The best example I can think of is the famous test by Seligmans dogs. They were shocked into helplessness. So anxiety is knowing the shock is coming and waiting for it while depression is knowing you can do nothing about it and must suffer (mental expectation). The two act simultaneously.

Such a long long time to be gone, and a short time to be there. It’s from a song I like
Very profound for me. It’s called box of rain by Grateful Dead

Hi Jbm, sounds like the seemingly endless beatings my two older brothers and myself used to get from my Dad, as in anticipating them and then receiving them . . Peace and love . . Sam . .

I wish it was that easy. If one would cancel out the other it would be great. But it seems when one decides they hit hard everything else decides to follow it. So it seems to always be a no end to any of it. So you either learn how dad handle it in your life or you learn how to try and coexist with it. Which is also hard. Sometimes it's not so bad to coexist when you're in control. But when the depression the anxiety and everything else takes control then it's super hard to coexist. It takes a lot of time and a lot of focusing and a lot of patience to get yourself to the point where you come close to being able to coexist but it's never 100% unfortunately. It all truthfully just freaking sucks

Hi @A MyDepressionTeam Member,

It sounds like depression and anxiety should cancel each other out — like one says “panic!” while the other says “nap!” 😅 But unfortunately, the brain doesn’t work like a math equation.

Anxiety and depression affect different systems:

* Anxiety puts the brain in constant “something is wrong” mode.
* Depression drains energy, motivation, hope, and joy.

So a person can absolutely feel:

* exhausted and unable to relax,
* emotionally numb and overthinking everything,
* desperate to feel better but too overwhelmed to function.

They also tend to feed each other:

* Anxiety burns a person out until they feel hopeless.
* Depression makes life harder, which creates even more anxiety.

So instead of canceling each other out, they often become an awful little tag team.

Hope this helps

Pam

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