion and experience there are certain types of anxiety that can affect depression or bring it on.
Anonymous
March 29th, 2016 3:14pm
Anxiety doesn't always bring depression, however depression can bring anxiety. It isn't uncommon to have them together.
ElsenCentrik
April 18th, 2016 4:32am
Being so fearful of opening a door to the outside world is pain, and with pain comes depression/sadness. Fearing you will say the wrong thing to friends stops you from saying what you need to say, or want to say and in turn can lead you to unhappiness because you don't want to lose loved ones but in the same breath you don't want to be hurt by your loved ones either. You might not always be depressed and anxious at the same time but they are both very similar and one can often lead to another.
Anonymous
May 24th, 2016 10:57am
it can do to some people, cause then it can start making people scared to leave the house then they can start getting depressed, also over there anxiety they can.
Anonymous
September 11th, 2018 11:48pm
Anxiety and depression can occur together, but they don't have too. Anxiety is often described as the anticipation of a future feared event, where we spend a lot of time thinking about all of the possible scenarios and outcomes and trying to navigate how we would handle each possible situation. This can be exhausting and can cause feelings that can feel similar to depression. Depression can be a sad feeling about an outcome, or a low feeling about what is happening in a persons life. Being in a constant state of fearing the future can lead to feelings of sadness about the future, but they don't always. If you are feeling anxious or depressed, or perhaps both, it is important to try to breathe, seek out social supports and ask for help.
Enigmatica
September 6th, 2016 11:42am
It may sometimes, and vice versa, however anxiety does not inquire you'll suffer from depression as well. Again, and vice versa. Hope this helped, I hope you are well :)
michelle2000
September 20th, 2016 11:13pm
Not necessarily, but the two do usually go hand-in-hand. For example, anxiety may lead to feelings of loneliness or inadequacy, which could potentially lead to depression. So yes, you can have both, however, just because you have anxiety does NOT mean that you will get depression as well.
IndyMaximus
April 4th, 2017 3:16pm
I believe it does, you can't express yourself as who you are and it makes it very difficult for you to approach people and make new friends. It can cause loneliness which over time can cause depression as you feel there's no sense of purpose in your life.
LoveNotHate
April 18th, 2017 6:46am
Anxiety doesn't always bring depression, however it's completely common to see anxiety bring depression, or vice versa. Often times the things we are anxious about, if they aren't solved early on - can lead to long term fears and overall feeling of depression, as it decreases the general quality of life.
endearingLion70
March 19th, 2018 12:20pm
Anxiety is a physical reaction while depression is a state of mind. However anxiety can make you feel depressed.
musicalEnergy94
April 3rd, 2018 4:41pm
for me anxiety brings scary thoughts into my mind, if there is too much anxiety it causes me to focus on the wrong thoughts and it can cause depression. if i think my thoughts are just a thought that in retrospect the scary thought is so very different from the actual reality. what you go through that brings awareness to your memory, the thought is so different that you can erase the thought because there is no purpose wasting your time on something that is just not real.
OwlKnowsAll
January 27th, 2015 9:20pm
Yes, it can! But you shall not fear it! If you anxiety sometimes it comes with tough choices and lost possibilities that you can't always control which make you feel lees worthy and get you to lose your self esteem. What you can do is to embrace you anxiety and make you own rules how to handle those situations and make sure that it wouldn't bring you down more that possible.
Anonymous
August 18th, 2015 3:05am
It can! It doesn't have to, but in many situations anxiety can cause depression if it's left untreated.
AbstractAbby
July 6th, 2015 1:52am
Sometimes, it does. At least, for me it did. I find that my anxiety, while under control, is a more or less constant presence in my life. My depression comes and goes, where I will feel very bad for a few weeks and then begin to feel better. When I am faced with a lot of stress and my anxiety acts up, I can feel like I am trapped which leads to me feeling depressed. While for me, anxiety doesn't always lead to depression, it can make it easier to fall into.
ShatteredandSorrowing
June 29th, 2015 2:03pm
It can. And the reverse is possible. I have a friend whose depression was caused by anxiety, and once she had the anxiety treated the depression went away. I had the opposite; I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, they treated the anxiety first, then got me on antidepressants. Once the depression was a bit more controlled the anxiety nearly vanished.
dovahkiin
June 23rd, 2015 5:28pm
It can do. It did in my case! Not being able to go out or stressing because you think people are looking at you and talking about you or judging you can be very negative for your mood, and experiencing this almost every day can definitely trigger depression in many different ways.
Anonymous
June 22nd, 2015 3:33am
My therapists have always told me that anxiety and depression go hand in hand, and that it is not at all surprising to see them together. In my case, my anxiety came before my depression and was a factor in why I became depressed. It is not a strange combination, and there is a lot of help available for anxiety and depression separately and together. However, anxiety does not always bring depression with it; if you are worried about the possibility, it is by no means an eventuality. There are ways to overcome both, and you are not alone in whatever your struggles may be.
Anonymous
June 13th, 2015 7:08am
Yes, it's actually quite common. Anxiety may occur as a symptom of clinical depression. Similarly, it's also common to have depression that's triggered by an anxiety disorder; such as GAD, OCD or Social Anxiety Disorder. We fear when we're anxious. Many times, we become less aware of what we're anxious about. And that can ultimately lead to depression. In my case, I have OCD, and my intrusive thoughts have led me to a very depressed state at one point. When someone with anxiety disorder is feeling suicidal, it's most likely that they have depression. Different people have different cases, but yes, anxiety can bring depression. And in more than half of the cases, it does. They also have similar treatments.
Anonymous
June 10th, 2015 3:22am
It can if the anxiety is not treated due to the stress and thoughts of hopelessness. Anxiety and depression are both treatable, though, so try to get them out of the picture before anything else develops.
livinginthestars12
June 5th, 2015 3:45am
Anxiety can easily be a factor of depression. Specifically with my family, when they are angry and/or yell at me, it causes me to become anxious. In my high school years, that happened a lot, which lead to depression.
bunniesgomoo
June 3rd, 2015 9:59pm
For me anxiety and depression came hand in hand. When I wasn't anxious I felt depressed and vice versa
Anonymous
May 22nd, 2015 3:06am
I suffer from bipolar disorder and usually am anxious and depressed...it is common that these two go hand in hand..
happinessalwayscomes
May 17th, 2015 4:42pm
I guess it could. I know in my experiences, my anxiety and brief depression went hand-in-hand. My fears of failure in life brought me to believe that I'd never amount to anything, and worrying about what people thought of me made me think about how no one cared about me. So it could, but does not always happen like that.
Anonymous
April 23rd, 2015 2:48pm
Not everyone with anxiety will have depression, and not everyone with depression will have anxiety. Though they are closely related and can affect each other, it's not guaranteed you or someone you know will have both.