theyre different. i prefer anxiety! i suppose you might say anxiety is when youre up and depression is when youre down. Initially you may go through anxiety about certain things and be in an 'anxious state', but the anxiety makes you go through so much emotional energy that after yr anxious state you colapse and become depressed...they go hand in hand...the more depressed you are the worse the anxiety

They are definitely apples & oranges.

Anxiety, plain and simply, is fear -- it may be a constant low-level feeling of dread, an uncomfortableness with things that's strong enough to prevent you from doing what you want to do. Or it may rise to the level of terror so great you feel like you might die from the fear.

Depression, tho, makes you feel flat and deprives you of joy. Think of all the colors in the world fading out to gray. Things you used to enjoy just don't interest you any more, and you may feel sad to the point of crying. You have trouble remembering good times but you'll find yourself thinking about unhappy events in your life. You may start wondering if there's any reason to get out of bed, or even to go on living. The key word here is sadness, from mild to crushing.

What can get confusing is that you can have both at the same time. And sometimes it's hard to figure whether you're impeded by the fear or by the sadness.

I hope some of that made sense -- I haven't had breakfast yet so I'm not really awake....

they are different when your feeling depressed you dont want to get up all you want to do is sleep and so forth. with anxiety you woory about everything and it effects your thinking and you feel nervous that something is going to happen to you and that everyone is watching you .

I feel that the anxiety causes depression so you have them both at the same time. You cannot be happy when you are living in fear and dread.

so...it IS possible to have both? my first therapist told me that i either have one or the other. not both.

I couldn't agree more with Marigolds.. My anxiety causes Depression because I get so sick of dealing with this anxiety every day.. it gets real old! =)

other than teenage/post-natal never thought I had depression til had anxiety, ironically that came from mania, which turned to panic, then back to anxiety to become depression with panic dis-order..they are so entwined sometimes you cant tell them apart..i am as confused as you are, believe me...

They are very different yet they often go hand in hand.

Anxiety is Fear (Social Phobia, Fear of places and situations)

Depression is Emotional Sadness (Overwhelming negative thoughts and sadness that blacken any joy in your life)

I believe my anxiety in my teens caused my depression because I got very down about waking up anxious and the nervous energy I spent on each day just living.

Now I get depressed and sometimes I get anxious.

Which is worse? I would personally say that depression is worse although the physical feelings of anxiety can be very difficult.

Anxiety is easier to treat because it is Fear of something or someone, but depression is difficult to bring yourself out of.

It's a hard one for me to distinguish, but after a bit of CBT so far, I have realised that I have been in a depressed emotional state for years, slowly withdrawing from my friends and social situations and have only just experienced anxiety recently because of programming my mind and body to get used to negative emotions...I didn't even know i was doing this.

Now, I just have to learn to retrain myself to get used to more positive and realistic emotions and not look for the 'what ifs' all the time.

The hard part is working out why i'm anxious as there doesn't seem to be any specific situations that cause anxiety...just a general feeling of it all the time.

I totally agree with everyone here...they are definately related and can both rear their ugly heads at the same time.

My anxiety is a result of my long term, but mild depression...but someone else may have severe anxiety over time that leads to depression.

It's six of one and half a dozen of the other.

Hope this helps in some small way.