Anxiety, Depression, and Thoughts

Stress releases corticotrophin and our brain has to then deal with hypercortisolism (Boston University, 2010). This also leads to hippocampal degeneration. The condition of hypercortisolism and hippocampal degeneration are found in people with both depression and anxiety disorders. Both the anxiety and mood disorders have substantial phenotypic overlap. However, I think I can really differentiate these two types of disorders by analyzing the preoccupied thoughts. People who have anxiety, their thoughts tend to be anxiogenic, meaning they are future-oriented (Eisendrath, 2012). On the other hand, people who are depressed, their thoughts tend to be depressogenic, meaning past-oriented. I believe, even though the external circumstances matter to an extent, it is the capability of our mind that determines the level of our psychological sufferings. Simply put, you may feel a lot more anxious or depressed in a situation than your friends and family, and your thoughts may be responsible for it.

Reference:

Boston University. (2010, November 8). Anxiety and mood disorders in DSM-5 [Video file].

Eisendrath, S. (2012). Applying mindfulness-based cognitive therapy to treatment [University of California Television (UCTV)ile].