“It’s not that big of a deal. I’ll just press through this. What is a little sadness or anxiety? I can still do my job, pass my tests, take care of my kids, etc… I don’t want people to think I’m weak, weird, needy, ‘have issues’ etc…” These are the kind of thoughts that are often used to minimize or dismiss the experience of depression-anxiety.

Some of these messages may be good and true. Assessing how well you care for your self, family, and responsibilities is important. Often we are “just sad.”

Other messages are purely stigmatizing and lead us to believe that asking for help would make us sub-human or a drain on our friends. These messages will tempt us to “be strong” until we are at “code red” and despair-panic has us firmly in its grip.

Your goals in this chapter are simple – (a) to assess how severe your struggles with depression-anxiety are, (b) to determine the different expressions of depression-anxiety you struggle with, and (c) to identify who you need to ask to come alongside of you in this journey towards hope and peace.

In order to help you in this process, we will provide you with two tools.

1.    A Depression-Anxiety Evaluation

2.    A Depression-Anxiety Daily Symptom Chart

The evaluation will provide an overview of the various expressions of depression-anxiety you may be experiencing. This information will help you to identify which symptoms it would be beneficial to track on the daily chart. Becoming aware of the various types-frequency-intensity of our emotions will help you gain important aspects of insight to look for in chapters 3-5 and tangibly measure progress by in chapters 6-8.

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