Symptoms Common to Both Anxiety and Depression
Anxiety and depression can cause a variety of physical and mental symptoms. Many of these symptoms are common to both disorders.
That fact that so many symptoms seem to be common to both disorders underlines the suspicion of many researchers that these supposedly different categories of mental illness may themselves be symptoms of a common underlying condition.
Depression is one of the most common symptoms for people who experience anxiety disorders.
Anxiety is one of the most common symptoms for people who experience depression.
Other Common Symptoms of Both Anxiety and Depression
- Fatigue
- Difficulty concentrating
- Memory problems
- Restlessness, anger, irritability
- Headaches
- Increased sensitivity to pain
- Sleep disorders: Insomnia, early-morning awakening, or oversleeping. Nightmares
- Lack of interest in food
- Appetite and/or weight changes
- Alienation
- Shyness
- Irrational fears
- Pale complexion
- Digestive disorders such as indigestion and nausea
- Loss of interest in activities that were once enjoyed
- Loss of interest in sex
- Impotence or other sexual dysfunction
All these symptoms can be explained in terms of the effects of long term stress on the brain and endocrine system. The biggest culprit is cortisol, the stress hormone associated with long-term stress.
Excess levels of cortisol are known to undermine the endocrine and immune systems, causing such apparently unrelated symptoms as fatigue, loss of interest in sex, and increased sensitivity to pain.
Overtime, excess levels of cortisol can kill billions of brain cells, and actually shrink the hippocampus, the center of emotional memory... thus explaining psychological symptoms such as shyness and alienation.
Cortisol, and it's sister stress hormone epinephrine (adrenalin) drain non-essential body parts of blood, causing other apparently unrelated symptoms such as indigestion and paleness of the face. This is so that the body can respond to some perceived emergency that apparently never ends. This semi-permanent state of alert in response to real or imagined long-term stresses is the cause of anxiety.
Cortisol causes depression when prolonged elevated levels of the stress hormone throw the brain's neurotransmitters out of balance.
In normal people the level of cortisol in the bloodstream peaks in the morning just before sunrise, then decreases as the day wears on. But for someone suffering from depression, early morning never ends: Cortisol peaks in the morning but does not level off or decrease throughout the afternoon and evening.
Author:
William Prescott is a health researcher and author. |
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