Please, what is the difference between stress, anxiety, and worry? And why is it important?
A lot of people say that stress, anxiety, and worry are the same thing. For example, "My test really stressed me out, I was so worried about it" or "I'm so worried about this upcoming performance that my stomach hurts." But the matter be that, if we don’t know the difference between them, it can cause problems for us when we want to solve the kind of effect they cause. So today we’re going to talk about the difference and why it’s important.
Worry is the thinking part of anxiety that happens in the front part of our brain that plans and thinks and uses words. It has to do with thoughts like, "Is she angry with me?" or "What's going to happen for my upcoming performance?" It’s good for us to think about things that are important, but if the worry becomes too much or repeated all the time, it can cause disorders like anxiety and depression.
Stress is the physical response to fear. It’s what happens to our bodies when we react to something that we believe is dangerous or can cause problems for us. It has to do with the "fight, flight, freeze" response that is inside our body and is unconscious. It’s good for us when we want to run or fight a physical danger, but if we can’t handle it or it’s too much, it can cause serious illness for our bodies like high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and chronic illness.
Anxiety is when the thought and physical reaction join the body. It’s the feeling of fear that’s inside our body, and it’s in the limbic system. It can help us when we’re looking out for danger, but if it’s too much, it can make it hard for us to enjoy life and move forward. If we want to handle our anxiety, we’ll need to focus on the different aspects of stress and use different ways to handle them.
To handle anxiety, we’ll need to change the way we think and imagine things in our minds. To handle stress, we’ll need to focus on our bodily reactions and change them into something helpful. It’s good to start being aware of our reaction to things so we can learn how to handle it better.
Make you try to differentiate between fear, stress, and anxiety or even write about it. Stay tuned for the next article that will teach us how to handle them.