What’s the difference between stress and anxiety?

We don’t all have anxiety

Although stress and anxiety are often used interchangeably, they’re very different experiences that can be treated differently. Here’s how can you tell which you’re feeling.

You’ve likely heard the phrase “everyone has anxiety” countless times in your life, but everyone does not in fact have a mental disorder.

Stress and anxiety are two different things, but it can be easy to feel like your stress is so overwhelming that it has to be something more. 

According to Body+Soul’s Health of the Nation report, 48 per cent of Australians are affected by increased anxiety and nervousness, and 65 per cent of respondents’ top health motivation is to reduce stress and anxiety. 

The two terms are often used in conjunction or interchangeably, but how do you work out which you’re experiencing?

Why do we get stressed?

Stress is a very normal biological response to a threat. Speaking to The New York Times, Clinical psychologist, Dr Melanie Greenberg defined it as “a reaction to environmental changes or forces that exceed the individual’s resources.”

Stress has a cause, and our limbic systems release adrenaline and cortisol to help our bodies and brains address the threat.

These can make our heart rate speed up, our palms sweat and our breathing more shallow. 

You can treat stress by exercising out the adrenaline and focusing on what you can change while trying to accept what you can’t. Meditation and upping the amount of time you spend socialising can also help.

Stress is a very normal biological response to a threat. Image: Pexels

Why do we get anxious?

While stress has a definitive cause, anxiety often doesn’t. If stress is our body reacting to a threat, anxiety is our brain convincing itself there is a threat that doesn’t exist.

Stress is a symptom of anxiety, as is worry, and Marques describes it as “a response to a false alarm”. 

The effect of stress can be used positively as motivation to get things done, whereas anxiety can feel like a block to productivity.

On top of the symptoms of stress, anxiety can cause digestive problems, hives, nausea, trembling, dizziness, sleep issues, concentration issues, panic attacks, a sense of impending doom and more. 

On top of the symptoms of stress, anxiety can cause digestive problems, hives, nausea, trembling, dizziness, sleep issues, concentration issues, panic attacks, a sense of impending doom and more.  Image: Pexels

Anxiety can also linger for longer than stress, popping up when something triggers a memory, thought, or even when you’re simply tired.

You can treat your feelings of anxiousness by grounding yourself through shifting your attention to your body instead of your brain. Focus on what you can see, hear, smell, feel. Tap your fingers, wiggle your toes, and get moving. 

Cutting back on alcohol and coffee can be helpful to avoid adding to your anxiety and symptoms like a racing heartbeat. 

Feeling anxious and having an anxiety disorder are different and require different treatments. While you may feel anxious about money, work or relationships from time to time, anxiety disorders like panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder and some phobias can constantly affect us, and be detrimental to our wellbeing. If you have an anxiety disorder, even when you don’t feel anxious anymore, you still have the disorder. 

Speaking to a psychologist or counsellor can be a great way to figure out what things help to reduce your feeling of anxiety, and figure out what’s causing it.

Originally published as What’s the difference between stress and anxiety?