How to tell if you are stressed or anxious – and why it matters

Most of us have said we feel stressed or anxious at some point. One survey of more than 4,000 people by the Mental Foundation found that 74 per cent had been so stressed in the past year they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope. A separate survey of 6,000 people, also by the Mental Health Foundation, found that 60 per cent of those polled said they had experienced anxiety at such a level it had impacted their daily life in the past two weeks.

Sometimes we use the terms stress and anxiety interchangeably, but while the symptoms can be similar, they are separate conditions with different causes.

“Stress and some degree of anxiety are lifesaving,” says Chris Williams, professor emeritus of psychosocial psychology at the University of Glasgow and founder of the website Living Life to the Full, which provides free online courses based on the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). “If we didn’t feel stress and some degree of alertness, we wouldn’t be aware of threats and would just walk out into the middle of traffic and not be bothered or pay any attention. If we didn’t feel anxiety, we’d often be poorly motivated to get tasks done and quite unsafe.”

What is stress?

According to the charity Anxiety UK, stress is usually a response to external causes such as a tight work deadline or an argument, and this usually disappears after a solution has been found.

“Stress is a response to a stressor or demand being made on you, such as making a speech or taking an exam, and has an acute onset,” explains Dr Tara Quinn-Cirillo, a psychologist and associate fellow of the British Psychological Society. It’s usually short term and doesn’t hang around, although sometimes it can become chronic if you are dealing with multiple stressors.

“The ‘good’ kind of short-term stress can motivate you to meet deadlines and get things done, but “bad” longer-term stress can impact your physical and mental health,” says Quinn-Cirillo.

Williams says: “Although feeling a degree of pressure can motivate you to meet challenges, if that pressure is seen as too big, too much, too demanding and in too short a time frame, that can push people into chronic stress or anxiety and they won’t perform as well.”

What is anxiety?

“Anxiety isn’t usually associated with a specific event or trigger, it’s more worrying about multiple things, not just a specific short-term event (as is the case of stress). It’s a set of feelings – usually worries, fears or apprehensions – but there’s not always an apparent threat,” says Quinn-Cirillo.

“Anxiety will also build up over time rather than start suddenly as stress can. You may start off being stressed, and then there’s another thing and another thing, and you get this cumulative effect. Anxiety hangs around.”

What do stress and anxiety feel like?

Symptoms of both stress and anxiety can include feeling overwhelmed, having worrying thoughts, irritability, sleep problems and difficulty concentrating.

“Stress and anxiety can affect your body, causing muscle tension in the neck, shoulders and temples,” says Quinn-Cirillo. “You may have other physical symptoms including problems sleeping, gastrointestinal issues, feeling sick and butterflies in your stomach. You may notice you are breathing faster or your heart is racing. Stress and anxiety can be draining too, so you could feel fatigued and worn out, but more so with anxiety as it goes on for longer.”