Currently, in the times we live in, there are many reasons that can cause us stress: work, family, personal situations… Every day we are forced to respond to a series of responsibilities that in most cases generate great stress.
Colloquially, we often tend to equate different terms such as stress and anguish. Stress is our body’s automatic response to a signal that we consider threatening, so the body prepares to attack, flee or defend, while anguish refers to a negative emotional state that generates discomfort, whether or not it is a consequence. Of stress.
Stress and anguish, two different concepts
Anguish is an emotional state produced by excessive concern, generally manifested in the form of ruminative thoughts that cause tightness in the chest, a feeling that something bad is going to happen, panic attacks… and, as a consequence, difficulties to fall asleep. Dream.
Therefore, anguish can be considered a problem of a cognitive nature that is, related to thoughts. On the other hand, stress is usually more associated with physiological problems resulting from prolonged anguish.
Anguish does not usually lead to a serious problem, since it is usually associated with a certain specific situation in a person’s life and usually disappears when this situation returns to normal.
Faced with a difficult situation, stress in small doses can be a good ally since it helps us to achieve appropriate performance, however anguish, even in small doses, will always be detrimental to performance.
In addition, if we maintain anxiety for a long time when we respond to a stressful situation, it can become stress conceived as a disorder.
