During years of outpatient treatment and online consultation, we often encounter friends and family members of patients asking: how to identify whether they are depressed or anxiety disorder? Here is a simple and clear chat with you about how to quickly identify and determine depression and anxiety disorders!
1.The core performance is different
The core symptoms of depression – unhappiness, low mood, decreased interest, summed up in one word – low, summed up in one word – sad. In addition, it is accompanied by fatigue and lack of energy. These are the main and persistent symptoms.
The core symptoms of anxiety – worry, fear, restlessness – are summarized in one word – nervousness and one word – fear. Anxiety in addition to nervousness and fear, most friends will have somatic symptoms, such as inexplicable physical discomfort, electric current, numbness, dull pain, burning, hot and cold, excessive sweating, fear of cold and heat, frequent urination, decreased appetite, etc.
2.Different degrees of impact
Depression must be a depressed state of mind lasting longer and more serious, the self-experience of melancholy is more significant, and the impact on daily life, work and interpersonal interactions is mostly due to the lack of mood, meaning, interest and energy.
The anxiety disorder is dominated by inexplicable, unexplained, undirected and continuous anxiety and fear over a period of time, manifested as a feeling of being on the brink of a great enemy, on thin ice, on the verge of death, and on the verge of straw, and there is no sign worthy of such nervousness and fear, but it cannot be controlled by oneself and cannot be relieved by the assurance and persuasion of family members and friends, because the fear, nervousness or fear affects one’s daily life, interpersonal interactions and work and study.
Therefore, depression is not being able to do things and interact, while anxiety is not daring to do things and interact!
3. Different clinical subtypes
Depression is clinically manifested in different onset and forms, summarized in several aspects.
(1) melancholic type, with depressed mood as the main focus, throughout the onset of the process.
(2) Irritable type, highlighted by anxiety, temper tantrums, agitation, and restlessness, but must occur on the basis of a depressed state of mind.
(3) Low motivation type, highlighted by fatigue, poor energy, slow reaction, hesitation, and low efficiency.
(4) Insomnia type, highlighted by severe insomnia or excessive sleepiness.
Anxiety disorders are divided into several subtypes.
(1) Panic attacks, with brief, rapid, recurrent episodes of acute fear and near-death feelings as the main manifestation.
(2) Generalized anxiety with prominence of worry, nervousness, great distress, physical discomfort, and pain of long duration (which may range from several years to a dozen years).
(3) Social phobia, characterized by fear of meeting people, fear of being noticed, fear of speaking and showing one’s face, so-called “red face syndrome”.
(4) Specific phobias, fear of certain animals, certain scenes, etc.
(5) other anxiety disorders, such as selective muteness, etc. will not be introduced
4. Different consequences
Depression is more concealed, concealed by itself, the disease slowly aggravates, the end is more terrible, such as not intervening in the treatment, the course of the disease prolonged aggravation, there will be different degrees of negative pessimism or even anorexia, the risk of suicide, not identified, not treated, the consequences are more serious.
Anxiety disorders cannot be concealed, the obvious external manifestations are prominent, sitting and lying down, walking around, distracted, distracted, constantly seeking help, the onset is more acute and short, and the risk of negative suicide is lower.
In short, this is just a basic way to identify depression and anxiety, but, in reality, it is far from that simple, often the two emotional states are intertwined, for some special populations such as children, the elderly, especially patients with serious physical illnesses, when depression and anxiety appear, the diagnosis and treatment should be more careful, do not take it upon yourself, or specialist physicians to help you assess and treat!