Do You Know the Difference between Anxiety and Stress?

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The terms stress, anxiety, and anxiety disorder do not all mean the same thing.  What is the difference among these three? What does it take to receive an official diagnosis?

Situations can be interpreted differently among people. A given situation may cause one person to experience stress whereas another person might not feel anything. Medline Plus says, “Stress can come from any situation or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry, nervous, worried, or even anxious.”

Anxiety is a feeling of uneasiness or dread. You may not be able to identify the cause for this feeling and this can result in added distress.

Anxiety Disorders are a group of psychiatric conditions that can cause children problems with their daily activities.  The symptoms are present almost every day. The disorders include generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder,  social phobias, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

A child with Generalized Anxiety Disorder experiences recurring fears that are difficult to control. Children with this disorder worry just about everything.

Separation Anxiety Disorder is diagnosed when a child exhibits persistent anxiety surrounding being separated from home or her parents/caregiver. This anxiety is severe enough that it interferes with the child’s daily activities.

A child can have specific or generalized social phobias. Specific social phobia includes the fear of public speaking. Generalized social phobia is the existence of anxiety in almost all social situations.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder develops from experiencing a traumatic event which caused intense fear and/or helplessness. Children who have spent time in orphanages have been known to develop this disorder.

Obsessive-compulsive Disorder is technically considered a stress disorder. It will be addressed at a later posting, because it has a number of different components.

Bright Futures has a wonderful resource describing anxiety disorders. The document provides the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Ed. IV (DSM-IV) code for each anxiety disorder. Symptoms of the disorders are described for each age group: infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. Finally, interventions are presented. This information should help as you pursue a professional experienced with anxiety disorders to work with your child.