[August 19 2010] Let's face it. Life is a lot more pleasant
without either stress or anxiety, but most of us have to deal
with each at some point. Stress is your body's response to a
wide range of outside demands or situations involving things
like traffic jams, crowds, finances, work, relationships, family
or that old standby, too many demands and too little time. Of
course, a little stress can be beneficial when it leads you to
solutions that make life more manageable — high monthly bills
may trigger stress that drives you to budget your money better,
for example. But living with constant stress overload can cause
discord at home or on the job as well as health problems. You
may be suffering from excessive stress if you tend to react with
anger, have mood swings, experience chronic fatigue, gain or
lose weight, abuse alcohol, withdraw from relationships or quit
successive jobs. Anxiety, on the other hand, often involves a
general sense of dread, fear or worry for no immediate reason. A
past traumatic experi