Meta Description: Are stress, anxiety, and mental health disorders different from one another? Here’s what to know about these three terms and how they’re associated.
Based on 2022 numbers by the American Psychological Association, over 75 percent of US adults said that they experienced stress-related health concerns. Similarly, recent polls estimate that over 70 percent of Americans are anxious about their safety and finances. These days, words like ‘stress’ and ‘anxiety’ are used interchangeably, along with terms like ‘mental health disorders.’
And while studies like these tend to imply that stress and anxiety are one and the same, they’re actually quite different. Considering how these three words shape our perception of mental health, it’s worth taking a look at what they are, how they’re different, and whether one causes the other.
What is Stress?
Let’s start with stress. It’s a natural response to a threat, demand, or change in the environment. Your response can be physical, emotional, or mental in nature. As humans in a complex environment, you’re bound to experience some level of stress. A stimulus that induces stress is called a ‘stressor,’ and possible stressors can be:
- The pressure of responsibilities at home, work, or school
- Financial instability
- A major life change like losing a job or a loved one
However, each person responds differently to stressors in their environment, with some people showing more intense or frequent reactions than others. But that doesn’t mean stress is bad; it can be helpful or harmful. It can motivate you to set goals, concentrate on tasks, and achieve said goals.
What is Anxiety?
Also a part of your fight or flight response, anxiety is best described as a feeling of anticipation, fear, and worry. For instance, you anticipate test results, worry about your parent’s health, and fear the risk of being involved in a voice phishing scam. Stress and anxiety are associated with each other because stressful events can precede anxious thoughts and feelings. So, are they the same? And where do mental health disorders fit into all this? Let’s look at their symptoms and how they differ.
Symptoms of Stress and Anxiety
Both phenomena lead to similar emotional and physical changes, such as:
- Increased heart rate as the sympathetic nervous system is activated
- Hyperventilation as your body breathes rapidly to provide oxygen to key muscle groups
- Hormones released when you’re stressed or anxious can lead to issues with digestion, such as nausea.
Additionally, you can also experience symptoms like irritability, mood changes, and fatigue.
Relieving Stress and Anxiety
Experiencing stress and anxiety doesn’t mean that there’s nothing you can do about it. In fact, there are numerous ways to manage these feelings. Relaxation strategies such as deep breathing and yoga, regular exercise, and seeking support can alleviate the effects of stress and help reduce anxious thoughts.
You can also consider seeking professional help by seeing a therapist or enrolling in mental health programs. Read more to know if professional treatment is a good option for you.
The Differences Between Stress and Anxiety
The main difference between the two is how they originate. Stress happens as a response to an external cause, such as excessive workload, and can subside once you address the situation. In contrast, anxiety occurs as a response to an internal cause and can occur even in the absence of an identifiable threat. This means you experience anxiety even after the event passes or when there’s no such event at all.
Stress Subsides When The Stressor is Addressed
The next biggest difference is the ease with which they’re resolved. If you’re stressed about a high-stakes project at work, your stress will subside once it’s over. Anxiety, however, will not, and it continues to persist even after the stressor is removed. This makes anxiety much more challenging to address.
Anxiety is When You React Excessively
Many people can experience similar stressors: a demanding job, financial concerns, or having to take care of a loved one. But if your feelings of worry are out of proportion to the stressor, then you’re likely experiencing anxiety.
Anxiety Can Hinder Optimal Functioning
While stressful situations are difficult, they’re not unmanageable. For instance, the pressure to get work done by a given deadline can even make you productive. But when you start feeling anxious, it can get in the way of your ability to manage tasks.
The Relationship Between Stress, Anxiety, and Mental Health Disorders
So, if stress and anxiety are associated with each other but aren’t the same, does one cause the other? Short-term stress, triggered by one-time events, allows you to learn from the experience, practice regulating your emotions, and become a better problem solver. But when a stressor is consistent, it puts the body in a consistent state of fight or flight, which can take a toll on your well-being.
It contributes to chronic stress, which leads to feelings of anxiety or depression. When these feelings persist and make it difficult to do other tasks, you end up developing a mental health disorder.
What About Mental Health Disorders?
These form a class of health conditions that affect your thoughts, behaviors, and ability to function. And to clarify, experiencing stress and anxiety doesn’t mean you have a mental health disorder. The biggest difference between stress, anxiety, and mental disorders is that the latter is diagnosed. Just as you can experience breathing problems but need not have asthma, you can experience stress and/or anxiety and not have a mental health disorder.
Similarly, most mental health disorders require you to meet diagnostic criteria to receive a diagnosis. So, if you’re having anxious thoughts, it’s not enough to be a disorder – your anxiety should contribute to specific deficits in your ability to function in social, occupational, and other key areas of functioning. It should also cause notable disturbances in your behavior, emotional regulation, and cognition.
Conclusion
To sum it up, (1) stress occurs because of an existing external threat or demand, (2) anxiety occurs in the absence of a stressor or due to chronic stress and persists even when the stressor is removed, and (3) mental health disorders are diagnoses that require meeting specific criteria. Even though the three terms are associated with each other and can occur together, experiencing stress or anxiety doesn’t imply the existence of a mental health disorder.
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