Stress and anxiety. What's the difference?

 The main difference between stress and anxiety is time-related: the stress response is triggered by either a current threat or an association with one, while anxiety is triggered by thoughts about the future (worry) or the past (rumination).

Worrying and rumination, which are forms of anxious thinking, trigger the stress response. The body doesn’t know the difference between an actual threat and a perceived threat, so negative thoughts about the past or future can also trigger the fight, flight, or freeze response. Let me clarify something: the body doesn’t know the difference until we teach it to differentiate stress from anxiety.

Ask yourself the following question to help you differentiate between stress and anxiety.

Where do I most often see myself: in the past, present, or future?

Understanding the subtle differences between stress and anxiety is important as stress and anxiety require different methods of relieving stress.