How Are Depression And Anxiety Related?
In Psychiatry, when a person feels a general dejection and a sadness that is more prolonged than any objective reason, the person is said to be suffering from depression. Depression and Anxiety are both results of a chemical imbalance that exists in the brain. Another related term, which is nowadays commonly used in Psychiatry, is that of Clinical Depression. Clinical Depression is a depression with abnormally high levels of intensity. The person suffering from this type of depression feels terribly dejected and inadequate. The feeling is so severe that no probable cause in his environment or circumstances can justify it.
Anxiety, on the other hand, is a normal body reaction to some imminent or hypothetical danger foreseen in the future. A normal level of anxiety is essential for our day to day survival. It makes us study harder during exams. It gives us that extra boost to get up early everyday in the morning and start our day before sunrise. It allows us to save in our youth so that we can secure our old age. However, even anxiety when experienced for longer periods of time and with continuously high intensity, turns out to be a disorder in the body. In this type of disorder, the patient feels a sudden asphyxiation and starts trembling. He suddenly starts feeling that the air around him is devoid of any oxygen and that he is getting a heart attack. The condition peaks in about 10 minutes when the person feels that he is about to die. And just as it had started, suddenly things come back to normalcy, leaving the patient exasperated and totally confused as to what had hit him. The condition just described is that of an anxiety-panic attack. Its severity is so intense that it outlasts the threat or danger. If this experience is common to anybody, it ultimately results in a psychological disorder of a more permanent nature. Just like anxiety, depression is also a normal response to a loss or misfortune in life. We all have to face the vicissitudes of life. These ups and downs make us better human beings in the long run. But, if this phase outlasts its cause then it turns out to be a disease just like an anxiety-panic attack. A person, who constantly remains in a depressive mood, such as always having a low self-esteem, being highly self-critical and always indulging in pessimistic thinking, keeps on triggering the hormones that are used to counter such emotions, in the brain. These excessive hormones keep on accumulating in the blood. And this, finally leads to a mental breakdown or confinement of the patient to psychiatric wards. Therefore, we can see that Depression and Anxiety are not only closely related to each other, but an excessive indulgence in any one ultimately leads to the other, and this finally results in a total mental breakdown. |