If you don’t already know Fitenium is a free, mobile, video-based social network for athletes who train strength or bodyweight exercises. At Fitenium users can follow their performance, compete and get discounts in nutrition and sports equipment stores. Download it here.

At first glance, it can be hard to tell the difference between anxiety and stress. Both emotions are generally similar in their effects, negative and triggering. The feelings of threat and lack of control in our environment that generally overwhelm us and cause us fatigue, discomfort and frustration.

But stress and anxiety are different medical conditions, and the distinction between them is important so that we can know what we are dealing with and thus help combat them. The main difference is that stress is generally a temporary problem, how our body handles specific moments of great demand, and anxiety is usually a long-lasting psychopathology.

If you suspect you have one of the two, but don’t know which one, these clues will help you tell them apart.

1. Stress usually responds to external factors

Stress is often a reaction to a problem, and anxiety is a reaction to the stress itself.

This difference is important because stress often occurs when many stressful events occur; stress is the cause.

Published on Unplash by Jack Castles

2. Anxiety continues when problems go away

The stress caused by a particular problem can cause anxiety, but in many cases when the problem is resolved or resolved, the stress goes away but the anxiety continues.

This reinforces the previous point. Anxiety should be treated as a separate disorder, not just a product of stress. Anxiety rarely goes away during vacations, spa visits, or massages.

We also know what worries people who suffer from stress, but for those who are anxious, stress is less of a problem than anxiety.

3. Anxiety includes unnecessary worries

Many symptoms of stress and anxiety are similar: sleep disturbances, upset stomach, irritability, decreased concentration… but there are certain symptoms that characterize anxiety only. All of the above.

Just as anxiety is often confused with stress, many people consider panic attacks to be much more common than they really are. Very specific physical experiences related to the development of fear and anxiety. Symptoms such as sweating, tremors, fast heartbeat, nausea, chest pain, choking, and chills.

If someone is having a panic attack, whether stressful or not, they are most likely anxious.

4. Difference in treatment between stress and anxiety

For all these reasons, it is concluded that stress and anxiety require very different treatments, and that solving one (usually the simplest is stress) does not necessarily end the other.

In the case of stress, it is usually enough to deal with the factors that cause it: work situation, duration of the test, difficult relationships with a partner… are factors that we cannot easily ignore (for example, most of us cannot do without a job). Therefore, it is necessary to develop strategies to deal with them and compensate them with activities that help you relax, such as going on vacations, learning yoga or learning to turn stress into a motivating feeling (this is called stress or positive stress, as if was a challenge).

Published on Unplash by Edgar Chaparro

Anxiety, on the other hand, is a more serious and usually permanent psychopathology: people who suffer from anxiety do not have a single specific factor, so solving the causes that cause it requires more specific and personalized attention.

Anxiety treatment is based on medication and treatment if it becomes a limiting factor or reduces the patient’s quality of life. This does not mean that people with anxiety do not benefit from relaxing activities, exercise, or reducing the use of stimulants such as caffeine.

We already know that there are celebrities who are prone to the use and abuse of miracle diets and epidemic pseudotherapy, but far from the scientific evidence. In that sense, no one can beat Gwyneth Paltrow and her company Goop.

If you don’t already know Fitenium is a free, mobile and video-based social network for users who train strength and/or body weight exercises. At Fitenium users can find free personalized routines, follow their performance, compete and get discounts at nutrition stores and sports equipment. Download it here.

Except now, famous actresses are competing in this area. In fact, the CEO of Twitter is part of the new Silicon Valley trend, stoicism. Basically, it means not only feeling satisfied with what each person has, but above all, distanced from their feelings.

Dorsey participated in the popular podcast “Ben Greenfield Fitness: Diet, Fat Loss, Performance” a few days ago and talked about the habits that he followed both in his daily life and in his diet. Some of these habits, like meditation, commuting, and seven minutes of daily exercise, seem like healthy habits with health benefits.

5 meals a week

However, there are other habits that are not only scientifically unfounded, but can even be dangerous for the body. In particular, the CEO has shown that he only eats once a day on weekdays and completely fasts on weekends.

This means that Dorsey only eats five times a week. Typically, fish, chicken, or chops are served with salad, spinach, or Brussels sprouts. For dessert, use dark chocolate or berries. As a general rule, intermittent fasting brings many benefits to our body by reducing cardiovascular risk factors and helping to lower metabolic age.

Fasting followed by a dose of cat is called a 20/4 fast and is also known as “warrior food.” This type of disconnection we recommend that you have a less powerful design than usual.

The idea of ​​intermittent fasting is to continue consuming the daily calories we need based on our activity, but keep in mind that it is a shorter period. However, the CEO’s dinner, he says, seems to be very light and very restricted in terms of food and nutrients.

Published on Unplash by Anastase Maragos

On top of this, he then fasts for almost 48 hours over the weekend. Fasting every other day for 24 hours is common and has advantages, but fasting for more than 24 hours at a time can be dangerous and there is no evidence that it has many advantages over other fasts. Also, if you still want to try it, I recommend going to a doctor and doing it under his supervision.

Take advantage of supplements

Jack Dorsey also commented on the use of supplements. He only recommended taking a multivitamin.

In reality, a truly healthy diet should provide us with all the vitamins and nutrients our bodies need without having to rely on supplements. In fact, some studies have shown that the use of some of these supplements can have adverse effects. Most of the time they are safe, but the ideal is to get the vitamins through the diet.

ice bath

Another habit of the famous CEO is to start the day in an ice bath as soon as he gets out of bed. Some studies have shown that it is a technique that has anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects in athletes.

Published on Unplash by Debbie Pan

However, the scientific evidence does not show that this activity offers a different advantage than that offered by other active recovery techniques, such as the topical application of ice. It is also not recommended for people with respiratory, cardiovascular hypothyroidism.

If we decide to try an icy bath, or a very cold shower, the main thing is not to act like Jack, but to go from the warmth of the bed to the cold of the ice. Exposure to this cold should be short-lived so as not to put you at risk, and it is recommended to manage it medically if possible.

In addition to these habits, Dorsey has been shown to follow other routines, such as tracking her sleep and taking notes about her day on her phone. Low risk activities.

The word stress is associated with negative implications, but scientifically speaking, stress is neither good nor bad. Learn what Eustress is and how to use it to overcome stress.

If you don’t already know Fitenium is a free, mobile and video-based social network for users who train strength and/or body weight exercises. At Fitenium users can find free personalized routines, follow their performance, compete and get discounts at nutrition stores and sports equipment. Download it here.

Stress is defined as the body’s physiological response when one has to face a more threatening or serious situation than usual. This reaction consists of a fight or flight response of the nervous system to find an escape route when facing or fleeing a threat.

Therefore, the nervous reaction is neither good nor bad. What happens is that our body can not always live in stress. After a while, the body will return to its normal physiological state. This is known as homeostasis.

Stress becomes a mental health problem if you are exposed to constant or frequent stress for too long. But actually, stress can also be a positive emotion.

two faces of stress

It’s normal to talk about stress simply, but in a nutshell, there are actually two different types of stress-related emotions, one positive and one negative.

Published on Unplash by Krzysztof Grech

EUstress or positive stress

The word Eustress comes from combining the Greek prefix EU, which means good, with STRESS, which refers to force or pressure.

Eustress is a natural adaptive process that consists of the short-term activation of sensations and reflexes, in the face of exceptional threats and other types of situations that require more effort.

In this case, a stressful situation generates positive feelings, impatience if what we expect is good, strengthening self-esteem in unusually demanding situations, self-realization, etc.

Distress or negative stress

Instead, distress exceeds the potential for homeostasis or balance and causes fatigue, irritation, anxiety, or anger.

If negative stress is maintained for a long period of time, physical problems can occur due to weight loss and gain, lack of defense, high blood pressure and increased energy expenditure resulting in headaches for example.

Differences in symptoms

There are some differences between distress (or what is commonly known as stress) and positive stress. One of them is how to live it.

In the case of stress, it is often accompanied by fatigue, irritation, anger and anxiety. In addition, it is accompanied by a habitual feeling of obstruction that interferes with decision-making and the development of tasks that only exacerbate stressful situations.

Published on Unplash by Marisa Buhr Mizunaka

In this line, Eustress is an experience that on an emotional level provides greater satisfaction, vitality, energy, optimism and self-esteem. These sensations lead to a better quality of life.

How to manage stress and turn it into eUstress

In some cases, the stress that some people experience reaches a point where it becomes a health problem and requires professional help. If you find yourself or think you may be in this situation, it is best to see your doctor.

But if things aren’t quite there and you think you can try to turn stress into positive feelings, here are some tips to help you do just that.

1. Manage negative thoughts

We can be our own worst enemies by compounding highly demanding situations with negative thoughts that exacerbate stress and anxiety. It is not easy to avoid this, but it is not impossible. For example, instead of looking at everything that could cause problems in any of these situations, think about everything that has already been done and what you know about how to solve it.

2. Trust yourself and your decisions

Published on Unplash by Ronny Coste

You can seek opinions and advice from someone you trust in their judgment, but you should not override your opinion or gut feeling. We often know more than we want to believe, although all decisions require a bit of self-confidence.

3. Don’t magnify the problem

Most of our worries are not as big as we usually see them. Don’t get caught up in unnecessary worries. You can also relativize the problem by comparing it with many others that surround you and that are more important.

4. Physical activity and relaxation

In many cases, due to stress, long-standing problems, work, exams, and family responsibilities, people give up physical practice. And this is a mistake.

Areas of physical activity, especially those that are helpful for relaxation, such as yoga and Pilates, are good ways to turn that stress into eustress, cope with commitments in other ways, and cytokine positive emotions in your daily life.

5. Find the moment you like

There are other things we stop doing at times of great stress, like when we get together with friends and family or spend time on hobbies like sports. Turn our entire day to day into a monothematic session of work or study, eliminating the good things that our life has. We can’t dedicate as much time to them as we would like, but we encourage you to never take these day-to-day activities out of our lives so we don’t get stressed.