The causes of stress are usually a very individual thing but most commonly it is caused by a specific thought process that then generates a specific emotional response such as fear, anxiety or frustration.
When someone experiences anxiety on the other hand, there is a strong feeling of uneasiness and apprehension that doesn’t always readily reveal its source. This can increase a person’s anxiety due to the fact that the reason why they are feeling anxious is not always obvious. So while stress and anxiety share certain similarities they are very different with causes being different and treatment options similarly needing to be different. Stress is generally speaking a milder type of condition while anxiety is a diagnosable condition that has specific psychological causes that need to be addressed in treatment.
Emotional upset and the associated emotional states that occur (anger, fear, worry etc), whether it be major or of a more low grade continuous nature, is often the major contributor to stress. In addition there may be more physical issues at play such as irregularities in blood sugar and hormonal imbalances such as adrenal depletion and hyperthyroidism.
Irrespective of what the specific causes are in effectively treating stress and anxiety the cause does need to be found. This is not always easy but a good place to start is mapping out your symptoms and making note of the situations and circumstances that are associated with high levels of stress and the occurrence of your anxiety attacks.
If the cause of your anxiety and stress has been established talk type therapy can often be a great help in reducing the impact of your anxiety or stress problem now while also increasing your understanding of yourself and how the problem came about in the first place. However you choose to use this method is up to you. Support groups for people suffering with anxiety, high stress and panic attacks have become quite common due to the ever increasing number of people suffering stress and anxiety attacks. You could of course also find a psychologist and undergo counseling or imply find a trusted friend to talk things through with, someone who you can trust and be totally frank about your anxiety and stress problem
It goes without saying that anything you can do to remove stress from your life and maintain a healthy lifestyle will help any other treatment methods you choose to use. Exercise, appropriate nutritional support through a well balanced diet and possible nutritional supplementation and adequate sleep and just general downtime where you can rest and re-charge will definitely help you in your quest to not only become stress and anxiety free but also prevent recurrence of the problem in the future.
Sometimes the levels of stress and anxiety bring the sufferer to breaking point in which case self help techniques are often not enough. If you or someone you know begins to experience severe physical symptoms or suicidal self destructive thoughts you must seek urgent medical attention. Self help techniques may still be able to help you but in a more supportive rather than a primary role.
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