Anxiety is like fuel, it can keep the pressure of fire always raging.
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Editor’s note: We always encounter a variety of pressures in our daily lives and work. Sometimes, there is an inexplicable anxiety. However, do you know that “stress” and “anxiety” are two different concepts, and the two cannot be confused. The original title of this article is Are You Stressed or Are You Anxious? Author Markham Heid pointed out the importance of distinguishing between stress and anxiety in the article, and pointed out the difference between the two methods and related countermeasures, I hope to be useful to you. .
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In many cases, we always confuse the words “stress” and “anxiety”. Even some mental health organizations have a conflation of the two.
For example, The Anxiety and Depression Association of America shares ways to help people better manage anxiety and stress on their website. After reading the content carefully, you will find a different interpretation of stress and anxiety. However, this explanation does not help much. It writes: “Pressure is the response to a threat in a certain situation. Anxiety is a reaction to stress.”
However, Dr. Richard Maddock, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the University of California, Davis, said, “The difference between stress and anxiety, even if it’s There are also differences between psychiatrists and psychologists.”
Dr. Maddock said that in the face of stress and anxiety, although the body may have a similar reaction, it may also trigger a series of health problems, such as depression or heart disease, but stress and anxiety are not The same thing.
Dr. Maddock believes that stress is broader than the concept of anxiety. pressure, you canIt is psychological pressure, but it can also be physical pressure; it can be good or bad. At the same time, Dr. Maddock also pointed out that exercise is a manifestation of physical stress. Challenge your body and usually have a positive effect. Similarly, in the case of performances in public, some groups will feel short-term pressure.
Anxiety, usually caused by psychological factors, is usually accompanied by an unpleasant mood.
Dr. Maddock said that anxiety has three components. The first is to feel some form of threat. It may be either real or illusory. For example, this threat may be a threat to the bumpy airflow during the flight, or it may be a threat to the bumpy airflow. The second component is the sense of feeling necessary to respond after feeling the threat.
The third component is the feeling of knowing that you are not capable of coping with this threat. This feeling of feeling helpless is very important. When people are ready to deal with a challenge or threat, that state of preparation can usually be used to overcome anxiety.
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If you want to distinguish the difference between anxiety and stress, there is another way. Often, stress is triggered by external challenges, and anxiety is caused by internals.
“Pressure is like something that pulls the body or mind away from homeostasis,” said Dr. Gerard Sanacora, professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. . And that thing, maybe a toddler who is a toddler, may be a crisis in the workplace, or a wild bear who breaks into the camping ground. In addition, stress can also cause heartbeat, palm sweating, nervousness or other transient physiological reactions.
Anxiety is the reaction or prediction of the mind and body to external threats or stressors. If you are worried about a crisis at work, or if you are worried that a wild bear will break into a camping ground, you will experience an anxiety reaction, not stress.
“Even if there are no threats outside, you may experience anxiety,” Sanacona said.
This view is very important. Because even if the external threat does not show up, anxiety can stillInitiates all the same intrinsic reactions, along with stress-related health problems. Similarly, anxiety can also make your heart beat faster and your hands sweat. In addition, it can fill your blood with stress-related hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol.
“In many ways, anxiety can be understood as an experiential component of stress, and it also depends on how one perceives external stress,” Sanacona said.
For example, if the teacher suddenly said to the two students that they would soon have a small test. Then, the sudden pressure from the outside world, that is, this test, is the same for both students. However, if one student has a good grade and has reviewed and tested the relevant knowledge points, and the other student has a relatively poor grade and has not done any review, one or the other student is more likely to test the score than the other student. The anxiety experienced by these two students will be very different.
Why is this question so important?
“Everyone’s life will be more or less experiencing various pressures,” said Sanacona. “But you can change your perception of these stressful events and reduce anxiety.”
Reducing anxiety can also limit the response of the hormonal system, immune system, and nervous system, further reducing the risk of stress-related diseases.
By understanding the factors that cause anxiety from a psychological perspective, you can learn how to avoid or calmly deal with the inherent changes in unhealthy health caused by anxiety in a timely manner.
To eliminate anxiety, you can choose to face the source of anxiety. For example, if you are anxious about being afraid to speak publicly, you can let yourself go to a public speaking training class. Or, if you are anxious about being afraid of a dog, you can start by getting along with a friendly dog.
This Exposure therapy has proven to be very effective in addressing a range of anxiety disorders. And it is just one of the ways in cognitive behavioral therapy. The so-called cognitive behavioral therapy is to teach someone to think about the source of their anxiety in a new or relatively easy way.
It is worth mentioning that all people will experience the existence of stress. But not all stress will make people feel anxious.” Sanacona said. Anxiety is like fuel, it can keep the fire of stress from raging. So what you should do is find the fuel, throw it away, and find a way to get rid of the fire.
Translator: Ishii Junichi