Hi and welcome

your host I'm your host Dr. Ellen Hendrickson and every week I'll help you

meet life's challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic

ear, and zero judgment.

Anxiety and depression go together like peanut butter and jelly, peas and carrots, or bacon and eggs.

And while they're not exactly too great tastes that taste great together, they often go hand in hand. In fact, nearly 50%

of people diagnosed with depression can also be diagnosed with anxiety and vice versa. But depression and anxiety are fundamentally different.

Depression is based in hopelessness and helplessness, while anxiety is steeped

in fear of the uncertain. But even though they're different, they overlap in many ways.

Here are five big similarities.

Shared symptom number one, irritability. Anxiety by its very nature puts people on

edge which makes it easier to push them over that edge. Indeed when you're

already amped up every additional

little thing seems like a giant hassle. And with depression, it's a myth that folks

only feel sad. Instead instead depression often manifests as irritability and grouchiness, especially in men.

Shared symptom number two, problem sleeping. Anxiety almost always means trouble

getting to sleep due to tension or racing thoughts or waking up in the

middle of the night with a hundred mile an hour mind. In depression, sleep can go either way,

either too little like anxiety or sometimes too much. Either way, when you're

fighting depression or anxiety, exhaustion is the last thing you need.

Shared symptom number three, difficulty concentrating.

With either depression or anxiety, reading a book goes out the window, zoning out during movies

...