With the rapidity in which our society advances and with the amount of things that we must do in our day to day, it is normal that responses of stress or anxiety appear. Generally, these two terms tend to be understood as the same concept, and it is not surprising, since they are closely associated with each other. Certain anxiety or stress responses are healthy and adaptive, however, the presence of these two responses in abundance can lead to serious health problems or disorders psychological. If you are interested in understanding these two phenomena so frequent in our lives and understanding those elements that differentiate them, keep reading this Psychology-Online article: 10 differences between stress and anxiety.
The anxiety is a response that leads our body to activate and reproduce defense mechanisms in a given circumstance. Faced with this set of situations that generate anxiety, an emotional response is aroused, which will be variable depending on the stimulus that produces the anxiety. This emotional response can be associated with feelings of restlessness, fear, nervousness and can lead to the appearance of excessive worries.
The anxiety symptoms they can vary depending on the anxiety disorder that is present. However, they all share a set of symptomatic manifestations that can be classified into different groups. In general, anxiety symptoms can be classified into the following groups: physical, psychological, behavioral, cognitive and social, although the specific symptoms of each category are different in the different disorders. Therefore, the symptoms of anxiety can be the following:
- Psychological: fear of losing control, fear of dying, feeling of threat, desire to flee from the situation that is associated with danger, uncertainty or insecurity.
- Of conduct- People with anxiety disorders are constantly on the alert or hypervigilant. On the other hand, impulsivity, motor agitation or hyperactivity may occur. In addition, in anxiety disorders a change in body expressiveness or body language may appear, presenting rigid postures, changes in voice, imprecise movements, etc.
- Cognitive: In anxiety disorders tend to have problems with attention, concentration or memory. On the other hand, excessive worries and negative and irrational cognitions appear.
- Social: Anxiety can limit social circumstances, and may present irritability, speech blocks, a tendency to isolation or difficulty expressing one's opinion.
Although stress and anxiety responses are conceived as synonyms, they are two different response processes. They may be related but they have several aspects that differentiate them. The top 10 differences between stress and anxiety are as follows:
1. Source
Stress maintains a clearly identifiable source, as we have previously indicated, in the face of certain situations that the person must face and feel that does not have the necessary resources to address it, feels overwhelmed, causing the origin of responses stressful.
Against, the origin of anxiety is more diffuse. The person may feel feelings of threat or fear, but without the need to know where it comes from, without being identifiable its origin. An objective circumstance does not have to present itself for anxiety responses to be aroused.
2. Triggers
Triggers stress are related to external factors that surround the person, the circumstances that overwhelm him and cause this stress response.
Triggers of anxiety are more internal, tied to our cognitions, to catastrophic thoughts or feelings of anguish and fear. It is based above all on subjective fear, regardless of what happens outside and there tends to be concern and anticipation of unlikely events.
3. Emotions presented
In stress, the predominant emotion is not fear, but concern around stimulus that has contributed to the overflow of the person. This concern triggers behaviors of irritability and feelings of sadness, as well as nervousness and feelings of frustration Faced with the inability to overcome what is presented to him.
In anxiety, the predominant emotion is the fear, the fear that something bad could happen, which leads to the person being constantly anticipating the possible catastrophic or negative situations that can be triggered next.
4. Moment of appearance
Stress gets stuck in the present producing that the time in which the person is stressed is endless, feeling that he will not be able to overcome this situation and without finding an alternative to face it. As we have previously commented, the temporal space in anxiety is situated in the future, in the anticipation characteristic of catastrophic thinking.
5. Duration
Stress, being related to external factors, ends when the stressor disappears or it is exceeded. The moment the stressful stimulus has disappeared, the physiological and psychological state of the person tends to return to normal.
Duration in anxiety is more complex to understand. In the first place, because it is associated with an internal construction of its own, with irrational thoughts that the person has developed around an idea. Faced with this, anxiety can be prolonged without a fixed end, totally depending on the reconstruction of the reality that the person executes so that said fear diminishes.
6. Symptom remission
Although the presentation of the symptoms may be similar and they share symptoms, the duration of the symptoms is very different. In stress, symptoms appear only on stimulus stressful, for example, in front of the exam time, and once the stressful circumstance has passed or has been overcome, the symptoms disappear and the person returns to their normal state. Against, in anxiety, being associated with internal factors and diffuse triggers, tends to perpetuate itself over time. In the same previous exam, the person at the end of the exam period will leave thinking that they could have done much better, in what will his grades be, he wonders how he is going to face another round of exams,... thus maintaining high levels of anxiety.
7. Objective intensity
In stress, the intensity of your presentation goes over according to the importance of the factor trigger while in anxiety intensity is more irrational, because there is a high intensity related to subjective factors that in other people would not cause such an intense response.
8. Anxiety is underlying stress
Anxiety is considered a manifestation of stress, being an emotional response to it, a symptom. This relationship does not happen in the opposite direction. Namely, stress produces anxietyBut it is not occasional that anxiety produces stress.
9. Severity
Although both stress and anxiety are two adaptive, normal and healthy responses, when these are presented in excess they can cause major health problems. Nevertheless, the severity of the anxiety is greater, being able to cause psychological disorders such as: generalized anxiety disorder, panic attacks or phobias, among others. On the other hand, the severity of stress is not so intense and when faced with its excess, it can influence or aggravate certain organic diseases.
10. Treatment
Treatment of both reactions differs greatly. Anxiety, being more persistent, requires treatment for its remission. In stress, if it does not subside, the person can start a psychotherapeutic treatment with the aim of adopting strategies for coping with stress, on the other hand, the treatment of anxiety tends to require a psychological and pharmacological treatment combined. As for example, cognitive behavioral therapy or the drug treatment for panic attacks.
