Myth: Depression is a stand alone illness.
Fact: MDD, dysthymia and bipolar disorder often coexist with other problems, including anxiety disorders. There are a number of different anxiety disorders:
1. Specific Phobias: characterized by intense fear of specific circumstances or objects that pose no real danger, specific phobias are common among young children. These phobias tend to disappear, as children grow older.
2. Social phobia: characterized by marked, persistent fear of performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or scrutiny. The individual fears acting in a humiliating or embarrassing manner.
3. Panic disorder: characterized by recurrent spontaneous episodes that are associated with physiological and psychological symptoms (APA, 1994). Panic disorder often occurs along with agoraphobia, a condition characterized by fear of certain places or situations where the person might not be able to get help or escape in the event of a panic attack.
4. Agoraphobia: a condition characterized by fear of certain places or situations where the person might not be able to get help or escape in the event of a panic attack. Agoraphobia sometimes occurs without a history of panic disorder.
5. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD): characterized by excessive or unrealistic worry over a variety of issues. The intensity, duration, or frequency of the anxiety and worry is far out of proportion to the actual likelihood or impact of the feared event.
6. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD): characterized by persistent and recurring thoughts or "obsessions" that consume the individual for more than one hour per day and generally involve anxiety or fears. Many people with OCD feel compelled to perform repetitive behaviors known as "compulsions" to relieve the anxiety caused by their obsessions.
7. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): characterized by the re-experiencing of a traumatic event. The person's response to the trauma involves intense fear, helplessness, or horror.
8. Acute stress disorder: characterized by symptoms similar to those of post-traumatic stress disorder but the symptoms have been present for less than 4 weeks following the traumatic event.
Many people with MDD abuse alcohol or drugs. Most often people with depression start using alcohol and/or drugs in an unsuccessful attempt to cope with their condition. In the long run, for a number of different reasons, alcohol and drug use only increases their problems.
Appropriate diagnosis and treatment of other disorders such as anxiety or substance abuse are important to treat depression successfully.
People with MDD may also be more likely than others to have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and perhaps other unexplained medical problems such as chest pain not associated with a heart attack, chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia.
