What are the differences between stress and anxiety?
Stress and anxiety have a lot of overlapping symptoms. It can be difficult sometimes to understand the differences between the two.
If you are wondering about whether you have stress or anxiety, read on to know more.
A instance involving stress
You are late for work and you manage to somehow get in the car. On the way, you realize that you have forgotten your lunch at home. Your mind starts racing. Nausea starts to creep in and you try to relax by closing your eyes. You hear your mind saying, “I am so clumsy. I cant get anything right. How will my boss react when I am always late to work like this?”.
Even if the start of your day isn’t as bad as this, you most likely related to some parts of this. This scenario implies a stress reaction.
An example of a day involving anxiety
You just started a new job in a new city, and things seem to be going great. You have a stable relationship with your partner, and making new friends every so often. Life looks good when suddenly one day while entering into an office meeting, you notice your heart pounding heavily. Dizziness and fainting feelings overcome you. Your whole body shakes and trembles.
You go to the hospital and get some tests done. But surprisingly, your results are all normal.
You come home and start to notice the same symptoms happening over and over again for the next few days. You wonder why suddenly everything changed when there is no apparent trigger to all these. This scenario is an anxiety reaction.
What are the similarities between stress and anxiety
The following symptoms are common to stress and anxiety
• Rapid heart rate
• Muscle tension
• Dry mouth
• Dizziness
• Nausea
• Irritability
• Exhaustion
Over time, if left untreated, both anxiety chronic stress can lead to other issues such as: intestinal problems, obesity, increases in blood pressure, sleeping problems, and depression
What are the differences between stress and anxiety?
Stress is generally caused by external situations. Situations that are out of our ability to cope. On the other hand, anxiety generally doesn’t have a strong trigger. Something like a simple office meeting can lead to a panic attack.
Stress generally starts off as a short-term response, but the problem is when recovery doesn’t happen, it leads to long-term chronic stress. This can show up as a never-ending juggle between work and family life, or school and life. When we are going through stress, we generally know what causes this and what we are stressed about. Most often, after the stress-inducing circumstance is over, the symptoms usually disappear.
When to seek help...
Stress and anxiety are both normal, adaptive, and a big part that makes us to be human. But if they lurk around for the long haul, they can have make a big dent in our day-to-day life, mental health and well-being.
If you are finding this too much to handle, seeking counselling and therapy will definitely help. We cannot afford to impede our daily activities because of stress or anxiety for the long-term. It’s important to learn to identify the triggers and build on psychological strategies to work on them more effectively..
When Sindhushri is not indulging in clinical work, she is seen singing songs with her daughter, exploring board games with her husband, playing sitar with her mother, and creating zentangles during her alone time.
When Sindhushri is not indulging in clinical work, she is seen singing songs with her daughter, exploring board games with her husband, playing sitar with her mother, and creating zentangles during her alone time.
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