We have said it a thousand times, we live in an accelerated world and most of the times focused on material things. We always want more and more, which leads us, among many other things, to constantly try to achieve impossible goals, often dictated by society instead of listening to our inner voice.
This situation can take us to a state of stress or anxiety. Although stress and anxiety are not the same, they are closely related. Generally speaking, we can say that stress has to do with an excessive workload, being the reaction to a challenge or demand. Therefore, it is a fact that is generated by a real and present situation. As each person is different, what for one is a normal workload, for another can be a stressful situation. Everything will depend on the tools that we have and that we have developed throughout life.
On the other hand, anxiety has to do with the anticipation of something that the we perceive as negative but that has not yet happened and, maybe, will never happen. On many occasions, anxiety is generated by sustained stress over time that begins to generate negative thoughts or concerns about a specific topic. In this situation, stress continues after the stressor has disappeared.
What happens when stress and anxiety persist over time?
Well, most probably we will feel exhausted and our life will be affected. When that happens we can speak of a stress or anxiety disorder.
How can we know if we are in a stress or anxiety loop?
Stress and anxiety can be manifested by an infinity of symptoms and detecting them will depend a lot on the sensitivity and tolerance of the person. In general, we can include the symptoms in two large groups, the physical and the psychological and behavioral.
Among the physical symptoms we find dizziness, sweating, tremors, muscle tension, palpitations and tachycardia, among many others.
Among the psychological and behavioral symptoms, we find worry, fear of losing control, feeling of overflow, insomnia, apprehension, restlessness, obsessions and compulsions, etc.
The truth is that both stress and anxiety can manifest themselves with a wide variety of symptoms, depending on each person. Therefore, to detect that we are suffering an episode of stress or anxiety we have to know ourselves and know when we begin to feel “strange” or when something is not working properly.
How can we manage stress and anxiety?
First of all, we have to bear in mind that both stress and anxiety are multifactorial and, therefore, have to be addressed from different points of action. It is important to note that the goal will never be to completely eliminate all symptoms but to manage them, in this way, if at some point they reappear, far from frustrating us, we will know how to manage them to our benefit.
Vitae’s proposal
We want to accompany you in the management of stress and anxiety, offering you different tools that help you regain control and thus feel yourself again.
