Is it anxiety or depression?
Is it anxiety or depression?
Does anyone know if you can suffer from anxiety without having any or very few physical symptoms? I have suffered from depression over the past year very seriously but I am not so sure that I am not struggling with anxiety now. I have the negative thoughts and the obsessive scary thoughts as well as being quite perfectionistic. I am recognizing and working on changing these things about myself and am currently on CD #3 - Self Talk. So I am working very hard on identifying my negative thoughts and changing them to positive. I listened to Lucinda's "I will be there for you" CD tonight and listened to her talk about just anxiety and it really got me to thinking that this may be what I am struggling with more than depression. Is there anyone else out there who experiences anxiety but has few physical symptoms if any at all? I would appreciate any feedback I can get. Thanks. -Tana
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Re: Is it anxiety or depression?
Hi--I would have to say, Yes! I have in the past years ago when I was younger experience depression, but now that I think of it, it probably was anxiety or nervousness or stress in my life that I didn't understand how to totally cope with that brought on the depression. And probably what kept the depression and anxiety at bay, was that I was a very physically active person. As a child I was playing all the time, riding my bike, swimming, walking, basically enjoying life. I lived in a mild climate so I could do things like that. Where today, kids and teens are more connected to their computers, IPODs, IPhones, more TV and lots of negative input that comes with that.
Plus more junk food in the schools and in the home. We never had candy so readily available nor soda pop, etc. So I was a healthy kid and never had problems such w/ anxiety symptoms except for when I had to see a DR for a physical and I was a nervous wreck. I was very modest and I did not want to see a Dr. My mother wasn't understand and she is an RN. So she had my big sister talk to me about the visit. It wasn't even one of those female type of visits. Anyway, my BP was sky high and the Dr would ask me about what I might be worried about. I had no clue...I'm a kid!
Anyway, they checked it again and sort of chalked it off to being a bit nervous.
Well, now I'm in my college years, I go off to school out of state where it is cold and snowy and the days are short, I'm away from my friends that I had wonderful times with and begin living life with 5 other girls sharing an apt. What an adjustment to a girl that pretty much had her own bedroom since she was 5 years old! Plus I had a working mother and had a lot of free time.
Anyway, I did get depressed at college, I gained weight from eating more than I use too and when I went home for the summer I would lose the weight and I was happy again. That's when I realized there was a name to what I had. S.A.D. Seasonal Affective Disorder. Plus the stress and anxiety that comes with being a college student away from home.
Later on anxiety showed its face as I got married moved away from home to a cold and snowy state, away from my famiily and friends and starting a whole new chapter in my life. Yes, stress and anxiety would show up as depression.
I just never realized the term for nervousness or anxious feelings was called Anxiety or General Anxiety Disorder. Luckily for me, my healthy body and age helped me to weather the storms, but as I age, the body changes, and more dreams are unrealized. So life has a way of affecting us and our nervous system.
So now I'm learning more about what our thoughts can do to our bodies. It really is quiet amazing. Of course there are other factors of what we put into our bodies and outside circumstances of which we have no control that can affect us.
Yes, anxiety precedes the depression, but at least for me I didn't know that went hand in hand. Paislee
Plus more junk food in the schools and in the home. We never had candy so readily available nor soda pop, etc. So I was a healthy kid and never had problems such w/ anxiety symptoms except for when I had to see a DR for a physical and I was a nervous wreck. I was very modest and I did not want to see a Dr. My mother wasn't understand and she is an RN. So she had my big sister talk to me about the visit. It wasn't even one of those female type of visits. Anyway, my BP was sky high and the Dr would ask me about what I might be worried about. I had no clue...I'm a kid!

Well, now I'm in my college years, I go off to school out of state where it is cold and snowy and the days are short, I'm away from my friends that I had wonderful times with and begin living life with 5 other girls sharing an apt. What an adjustment to a girl that pretty much had her own bedroom since she was 5 years old! Plus I had a working mother and had a lot of free time.
Anyway, I did get depressed at college, I gained weight from eating more than I use too and when I went home for the summer I would lose the weight and I was happy again. That's when I realized there was a name to what I had. S.A.D. Seasonal Affective Disorder. Plus the stress and anxiety that comes with being a college student away from home.
Later on anxiety showed its face as I got married moved away from home to a cold and snowy state, away from my famiily and friends and starting a whole new chapter in my life. Yes, stress and anxiety would show up as depression.
I just never realized the term for nervousness or anxious feelings was called Anxiety or General Anxiety Disorder. Luckily for me, my healthy body and age helped me to weather the storms, but as I age, the body changes, and more dreams are unrealized. So life has a way of affecting us and our nervous system.
So now I'm learning more about what our thoughts can do to our bodies. It really is quiet amazing. Of course there are other factors of what we put into our bodies and outside circumstances of which we have no control that can affect us.
Yes, anxiety precedes the depression, but at least for me I didn't know that went hand in hand. Paislee
