Difference between Stress and Anxiety
Many people tend to get confused between the terms ‘stress’ and ‘anxiety’, and often use them interchangeably in day to day life; however, stress and anxiety are two entirely different psychological problems. Stress is a response to daily pressures, which causes adrenaline to be released and leads to adverse side-effects on health such as raised blood pressure and depression. On the other hand, anxiety is when a person becomes apprehensive or scared about a future event; apart from experiencing panic attacks, he or she may also suffer from physical problems like pain or dizziness.
One of the major differences between the two is that you can identify the cause of stress, but it is almost impossible to get to the root cause of anxiety. This is precisely the reason why stress is not considered a legitimate mental disorder, while anxiety is.
You cannot be diagnosed with anxiety unless or until you suffer continuously from it for a period of six months or more, because many people confuse short-term stress with anxiety. As compared to stress, anxiety is much more difficult to treat because there is no apparent or identifiable root-cause.
Instructions
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Stress
As mentioned previously, stress is not considered a major mental disorder. However, life in the modern world has become so hectic and there are so many pressures involved that almost every second or third person is suffering from some sort of stress. The daily grind of traffic jams, 9 to 5 jobs, post office visits, pressures to achieve your targets, and a number of other things, all cause some sort of stress or another.
The technological revolutions in current times have made our lives extremely comfortable; however, according to many psychiatrists, this artificial lifestyle is causing many problems in our societies.
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Anxiety
Anxiety is extremely common these days, especially in the United States of America (USA), where almost 18 percent of the population is suffering from one form of anxiety or the other. If a person is suffering from anxiety, he or she will be extremely nervous and/or fearful about a certain upcoming event, which is important for his or her career or personal life. Anxiety adversely affects the performance of an individual in every single sphere of life. As per experts, peer pressure is one of the most common reasons behind anxiety.
