Everyone tackles stress and anxiety at some point in their lives. Stress and anxiety can sometimes be hard to deal with, especially if you don’t know how or what to do to manage them. Learning more about why you’re feeling anxious or stressed can immensely help you manage them.
We will be discussing everything crucial about stress and anxiety, so keep on reading!
Understand what it Means to be Stressed and Anxious
Stress and anxiety are two obstacles people commonly suffer from in their daily lives. Unfortunately, some people, including you, may not realise that you suffer from constant anxiety and stress.
It’s no secret that mental health topics are still taboo in many places, despite how far we’ve gone in raising awareness about them.
So, let us break it down and make it easier for you to understand what these two common terms mean:
Stress
Stress is a term used to describe intense, overwhelming feelings that can make you feel like you cannot cope with mental or emotional pressure. It is a widespread response of the body to physical, mental, or emotional pressure. There are various reasons why we feel stressed, and there are different kinds of stress that we experience.
The three types of stress commonly experienced by people are:
- Acute Stress
- Episodic Acute Stress
- Chronic Stress
To help you understand these forms of stress better, we will break the definitions down and provide examples for you to understand, and perhaps, even relate with:
Acute Stress
Acute stress is classed as a disorder and typically involves intense, unpleasant, dysfunctional responses, which occurs right after an overwhelmingly traumatic event. This form of stress usually lasts around a month or lower. If the symptoms persevere even after a month, the person is then diagnosed with PTSD.
Examples of acute stressors include being in a financial crisis, getting a speeding ticket, dealing with divorce, or simply having a job interview. These situations can lead a person to feel unpleasant for quite some time. It does not go away until the person finally gets some closure.
Episodic Acute Stress
Episodic acute stress is essentially acute stress that is frequently experienced and is more ongoing and lasting than regular acute stress – thus, being episodic. People suffering from episodic acute stress will often feel under pressure 24/7, or they might think that something will, or is going to, go wrong constantly.
This form of acute stress exhausts the body and mind just as most forms of stress do. This lasts for weeks or even months, but it isn’t as lasting as chronic stress.
Episodic stress includes but isn’t limited to migraines, tension headaches, hypertension, or even heart disease.
Chronic Stress
Chronic stress is a relatively more severe form of stress which is much more prolonged than acute and episodic acute stress. This constant stress can negatively affect your health if you don’t seek help to get it treated.
Chronic stress can happen for a wide variety of reasons, including the everyday pressures of family and work or traumatic situations. This form of stress can sometimes live throughout your lifetime if not dealt with sooner.
Anxiety
Anxiety has a lot of types, but the most common one known to us is generalised anxiety. This is mainly a feeling of unease, like worry or fear, which can be mild or severe.
Anxiety is widespread – you may feel anxious and worried about your exams, a test, a meetup, an interview, and much more.
As we have mentioned earlier, anxiety has many types. The major types of anxiety include:
- Generalised Anxiety Disorder
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
- Panic Disorder
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Social Anxiety Disorder
All of these have the common fear and uneasiness associated with them, as well as excessive and intrusive worrying that can disrupt daily functions.
Signs that you may be experiencing anxiety other than the ones already mentioned are:
Agitation, restlessness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, tense muscles, trouble with sleeping. There are definitely other symptoms and signs of anxiety, but these are the most obvious ones that you might notice in yourself or even others commonly.
The causes of anxiety typically involve a build-up of more minor stressful situations going on in your life. When these stresses go unresolved, they build up over time, only to eat at you bit by bit until you develop an anxiety disorder.
You may experience heart palpitations, chest pain, and rapid heart rate because of anxiety. Sometimes these symptoms become so severe that you’ll need medication to keep yourself under control.
Anxiety and stress are both prevalent in our everyday lives, yet not many talks about it as seriously as they should, that’s why so many people are left untreated and suffer later on in life. What’s more, research shows that anxiety and stress can cause an overall decrease in life expectancy.
Hence, this illustrates how important it is to talk about stress and anxiety and learn how to manage and treat it for your own good.
What’s the Difference Between Stress & Anxiety?
Stress and anxiety often overlap with each other. However, there is still a fine line between them to give them their distinction.
While both are emotional responses, stress is more inclined to external triggers. The trigger is usually short term and people undergoing stress experience mental and physical symptoms of irritability, difficulty concentrating, and more. So to say, stress is mostly a response to a threat in particular situations.
Conversely, anxiety has more to do with persistent and excessive worries that don’t disappear even when the stressor is absent. Stress can trigger it and cause more long-term symptoms. It can cause significant impairments in your social and occupational life. The symptoms are more or less similar to the symptoms of stress but more severe and persistent.
If the stress and anxiety you are dealing with are mild, then coping mechanisms can help you cope pretty well. Physical activity, a wholesome and balanced healthy diet, good sleep hygiene are all great places to start with dealing with mild to moderate anxiety and stress.
However, if coping mechanisms like these don’t help you, or if you feel like your stress and anxiety are affecting your daily life and mood, seeking a mental health professional is advised. A psychologist can help you identify whether you have an anxiety disorder or not. If you seem to have it, you can receive the appropriate help to overcome your anxiety.
Anxiety disorders are common in ordinary people. Most people don’t get a diagnosis for it, though, so the numbers could be higher than what we imagine.
Even so, stress and anxiety have most of their symptoms overlapping, and the experience can be the same at times. Anxiety can result from stress and ultimately become severe, while stress is more temporary with similar symptoms as anxiety.
Symptoms of Stress & Anxiety
Most of the symptoms of stress & anxiety overlap.
Some common symptoms from stress include:
- Frequent Headaches
- Disturbances in Sleep
- Back and Neck Pain
- Feeling light-headed
- Faint and Dizzy
- Sweaty Palms and Feet
- Difficulty Swallowing
- Frequent illness
- Irritability
- Excessive Worrying
- Gastrointestinal problems
- Heart rate increasing
- Tensed Muscles
- Feeling Overwhelmed
- Difficulty calming the mind
- Concentration problems
- Increased forgetfulness
- Fatigue and low energy levels
- A loss of sexual desire
Some symptoms of anxiety include:
- Difficulties with controlling worries
- Restlessness
- Being on edge
- Concentration difficulties
- Blanking out
- Irritability
- Tension in the muscles
- Disturbances in sleep
- Exaggerated startle responses
- Psychosomatic symptoms: dizziness, stomach ache, headache
- Physical Symptoms: palpitations, rapid heart rate, shortness of breath
- Skin conditions caused by stress and anxiety also happen.
These stress and anxiety symptoms can vary and change over time. When it comes to stress, cueing into your own responses can help increase your awareness of how stress works and manifests for you.
Vital information like this is what will ultimately help you learn to use stress management and reduction approaches at the first signs of stress to avoid long term repercussions.
Managing your stress while it is in its earlier stages will also help you lower your chances of dealing with severe anxiety in the future – as anxiety usually stems from the stress that builds up and goes unresolved.
Learn How to Treat Stress & Anxiety
If you know you are dealing with stress or even anxiety but don’t know what to do about it now, this is your place to look! It is possible to prevent anxiety if you deal with its root cause or even manage your stress to make sure that you can manage your anxiety better.
Therefore, knowing how to manage your stress is essential before getting into other forms of treatment like therapy and medication. So, how to relieve stress and anxiety?
Here is a list of ways you can try to manage your stress healthily:
Relaxation Breathing Techniques
Engage yourself in deep breathing when you are feeling stressed. Practise different breathing exercises when you are calm to know what to do and how to use them when under pressure.
Mindfulness Practises and Meditation
Practising mindfulness is the best way for you to disconnect from everything stressful and your surroundings. You will learn to reconnect with the natural world for a specific period of time every day, getting a sense of relaxation from all that is difficult.
Perhaps take a walk outside and use the opportunity to take a look at your surroundings properly, using all of your senses to feel the moment truly.
Move and exercise regularly
Exercising and moving about can help you feel better as it releases the happy chemical in your brain, serotonin. Making exercise a habit in your daily routine can help you buffer negative reactions to stressful situations.
Moving about a lot isn’t only good in reducing stress and anxiety, but it also keeps the body fit and healthy, so your overall health stays good.
Start Journaling and record your thoughts
Take note of your best and worst of the day to sort through obstacles and focus on what went well for you. It’s expected to experience ups and downs, and you should make sure that you realise it.
Get Creative and keep your mind busy
Engage in a creative hobby and give your mind a chance to relax. Having distractions like painting or colouring really helps soothe the mind from stressful thoughts.
Listen to soothing music
Slow, relaxing music will decrease your stress response, so it is advised that you take the time to listen to something calming to ease your mind.
If none of the above seems to help you, you may want to seek professional help. Talk therapy can be effective for this, and working with someone to identify and tackle your problems can also help.
If your stress does end up building into what is known as Generalised Anxiety Disorder, then different treatments may also be necessary. This includes:
Psychotherapy
Talk therapy helps with identifying, processing, and coping with the triggers of anxiety. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a short term but effective treatment that helps people learn and develop specific skills to target their unique triggers.
Medication
Antidepressants are common forms of medication to be prescribed. They have some mild side effects but can help alleviate a handful of symptoms of anxiety. They can also be used for an extended period of time.
All medications should be thoroughly discussed with your healthcare provider before trying them out for your anxiety. You should immediately report every side effect that you experience from the medications. Discontinuation of medication isn’t advised until you talk to your healthcare provider about the matter.
Changes in lifestyle
Make subtle changes at home before you try taking medications for your anxiety. Daily exercise, excellent sleep hygiene, healthy eating habits, caffeine and alcohol avoidance are amazing remedies to decrease anxiety symptoms. You should continue doing these things even if you are on medication for anxiety as well.
Know when to seek help for your stress or anxiety, and please don’t hesitate to. Delaying means making things worse for yourself, and nobody would want that for you.
Learn more about Stress & Anxiety
You can also boost your knowledge to secure yourself a career within the healthcare industry by building up your skills and knowledge on various topics. This topic will undoubtedly help you, no matter which career you get yourself into. Employers will take preference for you as well. This is considering that they like those with more skills and knowledge.
Learning more about what’s bothering you and knowing how to deal with it and help others suffering will benefit you immensely. Not only will you become a hero to so many people with the skills you develop, but you’ll also be able to save yourself. You are important, after all, and you deserve the best care out there.
You will also learn more about the difference between stress and anxiety and how to deal with stress and anxiety. Additionally, the physical symptoms of stress and anxiety and more.
You can also learn about meditation for stress and anxiety. So, check out our premium quality course to understand more about stress and anxiety.
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