What's the difference between anxiety and depression?

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Might be a stupid question but how do I know if what I'm feeling is anxiety or depression? What's the difference?

Well in my experience depression seems to more decrease my energy so I am less motivated to do things...and anxiety in my case seems to more increase energy in some ways but not motivation as if I am anxious that will distract me from things because I am feeling anxious and worried so I'm more concerned with that then whatever else I'm doing at the moment.

Don't know if that helps any.

Hmm. Basically what I'm feeling is that there are too many thoughts in my head and too many worries. And then I keep worrying and because of that I feel some sort of pain/weird feeling in my chest/stomach and sometimes I get restless and sometimes my heart beats faster than usual. I can't make the thoughts stop and it just really makes me distressed. That, when it's extreme, leads to meltdown. I don't really enjoy doing things anymore and all I can think about when around people is that I don't want them to touch me, that I don't understand them and that they don't understand me. Does that sound like depression or anxiety? By the way, I pretty much fit all of the "symptoms" of Generalized Anxiety Disorder. But I might be wrong. I just know I've been feeling like this for years and I'm very tired of it.

EDIT: Also, since I feel that way around people I kind of isolate myself which makes me think even more. It's a vicious circle.

Most of that sounds more like anxiety, since it can cause there to be too many thoughts and worries and it can cause chest pain, stomach pain and increased heart beat. Restlessness is also common as its hard to sit still when one is anxious and worried. The not enjoying things sounds more like depression...but that could also just be that you get worn out from feeling anxious so then you don't have much energy for other things. It is possible to have both depression and anxiety though so that is a possibility as well.

I have both generalized anxiety and depression.

True. It might very well be both. Anyway, I'm going to the psychologist (for the first time in my life) in the end of this month so hopefully I can get some help then. I'll also ask for a referral to someone who can assess me for AS. I should really have gone to a psychologist many years ago but I haven't had the courage to do so. So yeah, we'll see what he/she says. Just want to be well prepared so I thought I'd ask here as well.

Thanks for the answer by the way.

In my experiennce;

Depression - "I want to die"

Anxiety - "Oh my God, I think I'm gonna die!! !"

Anxiety is more of a nervous, panicky and helpless feeling. Depression is when you're extremely sad and down, you lose interest in a lot of your usual hobbies and it's hard for you to be happy about things.

Not a stupid question at all, in fact it's an interesting question, because although anxiety and depression do go hand-in-hand with one another, they can also be two different conditions. I have more anxiety than depression. With me, depression comes and goes. Sometimes I get bouts of depression, sometimes a depressed feeling waves over me and goes again, and sometimes I can be feeling depressed for days, which ends up in me becoming very snappy and impatient and even suicidle.

To be quite frank, I'll prefer to be anxious than depressed (well, I'd rather have neither, but out of the two I prefer being anxious). Anxiety stays with me a lot, but sometimes I can learn to block it out from my mind and try to take control of the situation and carry on as normal. With depression, I can't. I tend to dwell on things and just can't seem to make myself ''just not care''. When I'm feeling anxious, I can still also be in a neutral or happy mood (not all the time, but sometimes I can), but with depression I constantly wallow in self-hatred and just want to die so people can't bother me any more. But suicide is never an answer, but depression prevents me from learning how to deal with bad situations, whereas I can sometimes learn from anxiety, if that makes sense. Anxiety helps me to become self-aware and also prepared for bad situations ahead, whereas nothing good can come from depression with me.

I'm not saying anxiety is a good thing though, it is also soul-destroying and can be disabling, but I can just deal with anxiety better, possibly because other people know how to help me out when I'm feeling anxious, whereas when I'm feeling depressed people seem to get fed up with me.

+1

Anyone knows how to chemically switch between anxiety/depression? I found that if entactogens are taken on a regular basis, one sort of gets that loneliness 'replenished', if that is what one is depressed about... but could end up anxious, i.e. on the other side of the spectrum - not wanting to be around people.

Anyone knows how to go the other way round? (Or ideally, reach an equilibrium?

Can getting stuck in mental loops and feeling like your trapped in your own mind be a part of anxiety? That's how I'm feeling right now. All I want is to have a meltdown so I can get it all out, but no meltdown yet.

It is not really a dumb question. At different times in my life I have had both clinically severe depression and anxiety.

That's a good guideline, but it sure would be nice to examine one's feelings before they reach such advanced stages. It would be real nice to realize when you are ruminating obsessively to the point where you wish you were going to do die. In my opinion, that is the holy grail of mental health, to catch anxiety or depression in the early stages before it becomes either a panic episode or a mood episode.