The Link Between Anxiety and Depression (And Why It Happens)

Anxiety and depression often show up together, leaving many people feeling confused, exhausted, or frustrated. You might find yourself worrying constantly one day and feeling flat or hopeless the next. Experiencing both isn’t a flaw—it’s common, and it makes sense when we look at how the mind and body respond to stress. In this post, we’ll explore how anxiety and depression are connected, why one can lead to the other, and what compassionate steps can support healing. Learn more about the connection between trauma and depression by clicking here.

Introduction

Many people don’t just have anxiety or depression—they have both. And that can be incredibly confusing. One day your mind feels loud and restless, full of worry and “what ifs.” The next, everything feels heavy, flat, or exhausting. It’s easy to wonder how these two experiences can exist at the same time—or to feel like something is “wrong” with you because they do.

The truth is, anxiety and depression overlap far more often than most people realize. Having both isn’t a personal failure, a lack of willpower, or a sign that you’re doing something wrong. It’s a common and understandable response to prolonged stress, emotional overload, or a nervous system that’s been working overtime for too long.

In this post, we’ll explore how anxiety and depression are connected, why one so often leads to the other, and what this relationship means for healing. Understanding the link can be a powerful first step—not toward “fixing” yourself, but toward responding with more clarity, compassion, and support.

Quick Definitions

Anxiety is often rooted in the future. It shows up as persistent worry, a sense of being on edge, or feeling like something bad is about to happen—even when there’s no immediate threat. Many people describe anxiety as a constant loop of “what if” thoughts, paired with hypervigilance, tension, or difficulty relaxing. Your mind may feel busy and alert, while your body feels tight, restless, or keyed up.

Depression, on the other hand, tends to pull everything inward. It’s often experienced as a low or heavy mood, a sense of hopelessness, or feeling emotionally numb. Things that once felt meaningful or enjoyable may start to feel distant or draining. Motivation can drop, not because you don’t care, but because your emotional and physical energy feels depleted.

Both anxiety and depression affect more than just thoughts and emotions. They often come with physical symptoms like fatigue, sleep problems, changes in appetite, brain fog, headaches, or a general sense of being unwell. When these conditions overlap, it can feel especially disorienting—your mind may feel overwhelmed while your body feels exhausted at the same time.

How Anxiety and Depression Are Connected

Anxiety and depression aren’t opposites—they’re often partners. Many people experience them together because they affect the brain and nervous system in similar ways.

Both anxiety and depression involve overlapping brain chemistry, including neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, which influence mood, motivation, and emotional balance. They’re also closely tied to cortisol, the body’s primary stress hormone. When stress becomes chronic, these systems can struggle to regulate themselves, making it easier for both anxiety and depression to take hold.

They also activate the same stress pathways in the body. Anxiety keeps the nervous system on high alert—constantly scanning for danger or problems to solve. Over time, this prolonged state of activation can become exhausting. When the body and mind are pushed to stay “on” for too long, they may eventually shift into a more collapsed, low-energy state that looks and feels like depression.

Depression, in turn, can fuel anxiety in its own way. Low mood and hopelessness often come with increased rumination—replaying past events, worrying about the future, or questioning whether things will ever improve. This mental looping can heighten fear and uncertainty, keeping anxiety alive even when energy feels low.

Rather than being separate conditions, anxiety and depression often reinforce one another. Understanding this connection can help explain why symptoms feel so tangled—and why healing often involves addressing both at the same time, not choosing one over the other.

Common Pathways: How One Turns Into the Other

For many people, anxiety and depression don’t arrive at the same time. One often shows up first—and over time, it can quietly open the door for the other.

When Anxiety Turns Into Depression

Living with anxiety can be exhausting. Constant worry, overthinking, and being on high alert take a real toll on both the mind and body. When your nervous system rarely gets a chance to rest, emotional and physical fatigue can start to build.

Many people cope with anxiety by avoiding things that feel overwhelming—social situations, decisions, conflict, or anything that might trigger worry. While avoidance can bring short-term relief, over time it often causes life to shrink. Opportunities are missed, routines narrow, and joy becomes harder to access.

Eventually, this cycle can lead to feeling stuck or defeated. You may start to think, “I’ve tried everything and nothing works,” or feel worn down by how much effort it takes just to get through the day. That sense of hopelessness and emotional heaviness is often where depression begins to take root.

When Depression Fuels Anxiety

Depression can also be the starting point. When energy is low and motivation disappears, it’s common to begin worrying about whether things will ever improve. Thoughts like “What if I always feel this way?” or “What if I can’t get back to who I used to be?” can quietly increase anxiety.

Depression can make everyday responsibilities—work, relationships, basic tasks—feel overwhelming. As functioning becomes harder, anxiety may grow around falling behind, disappointing others, or not being able to keep up with expectations.

Many people also carry a deep fear of being a burden. They may worry about needing too much support, leaning on others, or being “too much” emotionally. These fears can add another layer of anxiety on top of an already heavy emotional state.

Shared Risk Factors

Anxiety and depression don’t appear out of nowhere. They often develop in response to long-term emotional strain, unmet needs, or environments that ask too much of a person for too long. These conditions often grow in the same emotional soil—and that soil has nothing to do with weakness.

Trauma or chronic stress can leave the nervous system stuck in survival mode. Whether the stress was acute or ongoing, emotional or physical, the body may remain on high alert long after the threat has passed. Over time, this constant state of activation can contribute to both anxiety and depression.

Perfectionism and a strong inner critic also play a role. When self-worth is tied to performance or “getting it right,” the mind may stay locked in worry and self-monitoring. Eventually, the pressure to keep up can lead to burnout, self-doubt, and emotional collapse.

Attachment wounds—such as early experiences of inconsistency, emotional neglect, or fear of abandonment—can shape how safe we feel with others and with ourselves. These patterns often fuel anxiety in relationships and can deepen feelings of loneliness or hopelessness associated with depression.

Burnout is another common pathway. When rest is limited and expectations are constant, the nervous system has no room to recover. Anxiety may dominate at first, but prolonged depletion often leads to emotional numbness or despair.

Major life transitions or losses, even expected ones, can destabilize emotional balance. Moves, career changes, health issues, relationship shifts, or grief can all strain coping resources and increase vulnerability to both conditions.

Finally, genetics can play a role—but not in a fixed or deterministic way. A genetic predisposition may increase sensitivity to stress, not guarantee anxiety or depression. Environment, support, and coping skills still matter deeply.

Understanding these shared risk factors helps shift the question from “What’s wrong with me?” to “What have I been carrying for a long time?”—a much kinder and more accurate place to begin healing.

Why Treating Only One Often Is Not Enough

Many people seek help for either anxiety or depression—often the symptom that feels loudest at the time. If you’ve tried treatment before and felt like it only helped somewhat or stopped working after a while, that doesn’t mean you failed. It may simply mean that the full picture wasn’t being addressed.

When anxiety treatment focuses on skills alone, but depression is quietly underneath, progress can stall. You might understand coping strategies logically yet still feel flat, unmotivated, or emotionally disconnected. Without addressing the heaviness and hopelessness of depression, anxiety tools can start to feel like effort without relief.

On the other side, when depression is treated without addressing anxiety, motivation often struggles to improve. Anxiety can drain energy, increase avoidance, and keep the nervous system in a constant state of tension. Even when mood begins to lift, unaddressed worry and fear can make it hard to take action or trust improvement.

This is why integrated approaches are often more effective. Treating both anxiety and depression together allows space to work with thought patterns, emotional processing, nervous system regulation, and underlying relational or attachment themes—all at the same time. Rather than chasing symptoms, this approach looks at how they interact and reinforce each other.

Addressing both conditions isn’t about doing more work—it’s about doing the right work. When anxiety and depression are understood as connected, treatment can become more compassionate, targeted, and sustainable.

What Helps When You Have Both

When anxiety and depression overlap, healing is rarely about finding a single technique that makes everything disappear. More often, it’s about creating enough safety, support, and understanding for your system to slowly settle and rebuild.

Many people benefit from therapy approaches that address both conditions at the same time. Modalities like CBT and ACT can help loosen the grip of unhelpful thought patterns while building psychological flexibility. Emotion-focused and attachment-based therapies create space to process underlying emotions and relational wounds that often fuel both anxiety and depression. Somatic approaches focus on the body and nervous system, helping restore a sense of regulation rather than relying on insight alone.

Because both conditions involve chronic stress, nervous system regulation is an essential part of healing. This doesn’t mean forcing yourself to relax, but gently helping your body move out of constant threat or shutdown. Practices that support safety, grounding, and rest—done consistently and without pressure—often create more change than pushing through discomfort.

Equally important is self-compassion. Many people approach anxiety and depression with the goal of controlling or eliminating symptoms as quickly as possible. While understandable, this can unintentionally increase frustration and self-criticism. Shifting toward a more compassionate stance—one that asks “What do I need right now?” instead of “Why can’t I fix this?”—can reduce internal conflict and support healing over time.

Finally, pacing and gentleness matter. Progress with anxiety and depression is rarely linear. Some days will feel lighter, others heavier. Moving too fast or expecting constant improvement can overwhelm an already taxed system. Healing often happens through small, steady steps that respect your limits and build trust in your ability to cope.

There is no single right way to heal—but with the right support and a compassionate approach, meaningful change is possible, even if it unfolds more slowly than you’d hoped.

When to Seek Professional Support

If anxiety and depression have been present for weeks or months, or if they’re starting to interfere with your ability to work, maintain relationships, or care for yourself, it may be a sign that additional support could help. You don’t have to be in crisis for your experience to be valid or worth addressing.

Many people wait to seek help because they feel like they should be able to manage on their own, or because their symptoms don’t seem “bad enough.” In reality, reaching out for support is incredibly common—and often a sign of self-awareness, not weakness. Therapy and professional support aren’t reserved for worst-case scenarios; they’re tools for understanding, relief, and growth.

If you choose to reach out, it doesn’t have to mean committing to anything long-term or having all the right words. Even a single conversation can offer clarity or a sense of being less alone. Support is meant to meet you where you are, at your pace, without pressure to change faster than you’re ready.

You deserve care that acknowledges the full picture of what you’re experiencing. And if you’re not ready to seek professional help right now, that’s okay too. Knowing support is available can be a meaningful step in itself.

Conclusion

If this resonated with you, you’re not alone. Many people live at the intersection of anxiety and depression, quietly trying to make sense of feelings that seem to pull in opposite directions. What you’re experiencing has context, meaning, and validity—even if it’s hard to explain or easy to minimize.

Healing is possible, even when it doesn’t follow a straight line. Progress may come in small shifts, pauses, or moments of clarity rather than dramatic change. With understanding, support, and patience, it’s possible to build a relationship with your mind and body that feels safer, steadier, and more compassionate over time.

You don’t have to have everything figured out to move forward. Sometimes, simply recognizing yourself in the story is a meaningful step on its own.

More Resources

If you are interested in learning more, click here. For more information on this topic, we recommend the following:

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About the Author

Jessica Jenkins is a licensed therapist and board certified coach who contributes to the promotion of mental health and addiction awareness by providing educational resources and information.