Why Do I Have Both? Understanding Anxiety and Depression Together

If you’re dealing with both anxiety and depression, you’re far from alone. Research shows that up to 85% of people with depression also experience symptoms of anxiety, and about 60% of people with anxiety have symptoms of depression. This overlap isn’t a coincidence—anxiety and depression are closely connected mental health conditions that often occur together, each one potentially triggering or worsening the other.

Understanding why these two conditions so commonly occur together can help you make sense of your own symptoms and find the right path forward. Let’s break down what’s really happening when you’re experiencing both.

What Is Anxiety?

Anxiety is characterized by excessive worry that persists most days, often about things that might happen in the future. Anxiety disorders affect how you think, feel, and behave in daily life.

People with anxiety may have trouble controlling their worries, feel restless, or struggle to relax. Physical symptoms are common too—your heart might race, you might experience sweating or shortness of breath, or feel dizzy. You may feel high-strung and energized due to racing thoughts, unable to settle your mind.

Common types of anxiety disorders include generalized anxiety disorder (worrying about many aspects of life), social anxiety disorder (fear of being judged in social situations), and panic disorder (experiencing sudden, intense panic attacks). These anxiety disorders can significantly interfere with work, relationships, and everyday activities.

What Is Depression?

Depression is typically defined by low mood and a loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities lasting for two weeks or longer. It goes far beyond just having a bad day or feeling sad temporarily.

Depression affects your energy levels, sleep patterns, concentration, and appetite. You might experience feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness, or guilt. Unlike anxiety’s restless energy, depression often brings low energy and reduced motivation—making it hard to do even simple tasks.

Physical symptoms of depression include fatigue, changes in sleep (too much or too little), appetite changes, and unexplained aches and pains. The depressed mood persists day after day, making it difficult to focus on work, maintain relationships, or engage in self care.

Is Anxiety and Depression the Same Thing?

No, anxiety and depression are not the same thing, though they share some overlapping symptoms. The key difference lies in their core emotional experiences: anxiety is primarily about worry and fear, while depression centers on sadness and loss of interest.

Here’s how they differ:

Anxiety makes you feel nervous, worried, or filled with dread about what might happen. You’re often thinking about future threats, real or imagined. Your body stays on high alert—tense muscles, racing heart, and that feeling of being unable to calm down.

Depression makes you feel sad, empty, or hopeless about the present and future. You lose interest in activities that used to bring joy. Your body feels heavy, tired, and slow. Concentration becomes difficult, and getting through each day feels exhausting.

Both anxiety and depression can cause poor concentration and difficulty sleeping, which is why people sometimes confuse the two. The mood disorder you’re experiencing—whether anxiety, depression, or both—shapes how you experience the world differently.

Why Do Anxiety and Depression Often Occur Together?

The connection between anxiety and depression runs deeper than you might think. These mental health conditions may stem from similar genetic and brain processes, making it common for them to appear together in the same person.

Several factors contribute to this overlap:

Shared brain chemistry: Both anxiety and depression involve similar neurotransmitters and brain circuits. The same neurological pathways that contribute to excessive worry can also contribute to low mood. This is why medications like SSRIs and SNRIs can effectively treat both conditions—they work on the same brain systems.

Genetic vulnerability: If mental health conditions run in your family, you may have a greater risk of developing both anxiety disorders and depressive disorders. The genetic factors that make someone prone to one condition often increase susceptibility to the other.

Stress and trauma triggers: Stressful situations, traumatic experiences, and major life changes can trigger both anxiety and depression. When you’re dealing with chronic stress, your mental health becomes more vulnerable to multiple conditions at once.

The American Psychiatric Association recognizes that anxiety and depression commonly occur together, with research showing that almost half of people diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.

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The Vicious Cycle: How Each Condition Worsens the Other

When you have both anxiety and depression, each condition can exacerbate the symptoms of the other, creating a cycle that’s difficult to break without help.

Here’s how the cycle typically works:

Long-term anxiety can trigger your fight-or-flight response so frequently that you become exhausted. Constantly feeling on edge, worrying excessively, and dealing with physical symptoms of anxiety drains your mental and physical energy. Over time, this exhaustion can lead to feelings of hopelessness and depression.

Feeling anxious constantly can impact your mood over time. When worry dominates your thoughts day after day, it becomes harder to feel positive or hopeful about anything. The stress of managing anxiety symptoms takes a toll on your overall mental health, opening the door for depression to develop.

Conversely, when you’re experiencing depression, you might develop anxiety about your depressed mood itself—worrying about whether you’ll ever feel better, anxious about falling behind at work, or fearful about relationships suffering. The low motivation from depression can also lead to avoiding activities, which then increases anxiety about facing the world.

Both depression and anxiety together create a more severe presentation than either condition alone. When both happen together, treatment becomes even more important because the combined impact on daily life can be significant.

What Are the Signs of Depression and Anxiety?

Recognizing when you have both conditions can be challenging since they share some symptoms while having distinct features. Here are the key signs to watch for:

Shared Symptoms

Both anxiety and depression can cause:

Poor concentration and difficulty focusing
Difficulty sleeping (insomnia or disrupted sleep)
Fatigue and low energy
Agitation and restlessness
Physical health problems like muscle tension and headaches

Anxiety-Specific Signs

Look for these symptoms that point specifically to anxiety:

Excessive worry about many different things
Feeling nervous, on edge, or unable to relax
Racing heart, sweating, or shortness of breath
Panic attacks—sudden waves of intense fear
Avoidance of situations that make you anxious
Feeling high-strung with racing thoughts

Depression-Specific Signs

These symptoms indicate depression:

Persistent sadness, emptiness, or feeling depressed
Loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed
Changes in appetite (eating much more or less)
Sleeping too much or too little
Feeling helpless, worthless, or guilty
Thoughts of death or suicide
Slowed thinking or physical movements

If you’re experiencing symptoms from both lists for two weeks or longer, you may have both conditions. This is when seeing a mental health professional becomes crucial—they can help identify what you’re dealing with and create a treatment plan that addresses your own symptoms.

What Is the 3-3-3 Anxiety Rule?

The 3-3-3 rule is a simple grounding technique that can help when anxiety feels overwhelming. This method redirects your focus from anxious thoughts to your immediate surroundings, helping to calm your nervous system in stressful situations.

Here’s how it works:

Name 3 things you see around you right now. Look around and identify three objects—a lamp, a tree outside the window, your coffee mug.
Name 3 sounds you hear. Listen carefully to your environment. Maybe you hear traffic, birds chirping, or your own breath.
Move 3 parts of your body. Wiggle your fingers, roll your shoulders, or tap your feet. Physical movement helps discharge anxious energy.

This technique grounds you in the present moment, interrupting the cycle of worry about the future that characterizes anxiety. It’s particularly helpful during panic attacks or when you notice anxiety symptoms escalating. The 3-3-3 rule gives you something concrete to focus on when your mind is racing.

Many people find that practicing grounding techniques like this one, along with other strategies like meditation, yoga, deep-breathing exercises, and mindfulness, can ease symptoms of both anxiety and depression. These self care practices work best alongside professional treatment, not as a replacement for therapy or medication.

What Is the #1 Worst Habit for Anxiety?

Avoidance is the worst habit for anxiety—and it can feed depression too. When something makes you feel anxious, your natural instinct might be to avoid it. But avoidance actually strengthens anxiety over time and limits your life in ways that contribute to depression.

Here’s why avoidance is so harmful:

Each time you avoid something that makes you anxious, you temporarily feel relief. Your brain learns that avoidance = safety. But this teaches your nervous system that the situation truly was dangerous, making the anxiety worse the next time you face it. Your fear grows larger instead of smaller.

Avoidance also shrinks your world. As you avoid more situations, activities, or people, your daily life becomes increasingly limited. This isolation and reduced engagement with life directly feeds depression. You miss out on potentially positive experiences, relationships, and opportunities that could improve your mood.

Other habits that worsen both anxiety and depression include:

Using alcohol or recreational drugs to manage stress or numb feelings
Not getting enough sleep or maintaining irregular sleep schedules
Isolating yourself from friends and family
Neglecting physical health through poor diet or lack of exercise
Ignoring your mental health instead of seeking help

Breaking the avoidance pattern is central to treating anxiety disorders. This is often done gradually through therapy, where you learn to face feared situations in a controlled way while building healthier coping strategies.

Breaking the Cycle: Treatment Options

The good news is that psychotherapy, medication, or a combination of both are effective treatments for anxiety and depression, even when you have both conditions simultaneously.

Talk Therapy

Psychodynamic therapy is another effective approach for treating anxiety and depression. It focuses on understanding how past experiences and unconscious patterns influence current emotions and behaviors, helping you gain insight and develop healthier ways to cope.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most researched and effective types of talk therapy for both anxiety disorders and depressive disorders. CBT helps you identify and change negative thought patterns that fuel both conditions. You learn practical skills to manage worry, challenge hopeless thinking, and gradually face situations you’ve been avoiding.

Other forms of psychotherapy can also help, depending on your specific situation. Many people benefit from therapy that addresses the relationship between their anxiety and depression, breaking the vicious cycle where each condition worsens the other.

The therapists at Therapy Group of DC in Dupont Circle specialize in helping people navigate both anxiety and depression, understanding how these mental health conditions interact and affect daily life.

Medication

When symptoms are severe or interfere significantly with daily life, medication can be an important part of treatment. Antidepressants, particularly SSRIs and SNRIs, can help manage both anxiety and depression symptoms by addressing the shared brain chemistry underlying both conditions.

A mental health professional, such as a psychiatrist, can evaluate whether medication might be helpful for you. Medication often works best when combined with therapy, providing relief from symptoms while you develop longer-term coping strategies.

Lifestyle Changes

While not a replacement for professional treatment, certain lifestyle changes support mental health and can improve both anxiety and depression:

Regular exercise is considered a treatment for mild to moderate depression and can reduce anxiety symptoms while boosting mood and self-esteem
Adequate sleep helps regulate mood and reduces stress
Healthy diet provides your brain with nutrients needed for emotional regulation
Stress management through techniques like mindfulness, meditation, and deep breathing
Social connection with friends and family provides crucial support

Research shows that self care strategies work best when combined with professional treatment, not used in isolation.

When Should You Seek Help?

If anxiety and depression are affecting your daily life, relationships, work, or physical health, it’s time to talk to a healthcare provider. Don’t wait until symptoms become unbearable—getting help early can make a big impact on your recovery.

Seek help immediately if you’re:

Having thoughts of death or suicide (call 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline)
Unable to complete basic daily tasks
Using alcohol or drugs to cope
Experiencing panic attacks that terrify you
Feeling so hopeless you can’t see a way forward

Remember that having both anxiety and depression is common, not a sign that something is uniquely wrong with you. Most people with these conditions find significant relief through treatment. With the right support, you can break the cycle and feel better.

Finding Support

Support from friends and family plays a significant role in managing anxiety and depression. Don’t hesitate to reach out to people you trust. Joining a support group can also provide encouragement from others who understand what you’re going through.

Mental health professionals can develop a tailored treatment plan that addresses both your anxiety and depression symptoms. They’ll work with you to find the combination of therapy, lifestyle changes, and potentially medication that works best for your situation.

If you’re in the DC area and looking for support with anxiety and depression, the therapists at Therapy Group of DC are here to help. Our practice in Dupont Circle specializes in treating both conditions and understanding how they interact. Schedule an appointment to get started on your path toward feeling better.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Anxiety vs Depression

What is the difference between anxiety vs depression?

Anxiety primarily involves excessive worry and fear about future events, causing restlessness and physical symptoms like muscle tension and panic attacks. Depression affects mood by causing persistent sadness, loss of interest in activities, low energy, and changes in sleep or appetite. While they share some symptoms, their core emotional experiences differ significantly.

Can anxiety or depression occur together?

Yes, anxiety and depression commonly occur together. Research shows that up to 85% of people with depression also experience symptoms of anxiety. This overlap is due to shared brain chemistry, genetic vulnerability, and similar triggers like stress and trauma.

What are some similar treatments for anxiety and depression?

Both conditions often respond well to psychotherapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and medication like SSRIs or SNRIs that target shared brain pathways. Lifestyle changes including regular exercise, adequate sleep, and stress management also support recovery for both anxiety and depression.

When should I seek help from a mental health professional or psychiatry?

If anxiety or depression symptoms interfere with daily life, cause severe distress, or include thoughts of suicide, it’s important to seek help promptly. Mental health professionals can provide diagnosis, tailored treatment plans, and support to manage symptoms effectively.

Are anxiety and depression considered normal experiences?

While occasional anxiety and low mood are normal, persistent or excessive symptoms that disrupt daily life may indicate anxiety disorders or depressive disorders. Recognizing the difference is important for getting appropriate care and preventing worsening symptoms.

Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified mental health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health condition. If you are in crisis or experiencing thoughts of self-harm, please call 988 (Suicide and Crisis Lifeline) or go to your nearest emergency room.