You feel stressed about a presentation at work and can’t seem to shake imposter syndrome. Your friend blows up your phone seeking reassurance about her relationship. Your mom hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep in weeks because she can’t stop worrying.
As a rule, worry doesn’t discriminate. But how it plays out for each of us is unique to us. “Stress tends to be more specific to an external pressure that you’re aware of, and it’s shorter-term,” says Juliet Lam Kuehnle, a clinical mental health counselor and author of Who You Callin’ Crazy?! The Journey from Stigma to Therapy. Although stress can occasionally trigger feelings of anxiousness, Kuehnle continues, anxiety tends to be longer lasting and typically involves “anticipatory worry of some future event.”
The experience of anxiety can be related to a specific identifiable or be more generalized. But the one constant is fear in response to uncertainty, says Robyn McKay, PhD, psychologist, and executive coach in Scottsdale, Arizona. Although occasional anxiety happens to many of us, chronic anxiety can cause you to become so preoccupied with the…
