Is anxiety stress?
Yes, every type of anxiety is a specific form of stress. So you cannot have anxiety without underlying stress. This goes for all anxiety disorders. So for panic disorders, phobia, hyperventilation, and the specific phobias like performance anxiety, exam anxiety, flight anxiety, agoraphobia, fear of heights, fear of blushing, or fear for public speaking, too.
What is the role of stress management in the treatment of anxiety disorders?
Stress management helps to reduce your base level of stress. And as anxiety is a type of stress, all ways in which stress shows itself will reduce through stress management. Your anxiety will therefore reduce, too. In the treatment of anxiety you can thus work specifically on learning techniques to reduce the anxiety or to reduce the worrying. This works in any case and is definitely an important part of the treatment of anxiety and anxiety disorders.
Durable results in the therapy for anxiety through stress management.
While in my own doctor's practice, I notice that people who treat only their anxiety tend to relapse regularly afterwards. Those who do not only deal with their anxiety but also choose to reduce their general stress levels suffer fewer relapses, but can also prevent relapse in difficult times by improving their stress management. This is also the reason why I always propose for anxious patients to treat both the anxiety and the underlying stress. They then follow-up themselves at the hand of our online stress meter. This online stress meter or self-test measures both the underlying stress and the anxiety itself. The golden rule is that patients keep going with their stress management until they see that their tools in the 'cockpit' all show green results, and book durable results. When you are in the green zone for 3 months in a row, you are relatively safe. Six months in the green zone of the self-test nearly gives a guarantee that you will never relapse again, unless in extremely difficult situations. Feel free to make free and unlimited use of our online self-test for anxiety and stress. Take the results to your doctor to discuss them with him or her, if you want to do so.
Self-test for anxiety disorders and stress
Would you like to know to what extent stress, tension, anxiety, or even depressed feelings play a role in your anxiety disorders? Then easily test this by answering a simple test with 21 short questions.
Paul Koeck, MD
