Psychological Models of Depression and Anxiety: Counselor’s Perspectives

Abstract

Negative psychological states like anxiety and depression have been the major focus of psychology over the last hundreds of years. People experience these negative psychological states as a part of their response to their threatening life events. These states sometimes help to cope with threatening situations. Humans are hard wired to response in these ways as they are adaptive subsequent to traumatic events. There are multiple psychological models which explain the occurrence of anxiety and depression in clinical depression. The understandings of the formulation of these models help in the management of these clinical conditions. Anxiety and depression often co-exist among patients. The understanding of co-morbidity of anxiety and depression is the key in proper diagnosis and management of these clinical states. The current paper will focus on the detail description of psychological models of anxiety and depression and the possible link between these two clinical conditions. The paper will also enumerate brief psychological strategies of how to deal with anxiety and depression.