What's the difference between anxiety and just being nervous?
JoeToTalkTo
on
Nov 17, 2014
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Anxiety is characterized by an overreaching feeling that gets in the way of everyday life, for instance a feeling of panic about leaving your house that prevents attention at work and leaves you worrying in the break room. Nervousness is a healthy response to an uncomfortable or new situation, such as a job interview or a first date with a new person, which may be accompanied by a healthy sense of worry, such as "will he/she want a second date?" or "will the interviewer check my references?" but doesn't prevent you from preparing for the situation and performing your routine.
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abeatingheart
on
Oct 19, 2014
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Anxiety is something that haunts you every minute of every day. Anxiety is an ongoing issue and can inhibit day-to-day function of a person. Anxiety is not "I'm nervous to see this person" or "I'm worried I'm gonna do bad on my finals" it's "I can barely leave the house to day for fear of being around too many people" or "What if I do bad on this test and then I don't get into a good college and then I have to get a minumum wage job and I end up on the streets for the rest of my life". Anxiety is also not something someone can just "get over". If you're nervous for a presentation you can usually calm yourself down or at least are okay afterwards. People with anxiety always have anxiety and it is not something to "get over" or cure and move on it is something that people deal with for the rest of their lives and learn ways to cope with.
Anonymous
on
Oct 23, 2014
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I think there are not a huge difference. When you feel anxious or nervous, it means you need someone (or something ) make you feel comfortable.
KarinaXKnight
on
Sep 23, 2014
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Nervousness is a natural emotional response whereas anxiety is avoidance, suffering from fear or panic, etc.
NikiTaylor
on
Nov 16, 2014
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Anxiety is extreme nervousness outside the presence of real and immediate danger. You can be nervous before, say, a performance on stage, but if you have those same feelings on a normal day, then you might be facing anxiety. You're only suffering from an anxiety disorder if these feelings cause disruption to your daily life.
AngelEliot
on
Sep 13, 2014
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Anxiety is a recurring feeling that can cause physical pain and panic attacks. It is often caused by triggering events or mentions of events. Being nervous might happen when going to meet new people, or before a test, but the feeling will pass and the person will feel better. Anxiety is often always there, a daily experience.
hopefulEllie
on
Nov 4, 2015
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Being nervous and suffering from anxiety have the common misconception of being the same thing, but they really are completely different. Anxiety is so much worse than being nervous. Anxiety can last longer and may affect you randomly. You may be driving and all of a sudden not be able to focus on driving. Your chest gets heavy, your heart rate increases, and you start sweating excessively. Nervousness is usually brought on by a stimulus; for example, you become nervous before a presentation and then it goes away after the presentation. Anxiety can make living your life more difficult. Thankfully, there are helpful tips for decreasing your anxiety and nervousness.
glisteningCandy95
on
Nov 5, 2014
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Anxiety is more chronic and has a longer lasting effect on you and your work/life. Being nervous is a healthy and natural feeling before big/stressful events. Anxiety is a lurking and chronic feeling of unease that has physical, mental, emotional and cognitive effects.
Anonymous
on
Nov 13, 2014
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Hi. I have anxiety and I actually write slam poetry about it. One of things I wrote in one of my poems was, "everyone gets anxiety, but not everyone has anxiety". There are many different types of anxiety and the one I have and have more knowledge about would be generalized. With this, you would have to acknowledge that your baseline anxiety level is higher than everyone else. Other types of anxiety are more specialized. For example: In social anxiety disorder issues, you can tell its anxiety and not being nervous because it has to do with being social. Another thing would be to test if your anxiety or nervousness is logical or not because a lot of the time anxiety is not logical. I hope this helps.
amiableZebra86
on
Nov 5, 2015
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When you are nervous, you know there is an end. You can remember being not nervous, and see you will be not nervous later. When you are anxious, you live in it. You worry and concern for all things. You care too much about too much, and it leaves you depleated. You run on vapours and your tank never gets filled up. You dont feel like anxious is any other way to be, and you sometimes cant see it either.
Anonymous
on
Nov 6, 2015
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Being nervous is a temporary state, also called fear. We experience it when we are handed a task or a job or face a sticky situation. It wears out eventually, once we have reached safe ground.
Anxiety on the other hand is the result of something you dread about, e.g, possible failure, divorce or anything that might happen but isn't happening right now. The reason may be irrational and it leads to a lot of mental agony as more the necessary amount of adrenaline is pumped into the bloodstream.
AgusD96
on
Oct 25, 2014
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Being nervous is often momentanious, and can be easily calmed once you know everything is ok. Anxiety however doesnt dissappear even though everything is ok again, and doesnt let you think straight.
Saraahh
on
Nov 1, 2014
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Being nervous is a normal feelings that might happen every once in a while and may not completely effect your life however, anxiety is being very anxious to the point where your heart starts racing, you start sweating, you might be out of breathe and not able to talk; Anxiety can greatly effect your life.
heyitssaf
on
Nov 8, 2014
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Being nervous is normal. It's identifying a situation as potentially harmful. Anxiety is irrational. It's your entire body's response to your brain automatically assuming that you are in grave danger. It's panic.
Anonymous
on
Sep 28, 2014
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Anxiety is a form of depression. Being Nervous is basically being at the start of being depressed. Being depressed is not good and there isn't no much you can do. The difference is that when you have anxiety it is harder to control and understand then being nervous because being nervous is something you could get over.
skye1248
on
Oct 25, 2014
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Anxiety is more like a weight of nervousness before and after an event. Nervousness tends to seep away after a while, but anxiety can affect people way after or way before something happens.
AlwaysJen
on
Nov 4, 2014
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Anxiety is when you have constant worry, your worry shifts from one topic to another. A person with generalized anxiety disorder may be seen as a worrywart. They also may have some symptoms such as restlessness, being constantly on edge, fatigue, irritability, and issues with concentrating.
Anonymous
on
Nov 15, 2014
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Anxiety is more a mental health concern where it impedes on a person's quality of life while being nervous is a normal response to performance related stressors we face in our daily lives.
CAM333
on
Sep 27, 2014
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I believe that anxiety is worse and and also and also is usually related to a specific situation(s). Being nervous is just getting a bit worked up about something on a one off. This is just how I interpret it, could be wrong...
RondomCactus
on
Nov 3, 2014
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Anxiety is a state of apprehension, tension, and worry.
Being nervous is a mild form of anxiety; from what I've gathered.
Both of these stem from the fight-or-flight response, which makes a person's body respond accordingly to the situation. However, individuals with anxiety experience the physical response more intensely and have thoughts that reflect their state of anxiety (Ex. A person sweats more than usual when encountering a social situation and thinks about what will happen if the situation goes wrong).
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