Anxiety or Depression?

Many clients present with symptoms of anxiety eg. palpitations, sweating, restricted breathing, panicky feelings, difficulty sleeping. These symptoms can often be confused with ‘depression’ eg. difficulty sleeping, lacking motivation, loss of interest in daily life, feeling overwhelmed. Also, ‘depression’ can cause symptoms of anxiety just as anxiety can cause depression.

It is important given the above, that a correct diagnosis is made by someone qualified to do so. Clients’ often come with a self diagnosis and there can be many reasons for this eg. they recently read an article or heard something in the media or a friend or relative has the same symptoms. As human beings we like to be able to give a name to a problem.

Symptoms of ‘anxiety’ and ‘depression’ are best understood by the client to give a full and permanent recovery. Sometimes a good counsellor will work with other health professionals if needed eg. doctors (if medication is required) or other mental health professionals (if there is a more complex diagnosis).

The symptoms of anxiety or depression may also be chronic, intermittent or one-off occurrences. They may be trauma related, come from grief and/or loss, be learned or be a symptom of our life experiences. There can be many reasons for these symptoms to arise such as Drug and Alcohol abuse, relationship problems or other medical conditions. To complicate things further, we all experience life and what happens in life in our own unique way, we are all different and our accumulated life experience at each age will be different.
All these factors are very important when working with the symptoms of anxiety and/or depression both in the type of counselling required and the amount of time needed to complete counselling.

If you have concerns about any of the above mentioned symptoms our counsellors are qualified to make an assessment about the type of counselling needed and/or the appropriate referral if necessary.

Deborah, Counsellor at Enough is Enough

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