Depression is a massive field and can affect people in many ways. Take a look at our depression information for reasons, signs and symptoms.
Anxiety and depression can often go hand in hand, and it is again quite often a chicken and egg situation. Suffering anxiety can understandably lower a person’s mood, even for someone who has never suffered anxiety – just take a look at symptoms of anxiety to try to imagine what anyone must be experiencing. And with this, anyone suffering initially from depression can quite often suffer anxieties with regards to ‘normal’ day-to-day tasks ie going shopping of visiting friends, can be extremely difficult to even think about.
Over the years I have personally met hundreds of people suffering with a primary diagnosis of either anxety or depression, or quite often Anxiety AND Depression. So where do we go here??
Anxiety and depression can quite often leave people incapacitated with the thoughts of what they ‘should be doing’ and quite often doing nothing. Anxiety often leaves people thinking irrationally, as is the nature of anxiety. Focusing on basic anxiety techniques, in order to reduce anxiety can often help. Yes, this is difficult with low mood/depression, but it is manageable! Identifying times of day that your mood is better, maybe the mornings are more difficult for you, or you feel better as the day goes on. One thing is for sure even in the bleakest of minds so please remember this, there are ALWAYS better days and times of the day! So when a person feels their mood is at their lowest, it DOES PASS!!
A useful tool that people use is a mood diary, this is as it says on the tin – a diary of your mood. Daily documentation of your mood helps in treatment for a variety of reasons. It helps professionals gauge if you are improving over a given time (it is hard to gauge this from a hour/half hour chat alone). More importantly it helps the sufferer themselves. If can show the person that they actually do have better days. This is a relatively simple method yet tried and tested method for both clinical and self-help.
If you feel you are suffering from anxiety and depression, or indeed any, I would always recommend to speak to medical staff first. I am aware it is sometimes very difficult to do this, but look at it from this angle. There are a number of physical problems, quite often ones that are very easily managed. Go and get checked out to rule these out!