IDENTIFYING & RECOGNISING STRESS

These are all examples of acute stress. They’re short-term, they won’t last longer than your workday, and they may actually benefit your health in some ways.

However, if your life feels like this every day of the week, you may be experiencing long-term or chronic stress. This type of stress can be dangerous to your health if you don’t work to overcome it or cope with its effects. Big stressors include money troubles, job issues, relationship conflicts, and major life changes, such as the loss of a loved one. Smaller stressors, such as long daily commutes and rushed mornings, can also add up over time. Learning how to recognise sources of stress in your life is the first step in managing them. Some examples of stressors include:

Health - Aging, diagnosis of an illness, and symptoms or complications from a current illness can increase your stress. Even if you don’t have health problems yourself, someone close to you may be coping with an illness or condition. That can increase your stress levels, too.

Money: Financial trouble is a common source of stress. Debt, rent, or the inability to provide for your family or yourself can put a serious amount of stress on you. In this society, where so much emphasis is put on what you have and what you can afford, financial stress is something that everyone can relate to.

Relationships: Arguments with your partner/spouse, parent, or child can increase your stress levels. When you live together, it can be even more stressful. Problems between other members of your family or household can also cause you stress

Emotional problems: When you feel unable to relate to someone, or you need to express your emotions but can’t, it can weigh you down with additional stress. Mental health disorders, including depression and anxiety, only add to the emotional strain.

Life changes: The death of a loved one, changing jobs, moving houses, and sending a child off to university are examples of big life changes that can be stressful. Even positive changes, such as retirement or getting married, having a baby can cause a significant amount of stress.

Personal beliefs: Arguments about personal, religious, or political beliefs can challenge you, especially in situations where you can’t remove yourself from the conflict. Major life events that cause you to question your own beliefs can also cause stress.

Stress is subjective, not measurable with tests alone. Only the person experiencing it can determine whether it’s present and how severe it feels. A healthcare provider may use questionnaires to understand your stress and how it affects your life. If you have chronic stress, your healthcare provider can evaluate symptoms that result from stress. For example, high blood pressure can be diagnosed and treated. The body’s nervous system controls your heart rate, breathing, vision changes and more. Its built-in stress response, the “fightor-flight response,” helps the body face stressful situations. When a person has long-term (chronic) stress, continued activation of the stress response causes wear and tear on the body. Physical, emotional and behavioral symptoms begin to develop.

Physical symptoms of stress include:

• Body aches and pains • Chest pains or a feeling like your

heart is racing

• Exhaustion or

(insomnia)

• Headaches, dizziness or shaking • High blood pressure trouble sleeping • Muscle tension or jaw clenching • Stomach or digestive problems • Trouble having sex • Weak immune system

Stress can also lead to emotional and mental symptoms like:

• Anxiety • Irritability • Depression • Panic attacks • Suicidal Ideation

Symptoms can come on as soon as your level of stress increases and worsen as stress continues. These symptoms usually go away once your stress level lowers. If your stress levels remain high or you experience frequent stress, your risk of getting sick increases. Often, people with chronic stress try to manage it with unhealthy behaviours, including:

• Substance use and abuse • Gambling • Developing an eating disorder • Addiction (shopping, sex, gambling,

drugs, etc)

Everyone experiences stress from time to time. Some stress is good for you and drives you to take action, like looking for a job or giving you the motivation you need to power through a tough situation or meet a pressing deadline. Too much stress, however, can suppress your immune system and cause you to get sick more easily. Over time, longterm (chronic) stress can negatively affect your health. If you feel run down, overwhelmed, or worried on a regular basis, you may have chronic stress. Identifying the causes of stress in your life is the first step in effective stress management. After you’ve figured out what your stressors are, you can take steps to reduce or avoid them. You can also adopt healthy lifestyle habits and strategies to manage the effects of stress.

BOSASNET offers counselling services to people experiencing problems with substance use, depression, anxiety, stress, anger management and adjustment issues. If you think that you might have a problem regarding gender-based violence or if you have a friend or family member who does, we encourage you to seek help. For some, it can mean the difference between life and death. You can find BOSASNET on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok or call us on 3959119 or 72659891 for more information.