What Is Anxiety Really? What Is Anxiety really? Stress, Anxiety, and Worry

The more precisely you describe a problem, or an emotion, the greater ability you have to do something about it. In this video you’ll learn the difference between stress, anxiety and worry because knowing the difference can give you a ton of tools to change your relationship with all three.
Anxiety is, in essence, your reaction to the perception of being in danger. Especially physical danger, so if you were the roof of a skyscraper, your brain would perceive the potential danger and trigger the limbic system to send out a super loud warning to you in the form of thoughts and physical sensations of anxiety.

Anxiety Serves a Function
Emotions aren’t just “bad things that happen to you”, emotions serve a function. I go into depth on the function of emotions in my “How to Process Emotions course”. But the emotion of anxiety is meant to help keep us safe from danger, to motivate us to move away from the edge of cliffs, or to stay away from venomous snakes and spiders.
And to make emotions powerful motivating forces, they aren’t just in our mind, they’re in our bodies too. Stress, Anxiety and Worry aren’t the same thing, they’re three different aspects of our Fear response. And when we know the difference, we can tailor different skills and tools to work through them. Just like with people, when we know their names, we can learn how to relate to them.

Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health.
In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction.

Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC

[gdfggggg]

My main worry was worrying about getting anxious. Not much else seems to bother me. The anxious feeling is so powerful I’d avoid situations where I think it may occur.

[amasterofone]

The smoke alarm analogy hit me like a lightning bolt! My anxiety is like a sensitive smoke alarm! Love analogies, they really help me understand. Thank you!

[TheDutchessOfCornville]

It’s funny, because I came across this video while looking for some advice. When I started the video, my anxiety was at a 7 or 8….rough day. When the “anxiety video” started, it actually made me laugh and within a minute, my anxiety was down to about a 2. What they were doing was so ridiculously, stupidly, unnecessarily dangerous that it made me remember that I’m good, I’m stressed out, but I’m ok…and I’m certainly not those dinguses.

I know that wasn’t the desired outcome, but it was really helpful for me! :)

[Vanessa-eufw]

i suffer from health anxiety, so its very hard for me to tell whether the situation is actually dangerous or not. i always try and calm myself with thoughts like "you are healthy, there´s nothing wrong with your body", but there always are the "what if" thoghts such as "what if this time it actually is something bad and you won´t react fast enough because you´re trying to talk it down" and these thoghts make it so hard to escape my anxious mindset. thanks for this free course though! currently trying to get an appointment at the psychologist, but there all booked out for the next year. so this helps me a lot

[mollypolly]

Omg. I'm so grateul you're giving a full course for free. I couldn't afford it but here I am finally healing my long time anxiety. Thank you from the bottom of my heart ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[Ceedeetunis]

My anxiety comes on like a five alarm fire. My intellectual understanding of what may or may not be going on with me goes out the window during this period. What I am left with is grappling with and breeding life into the possibility of the worst case outcome of whatever it is that I am dealing with.

[rijd]

Naming emotions, as she mentioned, is actually powerful when combined with journaling and mindfulness. A book I recently used was "30 Days to Reduce Anxiety" by Harper Daniels.

[aaronpolichar]

It's interesting that I had hardly any reaction to the folks on the skyscraper because I didn't connect with it personally. I didn't think of myself in that position. But what often happens with these things is that I start thinking of it again later and then feel the anxiety.

[greenthumb]

Holy crap, did not expect that, and what I thought was, WTF!?!? I felt like my heart was going to burst and I instantly felt like I was going to throw up. But I was able to bring myself back to a baseline calm within about two minutes. PS, your videos have been so helpful, wish I had found a therapist like you years ago, all the ones I ran across were either religious freaks or very monotone and seemed very uninterested, I survived a lot of trauma from childhood thru adult life, 55 now and I finally get it and am healing thanks to you tube.

[gotobassmsn]

A major ten plus. My anxiety level went through the roof and was having a melt down. That video brought me back to my sensorineural overloads I had about the texture of food, small/tight spaces, small rooms at night, etc....

[anner]

The video with the people leaning from the roof actually lowered my anxiety having me think there are people who are much more endangered then I am 😂😅

[froppy]

I started off this video as already having anxiety but wanting to get away from specific thoughts for a moment, so it was at around a 7. But after watching the videos, it rose to 9. I felt really scared and wanted to turn away from the screen in hopes that I wouldn't be able to see if someone was falling. But yes this video did help a lot in giving me more awareness of anxiety and how to deal with it just by allowing myself to feel it and describe it instead of always trying to avoid it altogether. Hoping to learn more from this anxiety course and slowly but surely get better!

[rikalimuria]

Thank you for describing the differences between anxiety, worry, and stress. This video is really helpful.

[adrianabutignon]

How could you see a coping mechanism to someone who’s not only absolutely traumatized with serious health issues. The person doesn’t get trapped on memories of trauma event.. the event per say repeats, constantly. Not a trigger, not a worry or anxiety only.

You’re amazing!!!! Keep up the extraordinary work!! You’re a very big human being ^^

[kryokin]

My anxiety was at a zero at a beginning. After watching the videos, I thought it was still at a zero. I don’t feel empathy and have a hard time being in touch with my somatic sensations. I had thought of worry as being thoughts with no emotion behind them, anxiety as being thoughts with worry behind them, and stress as when those feelings actually do get intense enough for me to feel in my body. But since you said worry was part of anxiety, I realized that since I had a couple thoughts of worry pop up in my head while watching the videos, I’d rate my anxiety going up from zero to one. Really good psychoeducation you’re doing! I look forward to watching the next part

[laurenl]

Went from a 2 up to a 8 when I saw that video. Great description, I’m struggling with anxiety, and started going to therapy this week. Glad I found your channel.

[freakyrandy]

the crazy thing about this video for me was that i was really anxious, angry really, about a "friend" disrespecting me online parading as some "friendly ribbing". in the middle of my raging about it to my girlfriend i stumbled across this video and could actually feel the anger inside me physically change from anger stress to fear stress. it was incredible! i felt the edge come off the anger and just turn soft but left the fear. a very moving experience i don't think i'll ever forget.

i like this woman's bedside manner. and you know what? that's the most important thing about mental health help. finding someone you can trust and feel comfortable with. thanks, Lady!

[tiller]

So, I was at about a 1 before the heights video. It immediately jumped to a 10 watching the heights video. My brain was like, "NOPE NOPE NOPE!!!" and I literally started squirming. I usually feel stress in my stomach, but this time, my lower back was almost forcing me out of my chair. So....thanks for the new sensations, Emma? Really though, thanks for all your videos! I always learn so much!

[rubin-healmysocialanxiety]

Great distinctions between stress, anxiety, and worry Emma! Clarity evaporates fear 🔥

[johnbraun]

I love your matter of fact approach. I have dealt with someone with debiitating anxiety. It is really frustrating for me.