Stress and anxiety, are they synonymous?

Better understanding stress and anxiety is a key step towards developing resilience mechanisms against these uncomfortable reactions. To clearly grasp what distinguishes these two phenomena, we first suggest examining the definition of stress by exploring a simple metaphor proposed by Sonia Lupien, a neuroscientist and professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Université de Montréal. She explains what stress is with the example of the mammoth: although we have evolved since prehistoric times, we still see every problem as large mammoths that threaten to endanger us. Stress is thus defined as a normal physiological response triggered by a threat that is real to us. Such stress reactions can occur, among other things, in four identified contexts, summarized under the acronym "CINE" in Sonia Lupien's research:

C: Control. Example: I have no control over the care given to my loved one. I fear that the people responsible for this care will handle it poorly, leading to a possible rejection of these services by the person being cared for due to the situation.

I: Unpredictability. Example: my dependent loved one, who can no longer use their legs, forgets that they are unable to stand and walk normally without my assistance. While they never usually get up without notifying me, they stand up and fall onto the coffee table; this startles me and stresses me out because I wasn't expecting it and I fear it will happen again.

N: Novelty. Example: my loved one is going into temporary accommodation for a week and I worry about how this new situation will play out in my eyes and theirs.

E: Ego threatened. Example: I am at the hospital with my loved one who has fallen, and the doctors and nurses attending to them do not recognize my status as a caregiver and refuse to share the care being given to them, as well as the list of medications they need to take. I feel useless in their eyes.

Throughout the day, we continually experience stress caused by one of these four contexts. Often, stress can decrease once the event is resolved or addressed.

So, what about anxiety?

In the case of anxiety, the emotions we face stem from a problem we are anticipating. Thus, rather than facing a real "mammoth", we imagine what might happen to us in the future. Faced with these projections and thoughts, our body responds by making us experience many uncomfortable emotions that can cause various symptoms: rapid breathing, intrusive thoughts, headaches and dizziness, loss of appetite, etc. The difference between stress and anxiety lies in their respective triggers: for stress, the threat is actually present, whereas for anxiety, the threat is projected. Since the brain does not distinguish between a real threat and an anticipated threat, it sends the same physiological reaction.