It's Therapeutic Thursday!

Today is Therapeutic Thursday at Aortic Hope.

😧Stress and Anxiety...very common words used within the community and often interchanged. They are similar and yet very different.

📰As discussed in American Psychological Association's article titled What's the difference between stress and anxiety, written by Mary Alvord PhD and Raquel Halfond PhD :

"There’s a fine line between stress and anxiety. Both are emotional responses, but stress is typically caused by an external trigger. The trigger can be short-term, such as a work deadline or a fight with a loved one or long-term, such as being unable to work, discrimination, or chronic illness. People under stress experience mental and physical symptoms, such as irritability, anger, fatigue, muscle pain, digestive troubles, and difficulty sleeping.

Anxiety, on the other hand, is defined by persistent, excessive worries that don’t go away even in the absence of a stressor. Anxiety leads to a nearly identical set of symptoms as stress: insomnia, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, muscle tension, and irritability."

🥺Anxiety can be mistaken sometimes for PTSD and Pumphead can actually be caused by anxiety or PTSD. Never self-diagnose. If you believe you are experiencing anxiety, or PTSD, discuss it with your physicians and seek appropriate treatment. To review the article in detail, click here.