What’s the difference between Panic/stress and Anxiety ?

We often throw around words like panic, stress, and anxiety as if they were the same.
They’re not. Each touches a very different layer of how we respond to life.

To make this clearer, let’s borrow an image from nature: the praying mantis.
Graceful in posture, almost meditative — but in some species, the female devours the male during or after mating.
Desire and danger. Attraction and death.

The mantis is a perfect guide to help us see the difference between panic, stress, and anxiety.

Panic: When the Body Reacts Instantly

Panic is the body’s raw alarm system. It strikes when something unpredictable and overwhelming hits you — an accident, an attack, a sudden shock.

Imagine: you walk into a room wearing a mantis mask. Suddenly, a giant female mantis appears, moving fast, making piercing sounds.
There’s no time to think. Your body takes over. Freeze, flee, or fight.

That’s panic: instinct without reflection.

Stress: When You Can See the Threat

Stress is different. It comes when you know what you’re up against. You can name it, anticipate it, even prepare for it.

You walk in again, mask on. You see the female mantis, and you know the risk. But this time you’re alert, careful, planning your escape.

That’s stress. It mobilises you. It sharpens you.
The challenge is balance: enough stress to push you into action, but not so much that it tips into paralysis — like too much coffee keeping you awake all night.

Anxiety: When the Danger Lives Inside

Anxiety is the trickiest. It doesn’t come from a clear external threat, but from inside — from uncertainty about who you are and how you’re seen.

You enter the room once more. The mantis is there, but she doesn’t move. She just stares.
You don’t know if she’s male or female, threat or not. And suddenly you realise: you don’t even know what mask you’re wearing.

That’s anxiety.
Not panic, not stress — but being caught in uncertainty, trying to read the Other, while questioning your own position.

Am I prey? Mate? Peer?
The doubt itself is enough to set every alarm in motion: racing heart, shallow breath, spiralling thoughts.

Anxiety grows not from what the Other does, but from being trapped in endless guessing — without an answer.

The Way Out

The way through anxiety isn’t to wait for the mantis to move. It’s to turn inward.

Ask yourself: Before I walked into this room, what mask was I wearing?

Reconnecting with those parts of yourself — especially the ones pushed aside or silenced — loosens anxiety’s grip.

Because the real work is not in reading the Other’s gaze, but in remembering your own.