Is what you are experiencing Stress or Anxiety? You May be Surprised!

Often when I am working with clients they may come feeling 'stressed' or they may explain that they are feeling 'anxious'. What has surprised me and this is why I am writing about it, it that so many times the two are mixed up - someone who is feeling anxious in their words is actually not experiencing anxiety at all but they DO have a very high stress score.

Other times when people come saying they feel stressed the stress score is normal but the depression or anxiety score is high...so why does this happen and what is the difference?

Stress is often used as a catch all term for feeling like you are not coping as well as you used to. You know that something has changed but you are not sure what but you do find yourself acting somewhat out of character or feeling 'not quite yourself'.

To find out what your Stress, Anxiety or Depression score is you can test it yourself here using my slightly adapted version of the DASS scale. The results might surprise you! 

As a quick breakdown of the difference in the symptoms see which of the following set of statements you agree with the most: 

SET 1

• I find it hard to wind down
• I've been overreacting to things I wouldn't normally overreact to recently
• I've felt a nervous type of energy in my body
• I am annoyed whenever I am interrupted from what I am doing

SET 2

• I have been aware that my heart has been racing
• I have been worried about being in new situations
• I have felt on the edge of panic at times
• My mouth has felt quite dry

SET 3

• Getting motivated has been hard recently
• I've found it hard to be positive
• I'm taking a lot of unnecessary risks lately
• I find it harder to make decisions than I used to

If you identify more with SET 1 then you are identifying more with stress symptoms
If you identify more with SET 2 then this is a sign of anxiety
SET 3 is describing signs of depression

You may have noticed that lots of the statements are quite similar to one another - for example feeling a nervous energy in your body and feeling on the edge of panic or feeling your heart racing are all so close in their descriptions that it may be hard to know which it is that you are feeling.

Why is it important to distinguish between them? 

It's not necessarily important - but it can be helpful. If a child has a learning difficulty we generally don't leave it at that, we seek to learn exactly what that difficulty is so that we can help them in the appropriate way and employ the specific tools that work for that situation.

It is the same with your wellbeing - if you know that what you have been feeling is not stress at all but actually depression, some of the ways in which you may approach the journey back to wellness will be the same but others will be different and more specific. It just helps to know exactly what is occurring.

To work with me through my 10wk programme Positive Potential to end Stress, Depression and Anxiety please email me or click through to the website to learn more.

I offer support and help through my Facebook group for free too, why not join and have a look at the amazing people there who are all willing to talk and support.

Love Nova xxx