Medically reviewed by Monica Johnson, PsyD
Key Takeaways
Depression and anxiety commonly occur together, creating a cycle where symptoms of each condition can worsen the other.
A coping “toolkit” may include therapy, lifestyle changes, and medication.
Opening up to trusted loved ones can be a helpful first step toward finding support so you don’t feel isolated.
Depression and anxiety are both common mental health conditions—and for some of us, they exist together. In fact, some studies have suggested that between 20- 40% of those with depression or anxiety have both. Luckily, there are ways to cope.
How Do Depression and Anxiety Interact?
“Depression and anxiety are very closely related when you see the areas of the brain that they originate from—the amygdala,” says Gin Lalli, BSc HPD DSFH. She describes it as the fight, flight, or freeze response, a survival mechanism that dates back to our ancestors. “The problem is, that response has not translated into modern-day times so well. Fight now becomes anger, flight is anxiety, and freeze is depression.”
While depression and anxiety are distinct conditions, they can share similar symptoms, such as:
However, explains consultant psychologist Elena Touroni, PhD, “they tend to differ in their emotional impact. Depression is more often linked with feelings of hopelessness, sadness, and a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed, whereas anxiety tends to involve worry, restlessness, and a sense of fear or dread about future events.” But as you can experience both sets of symptoms at once, it can be difficult to work out which is more dominant at any one time.
Stories of Living With Depression and Anxiety
Depression and anxiety can develop at any age and at different times. There may be periods when your depression is the one that needs the most attention, and other times when it’s your anxiety that feels worse. Here’s how they manifest for three different people:
Morgan, 25, says that her depression and anxiety developed around the same time, and she was diagnosed with both simultaneously. Her depression “tends to rule the roost,” and can make her anxiety worse as a result. “I tend to let routines go when I am having one of my worse periods of depression, which leads to panic attacks because I’m all out of sorts,” she explains.
Tom, 28, says his depression and anxiety alternate, with his anxiety often leading to depression. “The spiraling can give me a sense of hopelessness, although sometimes the lack of focus or motivation and the low feeling that comes with my depression can make me anxious about the future, paying rent, whether I’ll ever not feel like this,” he explains. “It’s all messy and hard to pick apart and separate.”
Elisha, 28, finds that her anxiety is worse. She explains that it presents in a lot of different ways, be it when she’s driving, or in relationships. However, depression came first originally, something she attributes to entering adulthood. “My mom always used to warn me of the stark contrast between being a teenager and then turning 21-ish, and it got to a point where I was like ‘Oh yeah, you’re right!’,” she says.
““Depression and anxiety can create a vicious cycle,” explains Touroni, “Anxiety often stirs up feelings of worry, stress, and fear about the future, while depression can make you feel hopeless, fatigued, and unmotivated. Together, they can amplify each other—worrying about things that feel out of control (anxiety) can lead to feeling defeated or low (depression).””
Elena Touroni, PhD
How Depression and Anxiety Can Show Up In Daily Life
Coping with depression and anxiety can be exhausting and overwhelming, making it difficult to work on simple tasks.
In the workplace: You might find yourself procrastinating or feeling worried about your responsibilities. You’ve got plenty to work on, but you feel overwhelmed just looking at your to-do list. Before you know it, you’ve spent half the morning looking at cute cat videos on social media. It can be difficult to focus or to plan your workday.
In relationships: You might withdraw or create emotional distance from the people in your life. This can lead to misunderstandings—and feelings of loneliness for yourself, too. This can be particularly true if living with depression and anxiety makes you irritable, which is quite common.
“Both conditions can create a sense of self-doubt and a feeling of being ‘too much’ for others, which often isolates people further,” Touroni explains. “The key is to recognize that these two conditions feed off each other, and by managing one, you can start to alleviate the symptoms of the other.”
How To Cope When You Have Both
Everyone’s experience with depression and anxiety is different, but there are coping tools that work. It’s a good idea to try different strategies to find what works for you.
Touroni suggests developing your own “toolkit” of coping mechanisms, which may comprise a mix of therapy, lifestyle changes, and medication.
Therapy
Touroni advises seeking professional support to manage depression and anxiety holistically.
She says that many of her clients have found cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) useful because “it addresses both anxiety and depression by helping to challenge negative thought patterns and manage overwhelming emotions.”
Psychiatrist Sham Singh, MD, says, “In dealing with anxiety and depression, I look at their underlying causes, which might be emotional or environmental, but at times even biological. This comprehensive approach will help not only in relieving symptoms, but also in preventing their recurrence.
“The main idea of therapy would be to help the person elaborate a strategy to handle both anxious and depressive thoughts, usually starting with mindfulness and grounding techniques as ways to decrease the immediacy of the stressors.”
“While the symptoms of the two diseases have considerable overlap, their management does vary. For instance, whereas anxiety may benefit from cognitive-behavioral techniques such as reframing anxious thoughts, on the other hand, depression might require encouragement about the little actionable steps that create motivation.”
Sham Singh, MD
Medication
Medication can be useful, but different people will respond differently to different medications.
“I never got on with medication really—Zoloft (sertraline) made my depression ten times worse, it felt like,” Elisha explains. “I do feel like I’ve tried on my own to make them both better. In time, I feel like my depression has just sort of let itself go, but my anxiety seems to present itself in so many different ways.”
Lee, 25, meanwhile, had tried various medications before landing on Effexor (venlafaxine). “They’ve upped the dosage a few times now, and I now take it three times a day,” she says. “They haven’t managed to find something that works for my anxiety yet, but I’ve found if I can manage the depression, then that has a knock-on effect and I don’t struggle so much with the anxiety.”
Lifestyle Changes
Here are some techniques you can try:
Mindfulness and grounding: Touroni describes these as “incredibly helpful” for managing anxiety, helping us focus on the present rather than spiraling into worry about the future.
Setting goals: Touroni recommends setting small, achievable goals for depression. Take one step at a time. Celebrate any wins, no matter how small, and recognize the progress you’re making.
Movement: Physical activity can help reduce anxiety and boost your mood. Even going for a short walk can help.
Finding hope: “I’m still learning to live with both,” says Tom. “I find that I need to find a sense of hope in order to relieve the depressive feelings, whether that’s in exciting new work or projects, spending time with friends and feeling their love, doing something productive like a swim or run or a task I needed to get done, or successful dating. But I can find, while the latter can be the biggest depression reliever in the moment, it can also amp up my anxiety.”
Establishing a routine: “I thrive on keeping routines, making set times to do things I love, and giving myself plenty of grace,” says Morgan. “I tackle one thing my depression wants me to avoid every day, like cleaning my room, to stop myself from getting too anxious.” For Lee, keeping routines is helpful for anxiety. “There’s less chance of getting anxious if I know what’s going to happen; but on the flip side, it makes it worse if something unexpected happens,” she explains.
How To Open Up
Talking about our depression and anxiety isn’t always easy, but reaching out is often the first step to getting support.
Elisha: “I try to talk to my loved ones up front about how I’m feeling, but it doesn’t always land well. I don’t always expect them to get it 100%, but I find speaking to people I know have felt this way to be the most helpful.”
Lee: “I’ll be the first person to say I’m bad at talking to people about it. I try and pretend everything is fine until I’m literally breaking down, and then it’ll all come out at once. The best way I’ve managed to describe it is my head is being very loud and I’m struggling to actually make anything out because of the noise or the thoughts. I’m definitely working on talking about it more, because I’m always encouraging my friends to talk and checking in on them. But I haven’t found the best way for me yet.”
Morgan, an educator: “I’m pretty open and honest about it. I think having done so much talking to my classes about mental health, it means that I have no shame when it comes to admitting I’m struggling. But on a day-to-day basis, I mostly just make people aware (mostly about my anxiety because I do have anxiety attacks at times) and let them know if I’m having a particularly hard time.”
“It’s hard to explain how I’m struggling with my anxiety to the point I can’t leave the house, but staying in the house is making my depression worse. If someone hasn’t experienced that exact situation, it’ll be hard for them to understand exactly the mental battle I’m fighting.”
Lee, 25
If you do decide to talk to loved ones about depression and anxiety, it’s fine to bring it up in conversation or ask them if you’d be able to have a conversation with them. Of course, that’s easier said than done. But we can often be pleasantly surprised by how our loved ones react.
And if you don’t feel able to talk to people in your life, you may find support online from people going through the same thing.
The Importance of Seeking Support
“Seeking support—whether through therapy, support groups, or talking to loved ones—is key to not feeling isolated in this struggle,” says Touroni.
Singh says that he encourages his clients to be patient with themselves, noting that any progress is great. “That, combined with therapy and proper self-care routines such as regular exercise and sleep, can go a long way toward recovery,” he says.
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