Everything you need to know about stress and anxiety

What is stress and anxiety and what is their difference?

Stress is any demand placed on the human brain or physical body. It can be caused by any event or situation that makes a person feel nervous or anxious.

Anxiety is a feeling of fear, worry, or discomfort. Although anxiety can be a reaction to a stressful situation, it can also occur for no apparent reason.

Both conditions have similar symptoms, such as:

  • insomnia or other sleep problems;
  • problems with the gastrointestinal tract and digestion;
  • difficulty concentrating;
  • muscle tension;
  • irritability or anger.

Many people may experience stress and anxiety at some point in time, which can be quite normal. Sometimes they are positive, because they enable you to accomplish difficult tasks or things you don't want to do but have to.

At the same time, stress and anxiety that cannot be controlled can negatively affect the quality of life and harm both mental and physical health.

Let's take a look at the difference between fear and anxiety, as well as the difference between stress and anxiety and how to manage these conditions.

How do stress and anxiety manifest themselves?

Both conditions can cause various physical and psychological symptoms.

Stress has the following symptoms:

  • dizziness
  • muscle tension
  • Digestive problems, including nausea and diarrhea;
  • insomnia and sleep problems;
  • anger or irritability
  • migraines
  • sweating
  • feeling depressed
  • anxiety
  • change in appetite;
  • heart palpitations.

Anxiety has similar symptoms, as well as

  • a feeling of impending death;
  • tingling and numbness in the limbs;
  • blurred vision.

The difference between stress and anxiety

A significant difference between the two conditions is the presence of a specific trigger.

Stress is usually preceded by a specific situation. And as soon as it disappears, so does the stress.

Perhaps it's an upcoming exam that you're really worried about. Or maybe you have to combine work with raising three children who need your attention. In both cases, the stress has a definite cause. As soon as you pass the exam or the kids go to kindergarten, the stress disappears.

But this is a short-term kind of stress. Chronic stress, on the other hand, is a long-term condition that occurs in response to continuous pressure from others.

Anxiety does not always have a specific trigger.

Can one condition turn into another?

Despite the fact that stress and anxiety are different things, they have common ground.

Sometimes stress causes anxiety. For example, if you are worried about changing your place of residence, you may feel anxious about certain things.

How do you know what feeling you are experiencing now?

Not sure what feeling caused your symptoms?

Look back and think about what events are happening in your life right now. Why do you feel anxious? Is it some kind of threat or just a normal situation?

Consider the situation with your car. Let's say you need to buy new tires because it's winter. But you don't have the money yet. For several weeks, you feel uncomfortable driving. What if you skid on the ice? What if you get into an accident? In two weeks, you buy new winter tires, and the problem is solved. In this case, your anxiety was caused by the stress of not having winter tires.

But maybe you get new tires and see no change in your symptoms because you haven't stopped being nervous and are still feeling a vague sense of anxiety about something. Your tires may not have been a problem at first, but you can't shake the general feeling of anxiety before every drive. This is called anxiety.

If you can find a connection between your feelings and a specific trigger, it's stress. But if you don't know the exact cause or your symptoms don't go away after the trigger disappears, it's anxiety.

What causes stress and anxiety?

Most often, stress is a response to a physical or mental pressure factor, which can relate to major changes in a person's life. For example, situations such as:

  • changing your place of residence;
  • starting a new school or job;
  • illness or injury;
  • having a friend or loved one with an illness or injury;
  • experiencing the death of a loved one;
  • wedding
  • the birth of a child.

At the same time, stress triggers do not always change a person's life. A person may be stressed because of:

  • a long list of things to do the next day
  • an important work meeting;
  • the approaching deadline for submitting work.

Stress and disorders related to stress and anxiety

Stress and anxiety that appear too often or seem inappropriate to the stressor may be the cause of a hidden illness, including:

  1. GAD (generalized anxiety disorder). It is a frequent anxiety disorder that is accompanied by uncontrollable worry. People often worry that something irreparable will happen to their loved ones, and sometimes they can identify the source of the worry.
  2. Panic disorder. This condition is a manifestation of panic attacks - moments of intense fear, which entails a rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath and fear of an impending tragedy.
  3. PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder that can cause memories and experiences of various traumas.
  4. Social anxiety disorder. This is a state of intense anxiety in situations that are caused by communication with other people.
  5. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In this state, a person's thoughts are constantly repeated, and there is an obsession with performing specific ritual actions.

Such issues can be addressed with both milder, naturally derived substances like muscimol, as well as more potent options, such as SSRIs.

How to manage stress and anxiety

Sometimes people experience stress and anxiety that need to be brought under control. Let's look at how to reduce stress and anxiety by making them more manageable.

You need to observe how your body and mind react to different situations that cause stress and anxiety. And when a similar situation occurs in the future, you will be able to control your reaction so that it does as little harm as possible.

Methods to reduce stress and anxiety:

  • avoiding caffeine and alcohol;
  • healthy long sleep;
  • meditation;
  • doing your favorite thing, hobbies;
  • keeping a diary where you should write down feelings and things that cause stress;
  • breathing exercises;
  • trusting relationships with close people.
  • using innovative approaches, such as muscimol, which has an effect on the brain and can help regulate the emotional state.

Strategies for managing stress and anxiety

Only a specialist knows how to recognize anxiety and stress, and can help you choose the right treatment for these disorders. Also, anxiety and stress have significant differences, so you should know when you are just worried and when the ailment is a permanent phenomenon. If these problems interfere with your daily life, you should seek help from a specialist so that the disorders do not become a more serious mental illness.

How to treat stress and anxiety

A mental health professional knows how to recognize anxiety disorders and stress, so they can help you find the most effective solution, depending on the symptoms you are experiencing.

Your doctor may recommend several approaches to solving the problem:

  1. Cognitive behavioral therapy. It will teach you how to recognize anxious thoughts and behaviors and then change them into positive emotions.
  2. Exposure therapy. It involves gradually exposing you to certain things that cause anxiety.
  3. Acceptance and commitment therapy. It teaches you how to accept and cope with bad moods and negative emotions.

Depending on your symptoms, your doctor may also recommend medications to help with anxiety symptoms, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as sertraline (Zoloft) or paroxetine (Paxil).

Sometimes a specialist prescribes benzodiazepines, such as diazepam (Valium) or lorazepam (Ativan). But these approaches are intended for short-term use because of the risk of addiction.

Conclusion

While a small amount of stress and anxiety in life can be present and should not be a cause for concern, it is still necessary to recognize when these feelings are causing negative consequences.

If you feel that you are unable to manage your stress and anxiety, a mental health professional can help you develop new skills to cope with these types of disorders.

And if you want to learn more about psychological conditions and how to work with them, start with our article on anthropophobia. For more resources on mental well-being and related topics, explore our website.

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