ANXIETY
Dr Meg Arroll shares the differences between stress and anxiety, as well as coping mechanisms to help reduce any anxious thoughts and feelings.
ARE WE BORN TO BE stressed or anxious? What’s the difference and does it even matter? Anxiety and stress are the most common difficulties I see in my practice. People experiencing both anxiety and chronic stress come to me after they have travelled down many psychological treatment and self-help paths, as well as visiting their GP and sometimes specialist consultants. For some, these therapies help to a point or in certain situations, for others, they arrive at my office with little hope that there might be something that can substantially help free them from the debilitating effects of anxiety and stress.
For quite a few people, the difficulty arises because we tend to conflate and use the terms “stress” and “anxiety” interchangeably. However, it is my belief that if we separate the innate, physiological stress response from the cognitive and perceptual aspects of anxiety, we will be at a massive advantage when it comes to managing these issues.
STRESS OR ANXIETY?
The fundamental difference between stress and anxiety has to do with our place in time: the stress response is about a present threat and/or is triggered by an association, whereas anxiety is about thoughts based on the future (worry) or the past (rumination). The confusion arises because we can imagine a whole host of scenarios – dangerous and safe. This is how both worry and rumination, which are forms of anxious thinking, trigger the stress response – our minds and bodies don’t know the difference between a present and a perceived threat, and, as such, thinking about the past and future negatively can also activate the fight-flight-or-freeze stress response. Actually, let me correct that – our minds and bodies don’t know the difference until we train them to see what is stress, and what is anxiety.
It can be helpful to ask yourself the following question to find out whether you’re experiencing stress or whether it’s anxiety: ‘Where do I find myself most – in the past, present or future?’
