Anxiety & Stress
What’s the Difference Between Anxiety and Stress?
Anxiety and stress can feel very similar because they share many emotional, physical and behavioural responses.
Both can involve:
- Worry
- Irritability
- Difficulty concentrating
- Feeling restless or on edge
- Muscle tension
- Changes in sleep
- Feeling exhausted
- Difficulty switching off
- Physical discomfort
- Feeling overwhelmed
One useful difference is what appears to be driving the experience.
Stress is often connected with identifiable demands or pressures.
You may be dealing with a heavy workload, financial pressure, relationship difficulties, parenting responsibilities, health concerns, uncertainty or simply too many things requiring your attention at the same time.
Anxiety can involve worrying about what might happen, anticipating problems, fearing particular situations or feeling threatened even when there is no immediate danger.
Stress may ease when the demand or pressure passes.
Anxiety can sometimes continue after the original stressful situation has ended or occur when there is no obvious external problem.
The distinction is not always clear, and you don’t need to work out which label perfectly describes what you’re experiencing before seeking support.
When Anxiety and Stress Feed Each Other
The relationship between anxiety and stress can work in both directions. Sustained pressure can leave you feeling increasingly worried, tense and alert to what might go wrong. You may begin questioning whether you can cope, worrying about making mistakes or anticipating the next problem before it happens.
But persistent anxiety can also create stress.
If your mind is constantly anticipating problems, replaying situations, questioning decisions or trying to create certainty, there may be very little opportunity to properly switch off.
- Sleep can be affected.
- Decisions can become harder.
- Concentration can suffer.
- Ordinary demands may begin requiring more effort.
You may avoid something because it makes you anxious, only to experience additional stress because the problem still needs to be dealt with. This can create a reinforcing cycle.
- Stress can increase anxiety.
- Anxiety can increase stress.
Poor sleep, exhaustion, avoidance and overthinking can then make both more difficult to manage. Over time, it may become difficult to know which came first.
Rather than trying to perfectly separate them, it can be more useful to understand how they are interacting and what may be keeping the cycle going.
What Can Anxiety & Stress Look Like?
Anxiety and stress can affect your thoughts, emotions, behaviour and body.
- You might feel constantly switched on or unable to properly relax.
- Your mind may repeatedly move ahead to what needs to happen next or what could go wrong.
- You might replay conversations, question decisions, think through different scenarios or feel that you need to remain prepared for every possibility.
- Small problems may start feeling much bigger than they normally would.
- Your patience may become shorter and situations you would usually manage can begin to feel more difficult.
- Physically, you may notice tension, headaches, changes in sleep or appetite, tiredness, a racing or pounding heart, sweating, trembling, shortness of breath or an unsettled stomach.
- You may also continue functioning.
- You might still go to work, meet deadlines, look after your family and fulfil your responsibilities while becoming increasingly exhausted underneath.
Functioning and feeling well are not necessarily the same thing.
Worry, Overthinking & Trying to Stay in Control
Thinking about a problem can help us understand it and decide what to do.
Overthinking is different. You may repeatedly go over the same issue without getting any closer to a decision or solution.
You might:
- Replay conversations
- Analyse decisions repeatedly
- Imagine different outcomes
- Think about everything that could go wrong
- Try to predict how other people will respond
- Seek reassurance
- Check things repeatedly
- Prepare excessively
- Question whether you made the right decision
- Struggle with uncertainty
- Feel responsible for preventing every possible problem
This can feel like problem-solving because your mind is working hard. But more thinking does not always produce more certainty. Sometimes it produces more questions. The mental effort involved can also become another source of stress.
When Pressure Keeps Building
Stress does not always come from one major event. Sometimes it develops through accumulation.
- Work.
- Finances.
- Relationships.
- Parenting.
- Caring for other people.
- Health.
- Deadlines.
- Household responsibilities.
- Decisions.
- Other people’s expectations.
- Your own expectations.
Each demand may be manageable on its own. Together, they can begin to feel relentless.
You may respond by working harder, staying up later, giving up things you normally enjoy or telling yourself you will slow down once everything is under control.
The problem is that there may always be something else that needs doing.
Recognising the total amount you are carrying can be an important part of understanding why your capacity has changed.
What Can Contribute to Anxiety & Stress?
There is rarely one single explanation.
Contributing factors can include:
- Ongoing pressure at work or home
- Heavy workloads or long working hours
- Financial difficulties
- Relationship conflict
- Parenting or caring responsibilities
- Health concerns
- Job insecurity or workplace difficulties
- Significant life changes
- Grief and loss
- Difficult or traumatic experiences
- Lack of sleep or prolonged exhaustion
- Too many competing responsibilities
- Uncertainty about the future
- Fear of failure, rejection or disappointing others
- High expectations of yourself
- Perfectionism
- Difficulty saying no or setting boundaries
- Feeling responsible for things outside your control
- Previous experiences that make particular situations feel threatening
- Patterns of worry, avoidance or reassurance-seeking
- Having too little opportunity for rest and recovery
Sometimes the source is obvious.
At other times, anxiety and stress develop through a combination of factors that gradually build over time.
Therapy can provide an opportunity to slow things down and understand what is happening rather than simply trying harder to push through it.
