These are two of the main reasons people enter therapy. Trying to manage and cope with the symptoms of anxiety and depression can become a full-time job. Many people experience symptoms of both anxiety and depression at the same time, with one or the other being more predominant at different times. They might not feel like discrete, separate feelings; they can be experienced as ‘flip sides of the coin’ or as partnered as peanut-butter and jelly. Oftentimes, the feelings of anxiety or depression are the top layer of a dense undergrowth of feelings. While looking at ways to reduce the distress caused by these symptoms, the client begins to detect patterns or circumstances that influence these symptoms. Some people are not aware that the feelings and thoughts they are having are related to anxiety or depression. For some, these are new feelings and can be traced to a particular event or circumstance. For others, these feelings have been lifelong companions and people muse ‘that’s just the way I’ve always felt’. Learning to recognize what you are feeling; to accept this as only a part of yourself; to explore the flip-side of the positive aspects of these characteristics and how they might serve to help or protect you; and working on working ‘with’ your feelings, rather than in opposition to them, can be part of the healing process.
