Blog

What Is The Difference Between Worry and Anxiety or Fear?

We often use the words worry and anxiety interchangeably, but there are some distinct differences.

When we are trying to tell the difference between worry and anxiety or fear, it is often best to think of a continuum.  Worry is at the beginning of the scale, anxiety is in the middle and fear/panic is at the end.

The Worries

We all have worries that come and go.  We all get some worries. Worries are the thoughts that we have about something not going well.  Worries can be helpful if they help us figure out what we need to problem-solve, and we can then move into problem-solving.

Worries are not helpful when they get stuck in our mind and we can’t let go of them.  Our worry voice gets us to worry about things in the future, which may or may not happen, and it really doesn’t help us.  For further reading on helping our children change their negative worry thoughts click here.

Anxiety Vs. Worry

We all have anxiety but we are not meant to be in an anxious state most of the time.  We all have anxiety to protect us by keeping us alert when true danger is approaching.

Anxiety, is a combination of worries plus physical sensations and avoidance behaviours.  People who experience anxiety often experience mental images of their worries as well.  To read more about the common signs of anxiety click here.  

When our children’s worries are interfering with their daily functioning and levels of happiness, then it’s likely that the worry has moved into anxiety and therefore it is important to monitor and seek a consultation with your family doctor or a licensed mental health professional.

Worries often make more sense, are more time-specific and problem-specific.

Whereas anxiety tends to be more broad, long-lasting and less rational.  The anxiety often looks like chronic worry and sometimes the reasons why aren’t clear and it can be a very strong feeling of chronic tension.

Anxiety is also accompanied by more severe distress and often, the perceived threat, sets the child into the fight, flight or freeze mode unnecessarily. He/she is not able to control this instinctual response, which is why we can’t get mad at our child who is in an anxious state.

An anxious child in a state of fight could be yelling, arguing, throwing things, hitting, kicking etc.

An anxious child in a state of flight could be running out of your front door, running away from entering a location (such as a classroom, a school, a dance studio, a soccer field, a stage, etc.)

An anxious child in a state of freeze could be hiding in a room or closet in your house, under his/her bed, curled up on a couch refusing to move, locked in the bathroom, sitting inside a car refusing to get out, etc.

When Does Anxiety Become An Anxiety Disorder?

According to the DSM V – the most updated version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is: “The presence of excessive anxiety and worry about a variety of topics, events, or activities. Worry occurs more often than not for at least six months and is clearly excessive,”  ~ DSM V  American Psychiatric Association.

According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, there are five types of anxiety disorders:

Phobias – an intense fear of a specific object, animal or situation that changes the way people live so they can avoid their phobia.

Panic disorder – repeated and unexpected panic attacks that seem to happen for no reason and leads the person to fear more panic attacks, which may result in changing daily routines to try to avoid more panic attacks.

Agoraphobia – fear of being in a situation where one can’t escape or find help if they experience a panic attack or other feelings of anxiety. The person may therefore avoid public places or even avoid leaving home.

Social anxiety disorder – Intense fear of being embarrassed or judged negatively by others which leads to avoidance of social situations and negatively impacts work/social relationships.

Generalized anxiety disorder – excessive worry about many everyday problems, for more than six months. The high level of anxiety is often out of proportion to the actual concern. It can include physical symptoms such as muscle tension and sleep problems too.

*OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) are identified as other Mental Health Illnesses vs. Anxiety Disorders but they do have large components of fear and anxiety as well.

Fear

Fear is defined as a true emergency which is happening right now versus a perceived threat.

Fear creates the same fight, flight or freeze response as anxiety.  When a person is in fight, flight or freeze, less blood goes to the brain so that more blood can be diverted to major muscle groups.  Certain hormones, like adrenalin and cortisol, are released, and one’s heart rate increases and breathing becomes more shallow.  These physiological changes give the body a burst of energy and strength for protection in a true emergency.

Unfortunately, the body reacts the same whether it’s an actual threat or a perceived threat (as in the case of anxiety).

These physiological feelings that happen with anxiety, then add to the anxiety, because the “perceived threat” now seems very real if one’s body is going to react this way.  Through counselling, one can learn about anxiety and understand that we get “false alarms”.

As always, “An ounce of prevention, is worth a pound of cure”, and so it’s important to be proactive, catch the signs of worry early and teach your child about their thoughts and how our body responds physiologically.

My next round of “Brain Science” groups for 7-9 year olds and 10-12 year olds will be starting in January (online registration will be open tomorrow at www.ableclinic.ca under “services” –> “Sharon’s Groups”) and my book to teach your children all about their worry voice and what they can do: Surfing the Worry Imp’s Wave (for parents/educators/clinicians and their children ages 5-10yrs.) is available on my website.

I hope you now have a more clear understanding of the difference between worry and anxiety,

Warmly,