What’s The Difference Between Stress And Anxiety?

The essential difference between stress and anxiety is that with stress, once the stressor is gone (i.e., you get out of traffic, you finish the report for the boss, you pay a bill, etc.) your equilibrium is restored in a reasonable amount of time. Anxiety, on the other hand, is a state of emotional and physiological depletion that leaves you feeling stressed and anxious long after the stressor is gone. For stress to progress and become anxiety, insecurity has to be added to the equation, i.e., STRESS + INSECURITY = ANXIETY. Insecurity is added whenever we begin to spin with incessant doubt, fear, and negative thinking. It’s important to recognize that stressful life circumstances do NOT causes anxiety, how we interpret these stressors (adding insecurity’s doubt, fear, and negative thinking) in our lives is what generates anxiety.