| | Life can be stressful. We all face different challenges and obstacles, and sometimes the pressure is hard to handle. When we feel overwhelmed, under the gun, or unsure of how to meet the demands placed on us, we experience stress. In small doses, stress can be a good thing. It can give you the push you need, motivating you to do your best and to stay focused and alert. Stress is what keeps you on your toes during a presentation at work or drives you to study for your midterm when you'd rather be watching TV. But when the going gets too tough and life's demands exceed your ability to cope, stress becomes a threat to both your physical and emotional well-being.
Stress is a psychological and physiological response to events that upset our personal balance in some way. These events or demands are known as stressors. We usually think of stressors as being negative, such as an exhausting work schedule or a rocky relationship. However, anything that forces us to adjust can be a stressor. This includes positive events such as getting married or receiving a promotion. Regardless of whether an event is good or bad, if the changes it brings strain our coping skills and adaptive resources, the end result is the subjective feeling of stress and the body's biological stress response.
According to the American Psychological Association, fifty-four percent of Americans are concerned about the level of stress in their everyday lives.
What causes stress and its symptoms?
The potential causes of stress are numerous. Your stress may be linked to outside factors such as the state of the world, the environment in which you live or work, or your family. Your stress can also come from your own irresponsible behavior, negative attitudes and feelings, or unrealistic expectations.
Furthermore, the causes of stress are highly individual. What you consider stressful depends on many factors, including your personality, general outlook on life, problem-solving abilities, and social support system. Something that's stressful to you may be neutral or even enjoyable to someone else. For example, your morning commute may make you anxious and tense because you worry that traffic will make you late. Others, however, may find the trip relaxing because they allow more than enough time and enjoy playing music or listening to books while they drive.
Stressors can be divided into three broad categories:- Frustrations – Frustrations are obstacles that prevent you from meeting your needs or achieving personal goals. They can be external—such as discrimination, an unsatisfying job, divorce, or the death of a loved one—or internal. Examples of internal frustrations include physical handicaps, the lack of a desired ability or trait, and other real or perceived personal limitations.
- Conflicts – Stressors involving two or more incompatible needs or goals are known as conflicts. For example, a working mother might feel torn over a job offer that would advance her career, but take time away from her family. Sometimes the conflict involves a choice between two desirable options, such as deciding between two acceptance offers from equally appealing colleges. At other times, the decision involves disagreeable alternatives.
- Pressures – Stress can stem from the expectations of others or the demands you place on yourself. You may feel pressure to get good grades in order to please your parents or get into a good school. Or you may feel pressure to excel at work, make a difference in your community, or be the perfect mother. Whether or not the source of stress causes significant emotional and physical symptoms depends in part on the nature of the stressor itself. Stressors that involve central aspects of your life or that persist for extended periods of time are more likely to result in severe distress and disruption of functioning. Furthermore, the more stressful situations or life changes you're dealing with at one time, the more intense the symptoms of stress. To assess the amount of stress you're under, take Dr. Rahe's Life Changes Stress Test.
What are the signs and symptoms of stress?
Stress affects the mind, body, and behavior in many ways. The specific signs and symptoms of stress vary from person to person, but all have the potential to harm your health, emotional well-being, and relationships with others. Below is a partial list of stress signs and symptoms that a person undergoing stress might experience.
Signs and Symptoms of Stress Intellectual symptoms: - How stress can affect your mind
- Emotional symptoms:
- How stress can make you feel
- Memory problems.
- Difficulty making decisions.
- Inability to concentrate.
- Confusion.
- Seeing only the negative.
- Repetitive or racing thoughts.
- Poor judgment.
- Loss of objectivity.
- Desire to escape or run away.
- Moody and hypersensitive.
- Restlessness and anxiety.
- Depression.
- Anger and resentment.
- Easily irritated and “on edge”.
- Sense of being overwhelmed.
- Lack of confidence.
- Apathy.
- Urge to laugh or cry at inappropriate times.
Physical symptoms: - How stress can affect your body Behavioral symptoms:
- How stress can affect your behavior
- Headaches.
- Digestive problems.
- Muscle tension and pain.
- Sleep disturbances.
- Fatigue.
- Chest pain, irregular heartbeat.
- High blood pressure.
- Weight gain or loss.
- Asthma or shortness of breath.
- Skin problems.
- Decreased sex drive.
- Eating more or less.
- Sleeping too much or too little.
- Isolating yourself from others.
- Neglecting your responsibilities.
- Increasing alcohol and drug use.
- Nervous habits (e.g. nail biting, pacing).
- Teeth grinding or jaw clenching.
- Overdoing activities such as exercising or shopping.
- Losing your temper.
- Overreacting to unexpected problems.
Keep in mind that the signs and symptoms of stress can be caused by other psychological or physical problems, so it’s important that you consult a doctor to evaluate physical symptoms. Similarly, emotional symptoms such as anxiety or depression can mask conditions other than stress. It’s important to find out whether or not they are stress-related. What are the different types of stress? - Acute stress
Acute stress is the most common and most recognizable form of stress, the kind of sudden jolt in which you know exactly why you’re stressed: you were just in a car accident; the school nurse just called; a bear just ambled onto your campsite. Or it can be something scary but thrilling, such as a parachute jump. Along with obvious dangers and threats, common causes of acute stressors include noise, isolation, crowding, and hunger. Normally, your body rests when these types of stressful events cease and your life gets back to normal. Because the effects are short-term, acute stress usually doesn’t cause severe or permanent damage to the body.
- Episodic acute stress
Some people endure acute stress frequently; their lives are chaotic, out of control, and they always seem to be facing multiple stressful situations. They’re always in a rush, always late, always taking on too many projects, handling too many demands. Unlike people for whom stress is a once-in-a-while spike, these folks are experiencing episodic acute stress.
According to the American Psychological Association, those prone to episodic acute stress include driven, hard-charging “Type A” personality types and worrywarts, always anxious about the next disaster they’re sure lurks around the corner. While the Type A tends to seem angry and hostile and the worrier more depressed, both are frequently over-aroused and tense, and both are susceptible to the physical manifestations of extended stress, including high blood pressure and heart disease.
If you’re prone to episodic acute stress, you may not know it or admit to it. You may be wedded to a life style that promotes stress. You may explain your frequent stress as temporary (“I just have a million things going on right now”), as integral to your work or home life (“Things are always crazy around here”), or as a part of your personality (“I have a lot of nervous energy, that’s all”). You may blame your frequent stress on other people or outside events, or you might view it as entirely normal and unexceptional. Unfortunately, people with episodic acute stress may find it so habitual that they resist changing their lifestyles until they suffer severe physical symptoms.
Chronic stress
The APA Help Center describes chronic stress as “unrelenting demands and pressures for seemingly interminable periods of time.” Chronic stress is stress that wears you down day after day and year after year, with no visible escape. It grinds away at both mental and physical health, leading to breakdown and even death.
Common causes of chronic stress include: - Poverty and financial worries
- Long-term unemployment
- Dysfunctional family relationships
- Caring for a chronically ill family member
- Feeling trapped in unhealthy relationships or career choices
- Living in an area besieged by war or violence
- Bullying or harassment
- Perfectionism
One of the most dangerous aspects of chronic stress is that people who suffer from it get used to it. They accept chronic stress as their lot in life, or they forget it’s there. Because chronic stress is based on long-term, often intractable situations, both the mental and physical symptoms of chronic stress can be difficult to treat.
Traumatic stress:
Severe stress reactions can result from a catastrophic event or intense experience such as a natural disaster, sexual assault, life-threatening accident, or participation in combat. After the initial shock and emotional fallout, many trauma victims gradually begin to recover. But for some people, the psychological and physical symptoms triggered by the trauma don't go away, the body doesn’t regain its equilibrium, and life doesn’t return to normal. This is a condition known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Common symptoms include flashbacks or nightmares about the trauma, avoidance of places and things associated with the trauma, hypervigilance for signs of danger, chronic irritability and tension, and depression. PTSD is a serious disorder that requires professional intervention.
For more information on traumatic experiences and how to recover, see Helpguide's Emotional and Psychological Trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
What are the long-term effects of stress?
The stress response of the body is meant to protect and support us. When faced with a threat, whether it be to our physical safety or emotional equilibrium, the body's defenses kick into high gear in a process known as the "fight or flight” response. The sympathetic nervous system pumps out adrenaline, preparing us for emergency action. Our heart rate and blood flow to the large muscles increase, the blood vessels under the skin constrict to prevent blood loss in case of injury, the pupils dilate so we can see better, and our blood sugar ramps up, giving us an energy boost.
The stress response is what helped our stone age ancestors survive, enhancing their ability to fight or flee from danger. But in the modern world, most stressors are psychological, rather than physical. Caring for a chronically-ill child or getting audited by the IRS qualify as stressful situations, but neither calls for either fight or flight. Unfortunately, our bodies don't make this distinction. Like a caveman confronting a sabertooth tiger, we go into automatic overdrive, releasing the same hormones that enabled prehistoric humans to move and think faster, hit harder, see better, hear more acutely, and jump higher than they could only seconds earlier.
The problem with the stress response is that the more it is activated, the harder it is to shut off. Instead of leveling off once the crisis has passed, your stress hormones, heart rate, and blood pressure remain elevated. Extended or repeated activation of the stress response takes a heavy toll on the body. The physical wear and tear it causes includes damage to the cardiovascular system and immune system suppression. Stress compromises your ability to fight off disease and infection, makes it difficult to conceive a baby, and stunts growth in children. It can even rewire the brain, leaving you more vulnerable to everyday pressures and mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. And, of course, the stress of living with a debilitating disease or disorder just adds to the problem.
Recent research suggests that anywhere from two-thirds to 90 percent of illness is stress-related. The following table lists some of the health problems that can be caused or exacerbated by long-term stress: Health Problems Linked to Stress: - Heart attack
- Hypertension
- Stroke
- Cancer
- Diabetes
- Depression
- Obesity
- Eating disorders
- Substance abuse
- Ulcers
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Memory loss
- Autoimmune diseases (e.g. lupus)
- Insomnia
- Thyroid problems
- Infertility
What can I do to manage stress and its symptoms?
Fortunately, physicians, mental-health professionals, and others have discovered many ways for people to cope with stress, repair its damages, and work on removing its sources. |
| | Tip #1: Take 40 deep slow diaphragmatic breaths each day. (Spread evenly throughout your day, not all at once at the end of the day or you might hyperventilate.) You can benefit from associating the deep breaths with some common work occurrence such as the telephone ringing or clock watching. Tip #2: Use regular relaxation periods for work breaks. Try fifteen to twenty minute periods of (hopefully) undisturbed time away from phone and/or family. Commit to using this for four to six weeks to begin to see the benefits. Tip #3: Get regular exercise. Aerobic activities such as walking, jogging, swimming, biking, etc. for 20 minutes 3 times per week is minimum. Recommended is 30 minutes or more, 4-6 times per week. But do not hurt yourself! Tip #4: Eat sensibly. Avoid caffeine. Do not cope with stress by using alcohol or drugs. If you are stressed out, caffeine is like throwing gasoline on a fire to put it out! Tip #5: Get focused on new directions and regular planning. Give yourself positive options if you feel trapped. Plan for growth in all aspects of your life, not just work and finance (family/relationships, spiritual interests, creativity, vacations, hobbies, etc.). Tip #6: Use and develop your humor! Positive attitudes really help difficulties, when viewed as opportunities for growth and proving your abilities, are less harmful. But do not bury your anger, fear or sadness. Tip #7: Protect yourself from negative co-workers and relationships! Do not get caught up in other peoples’ negative thinking or let them rip off your peace of mind and positive energy. Take good care of yourself!! Tip #8: Get back in control!!! If you can not control all the people and situations that happen around you... at least you can control the way you respond! Tip #9: Give sincere compliments freely and smile! Be positive and let it shine on all that surround you. It will come back many times more. Tip #10: Learn to really listen! It is the best communication technique that you can develop! |
