It's another word for anxiety, and it's an interesting one too. Stress is not the same as anxiety though. In fact, when we use the word anxiety to describe what happens when we become stressed, we are actually using the definition of the word stress that applies to most situations in our lives. For example, if someone cuts in front of you on the freeway, that's anxiety. When someone misses a subway back home and you are late for work, that's stress.
What makes stress another word for anxiety is that it is something we all experience. When something bad happens to us, we get stressed. We get upset. We even get hurt or fall down and break an arm. Stress is everywhere, but the only thing that differs from situation to situation is what it causes us to do differently.
Stress causes us to act in ways that we don't necessarily want to. This causes us to lash out at others, become argumentative, impatient, and so forth. The only stress we know how to handle is our own stress. If someone is talking trash to us, we don't argue with them. If someone throws a rock at us, we don't react. If there's a fire outside, we can simply put the flame out, without getting angry or aggressive.
But when there's no fires, no heat and no rock, what do we do? We act. Now this action can be rational and also irrational, depending upon our reaction and how we perceive things. There's another word for stress that applies here as well - frustration. When we experience frustration, we explode with anger and actions that aren't necessarily our best.
This explosion of emotions and actions is known as stress. Focusing on the other word for stress (anxiety) is important. Focusing on the actions that result from that stress can help us to reduce the impact of the stressors, if it happens to be more than we can handle. Focusing on another word for anxiety or frustration can help us to cope better with the symptoms and to help us understand the triggers that bring about the feelings of anxiety or frustration.
For example, one of the other words for stress is compulsive overeating. Many people have a very difficult time controlling their compulsive overeating habits. They feel guilty and horrible about it and have difficulty getting rid of the food. However, the actions that come up when they eat too much, like blubbering, throwing up, crying, etc, are not actually the actions of the compulsive overeater. They are reactions that came up before the episode of overindulgence.
You might think that this makes the other word for stress easier to deal with and understand - that it's not as bad. However, there are some people who suffer from anorexia, which is another word for stress. Anorexia affects anorexics on a very deep emotional level. When the person overeats they become sick, depressed, and just generally unhealthy. They eventually become unable to move forward and their bodies shut down completely.
These are just two examples of stressful situations and actions. When it comes to dealing with the stressors that cause us to experience the feelings of anxiety and frustration, it is not always easy. However, one important thing to keep in mind is that many of these stressful events were brought about by a combination of environmental, internal, as well as external factors. Therefore, it is very important to understand what brought about your particular stressor, as well as the various ways you may be able to deal with or change the stressor. This is the only way you will truly be able to cope and handle your own stressors.