Stress, anxiety… What to do when pressure builds

“I stress in advance about this stress that threatens me… » Stress, a portmanteau word to describe a state of inner feverishness that is most common among humans. We also say we are anxious, worried, tense, distressed… But what are we really suffering from? It’s difficult to see clearly: this malaise is so widespread that its contours are blurred. “All these feelings are closely linked to fear, one of the primary emotions of the individual, explains Dominique Servant (1), psychiatrist at the Lille CHRU. Stress and anxiety are two very close states. In everyday language, one is often used interchangeably, and clinically, they can be confused. »

Stress is not an illness, it is a neurophysiological reaction. Something in the environment poses a threat, usually identified and real

Fanny Lévy, psychiatrist at Pitié-Salpêtrière

There are, however, some subtleties. “Stress is not an illness, it is a neurophysiological reaction, explains Fanny Lévy, psychiatrist at Pitié-Salpêtrière. Something in the environment poses a threat, usually identified and real. » Named and described in the 1930s by the Quebec doctor…