Stress and anxiety are very common, and they have similar symptoms, but they are not the same. It’s important to know the difference so that if you experience symptoms, you know how best to manage them.
Stress is the body’s normal response to a challenge, such as a busy day at work or an argument with a loved one. Stress is actually a positive response, because it motivates you to handle the challenge. Stress can be acute, meaning it happens during an isolated incident, or it can be chronic, caused by an ongoing challenging situation.
Stress can manifest with physical symptoms, such as a rapid heartbeat, tension in the muscles, or a headache. However, it also puts your body into “fight or flight mode”, preparing you to react quickly to the situation.
Mentally, stress can make you irritable and anxious, or cause a feeling of being on edge. It can even turn into a panic attack, which is a sudden burst of fear that makes your heart race, and causes sweating or rapid breathing.
Over time, if stress continues, you may experience chest pain, exhaustion, achiness, digestive issues, or high blood pressure.
Anxiety is an ongoing feeling of worry or fear, even if no valid reason for it exists. People with anxiety often have catastrophic thinking, expecting the worst to happen and constantly being on edge, waiting for disaster. Generalized anxiety disorder is a mental health condition, characterized by chronic anxiety that impacts daily life.
Anxiety’s main symptom is constant worry or fear, but it has other symptoms as well including:
As you can see, stress and anxiety may feel somewhat similar, but the key difference is that stress is situational and temporary, lasting only as long as the situation lasts. Anxiety, on the other hand, is an ongoing state of fear and worry that is not caused by a particular situation or event.
However, if stress is chronic, it can become anxiety, with persistent feelings of worry or fear.
Counseling can help you learn to cope with stress, but stress can generally be managed with certain lifestyle changes.
Exercise
Physical activity causes the release of endorphins, which are natural mood boosters. This can relieve stress after a rough day, but regular exercise can also bring ongoing stress relief by helping to regulate your mood and improving your overall well-being.
Meditation
Meditation can bring you a sense of calm and peace and help you to focus your thoughts.
Yoga
Yoga can help to relax and center both your mind and your body.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness means always existing in the moment, focusing only on what is happening in that moment. By doing so, you’re not thinking or worrying about what has happened, or what’s going to happen.
Social Connection
Connecting with friends or family offers distraction from stressful situations, as well as support.
Regular Sleep
A regular sleep schedule that gives you seven to nine hours of sleep helps to keep you refreshed and centered.
Anxiety can be treated with therapy and sometimes medication. The most common type of therapy for anxiety is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). In cognitive behavioral therapy, you’ll learn to recognize your negative or irrational thoughts and to challenge them using reason and realistic thinking.
For example, if you’re worrying about a bad thing happening to you, you’ll learn to stop and reason through the thought. You might instead think about what the odds are of that thing actually happening, and the reality that worrying about it is not productive.
In CBT, you’ll also learn coping strategies for dealing with challenges.
Medications for anxiety include serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine inhibitors (SNRIs), which help to regulate mood. Sometimes benzodiazepines are also prescribed, which are sedatives that can relieve the physical symptoms of anxiety.
It’s important to note that all of the lifestyle changes that help to manage stress can also be effective in relieving anxiety symptoms.
Stress and anxiety are closely related, but the key difference is that stress is situational while anxiety is an ongoing mental health condition. If you are struggling with either, help is available. At New England Medical Group, we offer compassionate mental health services. Reach out today to learn more.
