While anxiety and stress are two very similar conditions, they differ, it is common for these terms to be used as synonyms, but in reality they are not, identifying both is not just a theoretical exercise, in practice this helps us to define more precisely what the intensity or severity of this type of condition may be.
In addition to the difficulty of making differences, there are also several types of stress and anxiety, sometimes the classification is based on the intensity of symptoms, for example, we are talking about chronic stress or generalized anxiety, at other times the categories are depending on the source or factor that motivates them, for example, work stress or anxiety by abandonment.
- “Scientific truth can be summed up in: eating moderately.
- Having a varied diet and not worrying.
- “- Robert Hutchison-.
However, there are elements common to all forms of stress, as well as those that appear in all forms of anxiety, to make this clearer, let’s take a moment to discuss the main differences between stress and anxiety.
In case of stress, the cause is easy to identify. It occurs when there is a situation that needs to be addressed, but the person does not have, or believes that they do not have the resources to do so, the same goes for a task or any other activity that needs to be attended to. Fact.
Anxiety, on the other hand, has a more diffuse origin. The threat or danger is often not identifiable; in fact, in many cases, there is no objective reason for this state of concern to manifest, but anxiety continues to appear; on the other hand, it is much more sensitive to conditioning and anticipation and may even appear as a result of stress (pressure).
Another element that differentiates stress and anxiety are the emotions or sensations that predominate in these states, in stress there is mostly anxiety and can be defined as a state in which nervousness and frustration are mixed, it is also possible to include irritability and sometimes sadness.
In anxiety, in turn, what predominates is fear, is a feeling of imminent danger that tends to develop like a snowball, is an invasive emotion that spreads and sustains, causing a great discomfort in the emotional state, fear leads to confusion and, in severe cases, blockage or paralysis.
Generally speaking, stress comes from external factors, while anxiety comes from internal factors, it is not always so easy to distinguish from each other, what makes the difference is the presence of an external or non-external stimulus to the individual, in each case.
Stress is triggered by specific events or situations occurring in the surrounding environment; it can be a job, a particular task, going to a certain place, etc. , on the other hand, in anxiety, it is often the individual who creates and nurtures catastrophic thoughts and feelings of distress, no matter what.
They say stress is an excess of the present, while anxiety is an excess of the future. For those who are stressed, the present is infinite. The person does not believe that he or she can leave the situation in which he or she is located. she feels trapped. He sees no way to change what concerns him. You feel eternally doomed to suffer the impact of some stimulus.
In anxiety, the person is afraid of something that could happen, but that did not happen; may have happened before, but it cannot interfere with that; many times you don’t even know what it is; just anticipate anything that might happen. negative or catastrophic. Anxiety can’t objectively value your present because you live for something?terrible?that he gets ahead of himself or that he has already passed and fantasizes about his possible consequences without being able to intervene.
If what causes a person’s stress is having to go to the dentist, once they do it disappears the feeling of discomfort, a characteristic that differentiates stress from anxiety: the first disappears when the stimulus is eliminated or when the situation that causes the conflict occurs. overcome or the difficulty is solved.
Anxiety, in turn, tends to persist. Going back to the example above, if an anxious person goes to the dentist, their anxiety does not stop after the appointment, he still thinks that he may lose all his teeth or that the problem he had was just a symptom of a worse disease that began to manifest Anxiety feeds on an exaggerated and negative imagination.
Knowing all these similarities and differences allows you to better identify what really afflicts you, the best thing you can do in these cases is to seek help when stress persists for a while because it means you can’t solve a conflicting situation in your life. It is also recommended to consult a professional if you find that you are suffering from anxiety, that vague fear that has no beginning or end.