People are generally confused about what is the difference
between stress and anxiety? Why more and more people are complaining to be
suffering from anxiety? How to cope up with anxiety? Let’s find out the answers
STRESS VS ANXIETY
Stress, to put it simply any demand placed on your brain or
physical body. This implies that whenever you are close to some deadline,
before an exam, finding a job you may fell stressed and actually stress is not
always bad. The stress has proved to be positive as well as negative. It can be
positive when it kicks in and help you pull off that deadline you thought was a
lost cause and it can be negative when it leads to insomnia, poor concentration
and impaired ability to do things you normally do. In short, stress is just a
response to threat in any given conditions.
Anxiety, on the other hand is a response to stress. It is a
fear of unknown or what is about to come next. It is generally experienced during
first day of school, going to a job interview or giving a speech in front of a
big crowd. It is normal to feel anxious when moving to someplace new, or
starting a new job and it may even push you to work harder and better. But anxiety
disorder is when it interferes with your normal daily life, causes you to stop
doing things you enjoy, in worst case scenario it may prevent you from entering
elevators alone, crossing the street, or even leaving your home. Studies
suggest that women are more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety disorders than men.
ANY SPECIFIC SIGNS OF ANXIETY AND
STRESS?
Physical and psychological symptoms are produced by them. Although
they may vary from person to person, some of them are listed as under:
- Excessive
sweating
- Headache
- Stomach
ache
- Rapid
breathing
- Fast
heartbeats
- Change
in eating habits and frequent urination
- Diarrhea
- Sleeping
alteration and restlessness
- Feeling
of impending doom
- Irrational
and excessive anger
- Nervousness in social standings
Chronic anxiety may also badly effect
the health and may give rise to heart diseases and high blood pressure,
depression, diabetes and anxiety disorders.
TYPES OF ANXIETY DISORDERS:
Ø PANIC DISORDER: Recurring panic attacks at unexpected
times, with severe mood and health changes. The individual may show irritation,
frustration or disgust with things around.
Ø SOCIAL ANXIETY DISORDER: Extreme fair of social standings and
situations. The individual may be very conscious about being judged by others.
Ø SEPARATION ANXIETY DISORDERS: Fear of being away from home and departed
from the loved ones.
Ø ILLNESS ANXIETY DISORDERS: This is an anxiety in which the
individual constantly fears about health and well-being.
Ø PHOBIA: An excessive fear of specific
objects, situation or activity.
Ø POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER: Anxiety attacks followed by a
traumatic events, or the person is not able to cope up with the traumatic event
after years.
WHY ARE WE THE MOST STRESSED
GENERATION?
According to American Psychology Association in the year 2000, “Children today reports more
anxiety than child psychiatric patients in the 1950s”
That’s huge, isn’t it?
Not only anxiety, depression is on
rise in millennial (people born between years 1980-2000) with an increase in
about 47% in past few years. Individuals from Generation Z (born between
1995-2015) have even a worse rate of about 63%. But why? Why is this generation
so much prone to be associated with mental health conditions? Well there are
some major reasons behind them, let’s have a look:
Ø SOCIAL MEDIA: The biggest contributing factor for
mental issues these days. Seeing all these celebrities having a “PERFECT” life,
your friends having dinner at a lavish restaurant, that dude going for
vacations 3rd time in a month! All this can easily trap you in the
fear of missing out. Social media influencers and enthusiasts have created a
huge illusion of being perfect. Perfect faces, perfect cars, perfect homes,
perfect relationships. This has made the Generation Z believe in some
unrealistic perfect world which is obviously not possible to attain and this as
result strike them with huge anxiety disorders.
Not only limiting to that,
Cyber-bullying and harassment have increased with increased dependence on social
media. Mocking others, degrading people on their opinion, it’s all so common
now that we don’t even find it problematic. And the biggest problem is that we
are so much independent on social media these days that we can’t just turn off
the device and walk away from it.
Ø HIGH EXPECTATIONS: Millennial experience a lot of
pressure and expectations to succeed, expectation from themselves or from
parents. With the highly expensive world and job instability millennial find
it way too hard to settle in a comfortable life. According to one study, 74% of
millennial want home-ownership but are not able to attain due to high debts
and unstable careers. In a completely impossible race of being financially
stable and living a dream life, many have changed their goals had are
prioritizing happiness and finding a fulfilling job.
Ø WORLD’S CHAOS: A changed world, chaos everywhere,
never ending genocides, mass killing incidents and bomb blast. These are the
factors which have badly altered the mental health on millennial and
generation Z. This factor is made worse by the high influence of news channels
and print media who focus on spreading mayhem, panic and chaos to increase
their viewership.
Ø DECREASED FAMILY TIME: With a busy life style and over
burdening jobs. Family ties are getting weaker and it highly impacts the mental
health of a child. When parents are absent from home, children have no other
outlet to express their emotions and feelings about their day. These children
may tend to feel insecure, develop trust issues. Children who are deprived of
proper attention from their parents are often more inclined towards virtual
media to escape from loneliness. This may lead to lack to empathy, severe isolation
and ability to make small talks.
Ø WORST DIETARY HABITS: Millennial have the worst eating
habits. Eating late at night or eating just before sleeping may impact badly to
your well-being. Out of all the dietary factors that can aggravate anxiety, caffeine
is the most notorious. Many people have said that they feel calmer and sleep
better after they have reduced their caffeine consumption. Too much caffeine
can keep you tensed and vulnerable to anxiety. Avoid sugary snacks and fizzy
drinks, water is the best thing to drink and drink enough of water. It helps
transport hormones and nutrients to vital organs of body.
BUT HOW TO RELIEVE THE STRESS?
Ø TALK IT OUT: It very healthy to talk it out to any
of your friend, family or siblings when you are feeling stressed. Good
relationships with friend and family are very important, a reassuring voice,
even for a few minutes can put everything in perspective. Some people tend to
keep their emotions and stress to themselves and prefer not to talk about it,
which may lead to be disastrous for their general well-being.
Ø TALKING YOURSELF OUT OF IT: Sometimes it is not an option to call a friend. In
this case, talk calmly to yourself. I know, it may sound crazy but it will
work. Tell yourself why you are stressed out, how can you cope up with it and
most importantly, assure yourself that everything will be okay.
Ø EAT HEALTHY: Don’t use sugary, fatty snack food as a resort for anxiety! This is what most of us do wrong, we
binge eat a lot of sugary and fatty food when we are stressed. Eating fruits
and vegetable is actually the thing you should be eating more at these times.
Fish with high levels of omega 3 fatty acids have shown to reduce symptoms of
stress.
Ø SLEEP BETTER: Lack of sleep may be a key cause of
stress. Make sure to have a sleep of 7-8 hours. Some studies even suggest that
sleeping early and waking up early may keep your circadian rhythm in sync and
contribute to a happy mood.
Ø LAUGH! : Laughter releases endorphins that
improve mood and decrease levels of cortisol and adrenaline (stress-causing
hormone). So, watch your favorite comedy movie and laugh your heart out.
Ø DRINK TEA: Green tea specifically contain less
than half of caffeine than coffee and contain healthy anti-oxidants, as well as
theanine (a substance that having calming effect on nervous system).
Ø EXERCISE: You don’t need to go straight to the
gym for the membership whenever you are feeling stressed. Just go for a short
walk, or jogging or you may even stretch for a while. Getting your blood moving
may release endorphins which may improve your mood and offer immediate relief
in a stressful situation.
TAKE-HOME MESSAGE:
It’s hard to cope with stress sometimes. To all the people
reading, be there for your family and friends, try to boost them up. A word of reassurance
can put a lot of positivity in their life. Don’t even sarcastically or jokingly
criticize the person already in anxiety as it may pull them more towards self-doubt.
Be careful before passing a foul comment or judgement on someone, you might be
the reason for inducing anxiety. Let’s be sensible, loving and instead of being
the reason for someone’s anxiety, help them fight it.
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