How Does Stress Differ From Fear And Anxiety?

— -- Question: How does stress differ from fear and anxiety?

Answer: Again, stress is something that's happening and your reaction to it could be frustration if it's something that you can't manage. It can be fear or anxiety if you feel threatened, if you feel that your well-being -- either your emotional, psychological or even your physical well-being -- is threatened by the stressor.

Fear and anxiety comes on, you know, when you're driving down the expressway at 70 miles an hour and somebody's about that far off your rear bumper. That's fear, that's anxiety that comes on in that situation because somebody, you know, you could get hurt. Somebody's driving that closely behind you. Fear and anxiety come on if the very extreme -- you know, if you're walking through the woods and you happen to look down and you see a snake with a rattle going -- that's when you get fear and anxiety. And that's quite a reasonable thing to experience in that situation.

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