If you are in crisis, please call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org

2. What is the difference between stress and anxiety?

Understanding the patterns behind this experience

AI recognizes patterns.
Understanding comes from lived experience.

"The nervous system remains in a state of heightened prediction when past pain has not been processed."

stress and anxiety are different experiences. Stress is your response to real, present challenges like work deadlines or bills. It's about what's happening right now. Anxiety is more about the future and what might happen. anxiety as part of , coming from fear of re-experiencing past trauma.

While stress responds to current problems and usually goes away when the situation changes, anxiety sticks around and feeds itself. that anxiety creates a state of constant worry where you become overly sensitive to perceived threats, seeing neutral situations through the lens of past hurt. Stress needs you to handle external problems, but anxiety needs internal healing.

For further reading and exploration, you can download the book Unfiltered Wisdom.