When depression and anxiety appear together, either condition can be the cause or the result of the other. A depressed person, for example, can sometimes develop agitation or anxiety, perhaps especially as their depression lingers on. An anxious person can become withdrawn or begin to feel overwhelmed by their condition, an outlook that may bring about a depressed state. If there is a more likely scenario for a lead in between the two conditions, it may be anxiety leading to depression.

Depression, as its name suggests, is typically marked by a reduced state of being. Depressed people are often, though not always, emotionally down and physically listless. The depressed state is not classically a state of displaced energy, a description that matches anxiety quite well. The depressed person who goes from a listless downcast mood to expressing anxiety-like agitation may actually be presenting the symptoms of bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is marked by lethargic depression swinging to agitation, but the agitation in bipolar disorder is mania, not anxiety. Mania is a form where a person displays irrational, often bizarre and extremely extroverted behavior. Anxious people are typically not extroverted in their behavior and don't outwardly behave in ways that most people would consider extreme and strange.

People with chronic anxiety are uptight certainly, and this uptight and upset can become an enormous drain on the chronically anxious person. After a time of feeling chronically anxious, a person can become physically and emotionally run down, and depression may set in additional to the anxiety already present. Anxious people are also prone to withdraw, or to use alcohol or drugs to medicate their anxiety, and both of these behaviors can lead not only depression but to extreme depression.

As with all human conditions, emotional disorders are not uniform but do have similarities. An anxious person need not develop depression, while someone with depression may go on to develop an anxious state that is not in fact symptomatic of bipolar disorder. If there is an important reflection to keep in mind it's that a case of depression or anxiety does not automatically discount the possibility of some other emotional dysfunction also being present. Different emotional disorders can be present at the same time.

About the author: Zinn Jeremiah is a freelance writer. Find help with depression or anxiety.

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