To ask if you can suffer from depression and anxiety despite holding down a job and appearing largely ok?

[fortunatelynot]

Genuinely interested in experiences...can it truly be depression or anxiety when you are still functioning pretty well?

Yes. Any other questions?

Yes.

Yes.
Possible very well documented that those suffering do not make it obviously so.

Yes it can, I’m fully functioning - full time job, single mother to two, keep it all together because I have to, not because I don’t suffer from depression.

Am on ADs, have a counsellor & have been surviving for 12 years with depression coming & going.

Sometimes there’s no other choice.

Yep.
I have bipolar and BPD...work full time as a teacher (please don't have a go, the students wouldn't have a clue!). Am head of dept. results improving year on year, staff happy.
Will never be cured, but continually learning how to manage it.

I did it for a few years until uneventfully had a breakdown and off for 6 weeks.

People manage different ways, we all wear a face don't assume that if some one is laughing and joking they aren't, they might be feeling terrible inside.

Totally. I've been close to needing hospitalisation/sectioning while still being able to hold down a high pressure FT job.

Not depression but severe anxiety due to personal circumstances. I take medication and have counselling and find I’m 100 times better when I have work to distract me. Couldn’t imagine not working through it but it’s not work related. If it was that might be different

Yes, but it is hard.

And if you’re my boss checking up then go read the Equality Act.

Yes.

Why are you asking?

Yes. I have horrible anxiety where I feel like I could have a panic attack in most public places. I still have to work full time though to pay the mortgage etc. Every day is a massive up hill struggle and it’s exhausting having to try and act “normal” all the time when I feel like so unwell

Yes. I suffer daily from anxiety and take medication. I have a good job, lovely family and people would be very surprised if they knew. I just have to live with it.

There have been times where I have and times where I've been off sick for differing periods of time - depending on how well I'm managing self-care really I guess.

Why do you ask?

Yes it is.

‘Functioning pretty well’ is a low bar to set.

The City is full of people working with both, no doubt exacerbated by stupidly long working hours and crazy amounts of pressure.

Yes. I held down a full time job whilst depressed. It took every ounce of energy to get through the day, faking it, then I'd go home and hide under the bed clothes and cry for hours on end. Wasn't fun.

Yes. People get really good at putting on a front.

I've had periods when my anxiety was bad but I still managed to function, go to work, care for children etc

That's not to say everyone with anxiety can just keep going - depends on the severity of the condition and how it manifests for that individual. For example panic attacks can be extremely debilitating.

As others have said already yes

Yep.
Absolutely.
In fact possible to excel.
I’ve been doing it for 10 years .

Yes. I have what is called a 'high functioning depression'.

I was a childminder for 11 years and none of the parents (or kids) would have ever known, I now work in an office and no one has a clue.

My kids know (ashamedly). My family and friends know. But day to day I hide it well.

Yes

I can't imagine trying to work with my ptsd and anxiety. It's all I can do to walk to the bathroom to use the toilet most days.

I did it for a couple of years. Fell apart at home. Eventually it ended badly and I didn't work for 15 months. I had a lot of counselling and medication, and have now been back working for 3 years. I'm better at managing it now, and my kids are older and at school which helps.

To my colleagues I would have appeared totally fine until the day I got up, walked out of the office and never came back. I didn't stop crying for nearly a week.