Stress Awareness Month is when we recognize the severity of stress and its impacts on the mind, body, and soul. This month prompts the opportunity to reflect on the stressors we experience and how they affect us both mentally and physically. In this blog, we educate about the potential risks of long-term stress and provide resources on how to manage stress for improved overall well-being.
Stress Affects the Mind, Body, and Soul
To maintain mental and overall well-being, it’s crucial to understand how stress affects us and learn effective ways to manage it. Prolonged intense stress (also known as chronic stress) can be both overwhelming and detrimental to our health. Lower levels of stress or, acute stress, is more digestible for the mind and body. Acute stress consists of day-to-day items that add temporary pressure, like bad traffic or a pop quiz for students. Often in these cases, the body’s “fight or flight” adrenal response helps us perform well in short-term stressful situations.
Smaller stressors are expected in our human experience, however, ongoing life stressors can make our mental and physical health suffer as they pile up quickly and are difficult to manage. Someone who is chronically stressed may have difficulty focusing or remembering things, or they may lack clarity of thought. Someone who functions well under high stress may only realize the amount of pressure they are under when it affects their physical health. The Mayo Clinic found that chronic or ongoing stress can lead to serious mental and physical health issues, like:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Muscle Tension and Pain
- Heart Disease, Heart Attack, High Blood Pressure, and Stroke
When someone is under constant stress, even if they don’t feel stressed, their body is constantly reacting with “fight or flight” responses, which repeatedly over time can lead to health issues. When someone experiences stress, the brain alarms the adrenal and nervous systems to release cortisol, which increases their heart rate and blood pressure and releases sugar into their blood. This creates that “adrenaline rush” sensation some people feel when public speaking or doing different daring or stressful activities.
While this cortisol spike may feel good, prolonged high cortisol levels can negatively impact your immune system, digestive system, and reproductive system. Normally, once the activity causing stress on the mind or body is accomplished, the body lowers its cortisol release and adrenaline levels return back to normal. However, for someone who experiences a series of long-term stressors, this natural brain and body response can end up doing damage. This is why it is important to be able to identify common stressors and learn how to manage them.
The Most Common Stressors
By being aware of the most common stressors, it’s easier to reflect and identify what causes stress in your own life. In fact, with the ongoing pandemic and continual tragic current events, research has confirmed that within the last 5 years, the United States as a whole has experienced higher levels of stress than usual. According to recent research, the top stressors are:
-The COVID-19 Pandemic and its Effects
-Violence and Crime
-Work (or Lack of Work)
-School-Related Stressors (Applying for College/Continued Education, Exams, Requirements, Grades)
-Income or Money-related items (Cost of Living/Finances/Debt)
-Home Upkeep (Mortgage Payments, Repairs, Weekly Shopping, Cooking, Cleaning)
-Family Relations
-Romantic Relations
-Friendships
-The Current State of the Economy or Politics
-Climate Change and Other Current Events
-Current State of Personal Physical or Mental Health
-Chronic Illnesses or Unexpected Health Difficulties
-Caretaking
Symptoms of Stress
It’s common for people not to realize the tie between their physical ailments and their mental state. By knowing the physical and mental symptoms of stress, one can more easily identify how seriously stress is affecting them.
Here are the most common symptoms to lookout for:
| Emotional Symptoms: | Physical Symptoms: | Behavioral Symptoms: |
| Irritability | Digestive problems
|
Changes in appetite or eating habits |
| Constant worry | Headaches | Using avoidance tactics, like procrastination |
| Forgetfulness | Sleep problems | Increased use of substances like drugs or alcohol to cope |
| Inability to focus | Weight gain or loss | Habits like nail biting, fidgeting and inability to sit still |
| Mental fog | Low energy | Menstrual problems |
| Feeling Depressed | Aches, pains, or muscle tension | Skin and hair problems |
| Feeling unmotivated | High heart rate | Exercising less and/or napping more |
| Fatigue | Clenched jaw or grinding of the teeth | Avoiding spending time with others |
| Frequent colds or signs of a weakened immune system | ||
| Trembles, ringing in the ears, and/or cold or clammy hands or feet |
How to Prevent Becoming Overwhelmed with Stress
If you are struggling with stress symptoms, you can offset its effects in your life with stress management techniques. The easiest stress management technique is to focus on the controllable aspects of your life, such as your schedule or how you spend your time. While you may not have the option to attend work events or required functions, you can still control your free time. If you tend to over-commit yourself, practice minimizing your commitments and maximizing your free time to take care of yourself. If an empty calendar stresses you out as much as a full one does, it may be helpful to schedule time for yourself. For example, schedule a movie night with friends or family, or even just yourself if your social battery is drained. Scheduling intentional rest time, days off, and/or time to do what you enjoy will help your mind and body recharge and decompress from stress.
Try These Simple Stress Management Techniques:
- Breathing exercises or meditation
- Regular light exercise like yoga or walking in nature
- Watching a movie or reading a book
- Spending time with family and friends
- Spend time engaging in one of your hobbies
- Utilize creative outlets like art-making, making or playing music, or building something
- Journaling about what is causing stress or your thoughts and emotions
- Eating a balanced diet
- Getting the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep each night
- Self-care
Some Stress Is Unavoidable, but it Can Be Managed with Support
Life is full of seasons of love and loss, fast pace and slow pace, great joy, and unbearable sorrow. Often an unexpected or uncontrollable stressful life event can leave someone unsure of where to turn for support. The American Psychological Association’s most recent survey showed that 36% of adults don’t know where to start when it comes to managing their stress, and 33% said they feel completely stressed out no matter what they do to manage their stress.
If this resonates with you, the best step to take is to reach out for professional guidance. Support from a licensed counselor or therapist will help you process your stress in a healthy way, learn more in-depth stress management techniques, and equip you to be more adaptive and resilient to current and future stressors. The American Psychological Association confirmed that “Coping with long-term stress requires a different set of skills than adjusting to temporary stressors.” Getting guidance from a mental health professional is the best way to obtain that skill set. Remember, to always reach out for help when you feel too stressed to know what to do.
Wings Recovery Can Help
If you are seeking professional support for your stress, we can help. Wings Recovery has mental health therapists and psychiatrists who are here to help you identify the root causes of your stress and empower you to learn how to cope and overcome it. We ensure that you receive the highest level of support while you tackle obstacles at work and home.
We have various levels of care and staff that can recommend which level is best for you.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed or stressed out, remember you are not alone.
Reach out today for support.
Call 1-(888)-790-9377 or contact us online at: https://www.wingsrecovery.org/contact-us/