What is the difference between psychological pressure and psychological burden?

Psychological stress is mostly the stressful feeling pushed in front of you by external events, and psychological burden is the long-term burden that you carry on yourself.

I have been doing community psychological counseling for three years, and the cases I have encountered can clearly explain the difference between the two. Last month, I just received an operation from an Internet company. During the half month of the 618 big promotion, she had to contact more than a dozen brands every day and change more than 30 activity plans. During that time, she couldn't sleep all night long. Her heartbeat was racing as soon as she sat down at her desk. She couldn't help but get angry when talking to her colleagues. This is It is a typical psychological pressure - the trigger source is very clear, which is the current big promotion node and KPI requirements. It is a feeling directly given to you by the outside world and bound to specific events. After the big promotion was over and the review was completed, she went out for three days to take a vacation and climbed a mountain, and she basically recovered when she came back. And many times, moderate pressure can be motivation. During that time, she forced herself to master several delivery tools that she had never been exposed to before. She received a department bonus at the end of the project. She feels quite accomplished when talking about those days.

But the psychological burden is different. This is the same girl. She talked to me later and said that even though the project has been over for almost two months, she still can't help but subconsciously mutter when changing the plan, "Is it because I am not capable enough that I have to change it so many times?" She was even dismissed during Double 11 last year. A difficult Party A once scolded "I can't do this well." Now when dealing with clients who seem to be strict, she has to recite "Don't make mistakes, don't make mistakes" silently three times in her mind. These unspoken self-denials and fears of the unknown are internalized psychological burdens. It does not have a clear triggering event at the moment. Many things that caused stress in the first place have long been over. However, you have secretly stored the guilt, uneasiness, and self-doubt in your heart. It has become an invisible little baggage on your back. When encountering similar scenes, it will pop up and tug you. It will not disappear automatically when the event is over. Even if you are not busy with anything important now, you will occasionally feel inexplicably heavy and flustered, unable to get excited.

Speaking of which, many researchers in the academic world now believe that there is no need to make too strict a separation between the two. After all, long-term unrelieved pressure will slowly turn into psychological burden. Many ordinary people's own emotions are also mixed with the two. It would be meaningless to break them into pieces and separate them clearly.

To use an inappropriate analogy, psychological stress is like when you go out to catch up with a heavy rain, the raindrops hit you and you feel cold, and you are out of breath in a hurry. The discomfort is real, but when you run home, change into dry clothes and drink a cup of hot ginger tea, you will soon get over it.； But if you have been exposed to the rain for three days this time, and then whenever it gets cloudy, your knees will hurt first. Even if you go out with an umbrella, you are always afraid of getting wet again. This concern and discomfort engraved in your body is a psychological burden and a "sequelae" left by the incident, which will not automatically heal when the rain stops.

When we are doing first-line counseling, we don’t just categorize our feelings. However, if it is the pressure caused by the current incident, we can often help to sort out the to-do priorities and do breathing relaxation training for half an hour. However, if the burden has been accumulated for months or even years, we have to slowly guide the other person to sort out the things on his back one by one, so that he can slowly relax.