Depression or Anxiety

Do you Feel Depressed or Anxious?

I have a friend who started experiencing some anxiety regarding not falling asleep. This led him to take a sick day from work, see his PCP, and hopefully get some answers. Before long, he started becoming anxious and fearful about other things, “Will I enjoy work again?”, “I just want to enjoy living in my apartment!”

Over the next few months he started seeking help from a therapist, close friends, church community, family, and medical specialists. Often crying around these people, he would ask, “Why do I feel this way?” If you asked him, he would say that he was struggling mostly with depression- not enjoying things, no desire to work, motivation, crying, etc.

When he and I would chat on the phone or spend time together, he would often ask me, “How much longer will I be in this episode?” This was a very common question, almost like clockwork-every time we chatted. I realized he struggled with anxiety before he struggled depression.

Feeling Anxious More than Depressed

Every time he ruminated and obsessed over this question, "How much longer will I be in this episode?" he became increasingly anxious and fearful and therefore needed to call someone. When I carefully reflected this to him, we began discussing anxiety and fear more so than depression. Our chatting then led to a timeline of when he started this episode. He traced it back to the first night he struggled to fall asleep, having to take a sick day the following morning from work. During this discussion, he realized that he was initially anxious about things and not necessarily depressed.

He began to feel positive when he realized that the intensity of his emotions sided more with anxiety than depression. The things he was presently experiencing actually started with anxiety.

Anxiety Plus Anger Equals Depression

Most depression is more anxiety than depression. Most depression is more anger than depression (we will cover this in another post). In many cases, when anxiety and anger pair together over time, depression is not far behind.

Question to consider:

1. What questions do you ask yourself when you are depressed or anxious? Think, are these more anxious questions or those involving depression?

Counselors in Fort Worth

Cowtown Christian Counseling serves Fort Worth with therapy for depression and anxiety. Our counselors in Fort Worth help connect you to God and his design for your life.