Do you feel like you have stress coming at you from all directions? Does it feel like you couldn’t possibly handle one more thing not going smoothly? Do you feel like you’re carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders? If that sounds like you, you may be under too much stress.
Unfortunately, stress is a normal part of life. No one is going to make it through life without feeling stressed from time to time. However, there is a big difference between dealing with the occasional stressful situation that is out of your control and feeling like you’re being overwhelmed with chronic stress regularly.
Learning how to identify what stress looks like in your life and where it’s coming from can help you learn how to address it. Below you’ll find treatment options and tips that can help you learn to manage stress healthily.
What Is Stress?
Stress is a natural feeling that you get as a response to things that are changing and happening around you. When things are happening that you aren’t sure how to deal with or that feel overwhelming or threatening, you may start to feel stressed.
Stress in itself is not meant to be something negative. It’s your body’s way of trying to protect itself in dangerous situations. When you feel stressed, hormones flood your body that helps your fight-or-flight response kick in. If you’re in a dangerous situation, such as facing a dangerous animal, the stress response could actually help save your life.
However, most of us aren’t facing life or death situations daily. Instead, we may be dealing with things like financial stress, challenges in the workplace, difficult relationships, and health concerns. These, among other difficult or challenging situations, can leave you dealing with stress.
Once your stress levels have increased, it can take hours for them to return to normal. If you experience stress regularly, this can begin to have a serious impact on your physical and mental health.
What Are The Symptoms Of Stress?
It’s possible that stress can show in people’s lives in different ways. However, there do tend to be some common symptoms that you may recognize in your life if you deal with chronic stress. Some of these symptoms include:
- Insomnia or trouble sleeping.
- Feeling overwhelmed
- Digestive issues
- Headaches
- Muscle tension or chronic pain
- Low sexual desire
- Change in appetite (could be eating more or eating less)
- Trouble concentrating
- Fatigue or exhaustion
As you can see from the list of symptoms, stress doesn’t just impact your mental and emotional health. It can impact your physical health and behavior as well. You may notice that you are more irritable with others because your stress causes you to struggle with a lack of patience. You may constantly be thinking about a stressful situation that leaves you feeling like you’re on edge.
You may also notice that you began engaging in unhealthy behaviors such as substance abuse, gambling, or overspending to escape the stress that you’re experiencing.
If you try to ignore your stress instead of dealing with it, you may find that it continues to grow and cause new problems in your life. This is why it’s important to learn tips for relieving stress and what your treatment options are.
Stress Management Treatment And Tips
It’s important to note that some of the stress management tips may work better for you than others. If the first thing that you try isn’t working, don’t give up.
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