16
Years of
experience
Anxiety
Is it Stress or Anxiety?
There’s a fine line between stress and anxiety. Both are emotional responses, but stress is typically caused by an external trigger. Triggers can be short term such as such starting a new job, deadlines for work or school, a fight with a loved one or long-term such as chronic illness, or discrimination. People under stress can experience physical and mental symptoms, such as fatigue, muscle pain, irritability, anger, digestive troubles, and/or difficulty sleeping. Anxiety, on the other hand, is defined by persistent, excessive worries that don’t go away even in the absence of a stressor. Anxiety leads to a nearly identical set of symptoms as stress: irritability, fatigue, muscle tension, insomnia, and difficulty concentrating. This anxiety can impact every aspect of our lives – school, work, home, and/or social relationships.
Should I Consider Therapy For Anxiety?
More and more people these days seem to be struggling with anxiety. Unfortunately, the fact that anxiety is common leads many people to think they shouldn’t need therapy to work through this struggle. Even though anxiety is common, it doesn’t mean that it has to be your “normal and it doesn’t mean that you have to struggle through it alone.
Anxiety is the body’s way of alerting us to possible dangers. Our ancient ancestors needed anxiety to warn them about a possible attack from a wild animal and other life-threatening danger. Today, anxiety doesn’t necessarily stem from need to protect yourself from a man-eating wild animal, but our minds and bodies are not always able to tell the difference.
The thing about our body’s healthy anxiety response is that it’s not supposed to be on all the time; we’re meant to recognize and process a source of danger, and go back to a restful state. However, in today’s busy world, more and more people find themselves always on high alert.
Many people try to ignore, avoid, or just deal with their anxiety, these tactics work but typically not in the long run. Unfortunately, without really dealing with the sources of your anxiety, you will continue to experience all the same negative effects. The goal of therapy for anxiety is to help people recognize when the body is experiencing elevated levels of anxiety and learn how to cope with the anxious feelings to experience greater joy in your day to day life.