Dear human, thank you for sharing and reaching out. It seems like your sister is suffering from depression and anxiety and I appreciate your effort to seek help for her. Depression and anxiety could be because of many reasons like life stress, personality traits, uncertainty, traumatic events, fear, self doubts, work/academic stress, interpersonal troubles, etc. Depression is a state of low energy and low mood characterized by feelings of hopelessness, helplessness and worthlessness. It drains our energy and makes us sit ideally without doing any activities due to loss of interest or pleasure and this should persist for at least 2 weeks to qualify as depression. Meanwhile, anxiety is a state of anticipation/worry that makes us restless and uncomfortable. It always keeps us on edge with consistent worry patterns about the future. Though both the conditions are totally different, it co-occurs frequently for many people. One can lead to the other, depression can lead to anxious feelings and vice versa. Under the given circumstances of both the conditions co-occurring for your sister, it is crucial to seek professional help.
It is advisable to consult a psychologist or therapist first because depression and anxiety can be resolved with counselling/therapy. After consulting with a psychologist, they would refer you to a psychiatrist if needed because the psychiatrist prescribes medications and it happens only when the psychologist feels like the client definitely needs medication to reduce the symptoms. If not it can be resolved using properly guided therapy.
Try talking to your sister about seeking help, identify how she feels about it and explain to her the benefits of therapy and counselling and how it will help her in the long run.
Next Steps
Please book an appointment with me via practo, as we go about understanding the causes or reasons for your sister’s depression and anxiety and figure out a beneficial way to resolve it.
Hope to hear from you soon - take care.