Am I worried or stressed?

Stress and worry are two different things, and knowing the differences may be

helpful

April is stress awareness month and, last year alone, 12.8 million working days

were lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety. This year, we can try and

reduce those statistics by checking the facts.

Stress is a physiological reaction to an external factor. To feel stressed, there must

be a situation that triggered it.

“Stress is your body's reaction to changes, even if they are positive, like a work promotion”

said Neil Shah, director of the Stress Management Society. “Stress involves your body producing hormones that cause emotional changes.”

Unlike stress, worry is a state of feeling anxious about potential situations that have

not yet happened. 

“Worry is all fear-based, but not always negative,” said Christina Tringi, an integrative psychodynamic counsellor from London. “You may worry you won't be able to meet a deadline and this may lead you to take action to meet it.

“Worry is only concerning when you are not able to take action to prevent a problem from happening and just dwell on the issue.”

Now that some differences are clearer, handling them could be easier - recognising

when you are worried, rather than stressed, is the first step. 

“If you can recognise you are worrying about a potential problem, you can write down an action plan to prevent it,” said Shah.

“If you are stressed, you should understand what you can and cannot control – and then put all your energy and thoughts in the things you can control.”

If work-related stress it taking a ton up your life, we recommend to talk to somebody using the NHS mental health helplines.