How to Tell the Difference Between Anxiety and Stress

Anxiety and stress share a lot of overlapping symptoms, and sometimes they occur at the same time too! But it’s important to know the difference between the two for several reasons. The most important? So you can approach treatment correctly. A broken toe and a stress fracture in your foot both make your foot hurt, right? But if you’re treating the wrong area, the place that’s hurt will still struggle to heal. Similar concept here. Today, we’ll discuss a few ways to identify the differences between the signs of anxiety and stress so that the next time you’re feeling the pressure, you’ll know what to call it and what kind of help will be best. 

What’s the trigger for your feeling?

One good question to ask at the beginning of your signs of anxiety or stress is whether or not a specific event or situation brought the stress on. In many cases, stress correlates with a specific incident, challenge, or experience that’s happening. For example, a big deadline at work, a looming bill payment with tight finances, or a confrontation with someone you love. These experiences can be named, and generally, the stress ends once the situation has come to a close. The deadline passes, and you can breathe again. Anxiety, on the other hand, often behaves more ambiguously. There is not always a clear external trigger, and sometimes you can feel the symptoms of anxiety even when other stressors that were contributing to it, like a deadline, are resolved. 

How long does your feeling last?

As mentioned above, with stress, it’s more common that its symptoms will dissipate after a certain event, challenge, or time period passes. Stress doesn’t always have the same fearful, negative feelings that anxiety can bring, either. Feeling excitement leading up to a marathon and the elevated efforts of an endurance run are considered stress. Once the marathon has ended, the body’s stress response should end too. In the case of anxiety, even after stressors are eliminated, the feelings of anxiety can linger with no acute cause. It’s important to note that not all stress resolves quickly, and sometimes, prolonged stress can develop into anxiety when the nervous system doesn’t have an opportunity to return to its baseline. 

What are you focusing on?

Are the things making you feel emotionally heightened a response to real-life situations that are actually occurring? Or do you find yourself catastrophizing, imagining the worst-case scenario, and ruminating on what might happen? Stress is typically associated with the moment you’re living in and what is happening or planned to happen. Anxiety keeps us in our heads a lot, often focusing on “what-ifs’ instead of being fully rooted in reality. This can feel paralyzing and prevent us from concentrating and being present to do our best in the moment. 

How is it progressing?

If you begin to notice that stepping out of the environments causing stress isn’t removing the stressed feelings, it’s time to get serious about managing the stressors. Our bodies are naturally designed to handle stressors that ebb and flow. We rise to meet the stress, then return to baseline to process and move forward. When we remain in constant stress, our body’s capacity to manage and process becomes hindered, increasing the chances of stress co-occurring with anxiety. Although anxiety can be a difficult and uncomfortable feeling, it’s designed to keep us safe, and prolonged exposure to stress doesn’t feel safe to our bodies. When we don’t have the opportunity to return to baseline in between stressors, our bodies may start to perceive more things as a threat. When our nervous system is tapped out, everything feels worse than it might actually be in reality. This is the progression of chronic stress and anxiety. 

Does relaxing and resting help?

When dealing with stress or anxiety, the things that help can be a good indicator of which experience you’re dealing with. When you’re feeling stressed, it’s common for play time, rest, vacation, and relaxation to improve the symptoms. Why? As we’ve mentioned above, when you’re experiencing stress, removing the stressor eliminates the stress. Taking time for a weekend getaway when work is stressing you out removes you from the stressful environment and allows you to relax. Anxiety, on the other hand, is more likely to be present even during rest, and it can make relaxing difficult. For a workaholic who spends most of their time under work stress, this can develop into anxiety that makes it difficult to separate work from play. This person might find themselves frantically checking their phone for work emails poolside or ruminating about clients and deadlines during dinner with friends. If you experience workplace stress that is starting to affect you even when you’re away from work, find some helpful tips in our blog, 5 Tips for Managing Stress in the Workplace.

Although stress can be overwhelming and anxiety can be debilitating, they both can also be managed with the right skills and tools. If you’re looking for support for stress and or anxiety counseling in Tampa, we’d love to have you at Genesis Counseling of South Tampa. Contact us today to learn more and schedule an appointment.