Difference Between Anxiety and Worry

Anxiety Vs Worry

Anxiety serves as an internal alarm that will influence your system to be on guard. It gives you a sudden boost of adrenaline that makes you counter problems and hurdle the obstacles that come your way. It is even necessary for survival because it motivates the individual to take the necessary measures needed so that the anxiety or worry will not intensify.

Worry, as a subject or noun, is often likened to mental images that cause anxiety and uneasiness to the person as in, ‘what are your worries?’ It surfaces because of issues (often personal in nature) like finance problems and bad health conditions. In addition, worry can mean that there’s nothing to be concerned about, most especially when it is treated as an idiom like in the case of ‘There’s no need to worry!’

However, anxiety and or worry can become a problem when it does not cease or die down. Pathologic anxiety or GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) is evident when one worries unreasonably. People having such are restless, irritable, unable to concentrate and experience sleep pattern abnormalities like insomnia.

Patients who have long suffered from GAD are said to be the experts in worrying. They seem to be trapped in a daily continuous cycle of worry and anxiety. Unlike normal anxiety, people with GAD are not able to control the worries experienced. And so, they tend to resign to a more simply living that gives them the least amount of worry.

On the contrary, normal worry is a lot easier to control than pathologic worry or abnormal anxiety. By bringing back things to normal mode or by staying on track to your perspective, you are able to gain control of your worries. Unlike those having GAD, who still can’t manage their feelings even if they already condition their minds that they should stay on track and keep grounded. In the end they fret the entire day in a cycle of emotional and physical discomfort.

All in all, anxiety and worries are included in man’s every day living. People can get anxious and they can also worry. Aside from being natural, a little anxiety or a little worry can both be beneficial to some extent.

1. Anxiety is a state of being uneasy wherein there’s constant apprehension. Worry can include mental images or thoughts that are of negative nature, which are avoided by the mental faculties of the individual as it is a perceived threat to the system.

2. Anxiety can be in the form of a noun or adjective (anxious) while worry can be a verb (worrying), an idiom (no need to worry) or a noun (what are your worries?).