Do I Suffer from Stress or an Anxiety Disorder?

The line that distinguishes certain theoretical constructs from others is very fine, especially in disciplines such as psychology. And over the last few decades some concepts have been conceptualized from the scientific field, even in opposing ways. Therefore, it is logical that many people have difficulty differentiating some terms. 'psi' of others, even more so when they are used every day in everyday language, as happens with the stress and the anxiety: is one part of the other? They're synonyms?

The debate takes a qualitative leap when we think that, as a result of this confusion, a person can not knowing what to do with your problem because you don't know if what you are suffering from is stress or a mental disorder. anxiety. For this reason, in this article we will point out the main differences between both constructs and certain guidelines for distinguish stress from an anxiety disorder.

What is stress?

Firstly, we can start by defining stress as an adaptive mechanism that refers to a series of changes physiological mechanisms that allow an organism to adapt to a stressful stimulus, which could be aversive or not, which we call stressor Human beings and other species are permanently exposed to environmental stressors, so their presence represents an alteration of our homeostasis or internal balance. This, far from being a problem, is a great virtue. That's why we say that

stress is an adaptive mechanism: If it weren't for it, we would not be able to behave in a way that is consistent with what is happening around us (it allows us to flee from a dark alley where we could be attacked, for example).

However, constant exposure to stressful stimuli can cause stress to become chronic, which can seriously affect our health. It affects our immune system and, above all, our nervous system. To cope with stressors, the body first triggers a nervous sympathetic response—producing phenomena such as an increase in our blood pressure, since It seeks to ensure that glucose (the fast energy fuel) and nutrients travel through the bloodstream quickly to carry out an adaptive response to stress. stressor—; and this not being enough, it evokes an endocrine response. It achieves this by activating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the result of which is the overproduction of glucocorticoids, which if persisted over time, can trigger serious alterations, both behavioral and cognitive.

• Related article: "Types of Anxiety Disorders and their characteristics"

How to distinguish stress from anxiety?

For its part, anxiety is usually defined as a series of behaviors, physiological reactions, normal emotional experiences and expressions, which we all present when faced with a possible threat, be it Real or not. The first point why anxiety is often confused with stress is that it also involves an adaptive mechanism. Feeling anxiety allows us to anticipate the future and evaluate possible scenarios as a consequence of the same circumstance., so it is essential for decision making.

When we experience anxiety, we present signs and symptoms such as localized sweating in the hands, we feel nervous or restless, we have palpitations or even tachycardia. As we can see, these coincide with many of the symptoms of stress. However, in order to distinguish the two constructs, some authors point out the fact that anxiety is an emotional response. against stress, so it could not be thought of in isolation from it, but rather as one more dimension of the mechanism adaptive. In relation to this idea, the American Psychological Association has published an article on the matter in which it points out that Stress is typically caused by a trigger external to the subject, which generates symptoms such as insomnia, fatigue or anger.

On the other hand, anxiety is defined as excessive worry about a stressor—so we could maintain that it is part of this continuum—but that it persists even when the stressor is already absent. In this way, a threat is configured that tends to be internal, unknown and vague. This is why, for some people, it is difficult to identify which situations or objects they feel anxious about.

• You may be interested: "Mental health: definition and characteristics according to psychology"

The difference between anxiety and stress disorders

As we have developed, the line that distinguishes anxiety from stress is fragile: both are adaptive, universal mechanisms, they serve us to give responses to the environment, their symptoms and signs often coincide, as do the most efficient coping strategies for answer them. Some of these are physical exercise, good sleep hygiene, varied and complete diet, etc. However, when anxiety or stress becomes chronic and becomes a pathology, the distinction becomes more evident.

We can feel stressed in everyday situations in our lives, whether we value them positively or negatively.. In the case of the latter, they can be triggered by short-term events, such as a job delivery. within the next few days, but also due to long-term phenomena, such as the diagnosis of a disease chronicle. An increasingly common stress disorder among people is burnout, also known as burnout syndrome, which especially affects those workers whose work involves caring for people, such as doctors or teachers. Another stress disorder is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in which after a highly stressful or traumatic situation (such as a traffic accident or an abusive situation), the person presents symptoms such as depersonalization, derealization, affective anesthesia—that is, it indicates “not feeling anything”—and, above all, it has re-experiencing phenomena or flashbacks of said situation.

On the other hand, there is another range of disorders that, although they are linked to stressful phenomena, their component characteristic is the prevalence of anxiety and the avoidance of circumstances in which it can become manifest. Some of these disorders are phobias, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder or generalized anxiety disorder. In them, the person usually presents excessive and uncontrollable worry about certain stimuli (whether real or hypothetical, present or not) that ends up interfering with their daily tasks in a negative way. For example, if a person has a feeling of flushing and body sweating, accompanied by cognitive component of hypervaluation of their fears, it is possible that it is some disorder of anxiety.

Beyond these guidelines that we have pointed out, it is also important to note that the line could continue to be fine even knowing the differences between both concepts. For this reason, to know with certainty if someone suffers from stress or an anxiety disorder, it will be necessary to consult with a mental health professional, able to provide an accurate diagnosis and guide treatment.