In times when people have high dose of work, complex emotional situationsan excessively busy schedule or all of this simultaneously, they tend to identify the effect it causes on them as stress or anxiety. That feeling that often causes discomfort and makes us go faster through life.
The truth is that this colloquial appreciation is not misguided. Stress is a very human and natural response. in people who are characterized by putting the body (and the brain) in escape mode. It is a reaction that is designed to appear when a threat is felt and that invites the body to release stress hormones.
When this happens, the heart beats faster and the blood is distributed throughout the body in greater abundance, both in the extremities and in the vital organs. What is clear is that it is a real condition with physical symptoms.
However, there is difference between anxiety and stress. Despite the fact that we use both words to refer to this characteristic state, the reality is that suffering from stress is not the same as having anxiety and it is interesting to learn how to separate both diagnoses.
Stress is a physiological response
Stress is that physiological response that arises when the brain interprets that there is a danger. In its nature, it is designed to save us from certain problems that put our lives at risk, such as an animal attack.
However, we can currently activate this alarm as a result of other conditions that do not pose such an imminent risk to our lives. The organism starts up with a structure ready for defense when this happens and the body begins to act in a different way. Therefore, stress goes far beyond merely emotional perception.
Once the organism has prepared itself for this intense defensive activity, for a first level physical effort, it will touch the moment of descent. Calm arrives, recovering normal levels in view of the fact that the danger has passed.
Anxiety goes one step further
Anxiety is derived, for its part, from a continuous activation of the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). At this point the brain reads that it must maintain its performance for the escape or defense, but that it must do so for a long and indeterminate time. Again, we are talking about a completely physical circumstance.
This state can be useful in certain circumstances, when we have to increase performance for a work or personal issue for a period of time, although it creates a great discomfort. However, if this becomes pathological and does not go away, the consequences can be significant.
In the long run, symptoms may appear that indicate the existence of anxiety, and not stress, which can be headaches, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, sleep disorders… At the point where this disrupts life and becomes a permanent stateIt is important to get professional help.
This information does not replace in any case the diagnosis or prescription by a doctor. It is important to go to a specialist when symptoms appear in case of illness and never self-medicate.
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