In small doses, stress can actually motivate you to do you best, but if you’re constantly running in emergency mode, your mental and physical wellness will pay the price. You need to guard your wellbeing against stress by recognising its signs and symptoms and taking steps to reduce the harmful effects.
When you perceive a threat, your nervous system releases a flood of stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol. This automatic process is known as the “fight-or-flight” reaction, or the stress response, which, when working properly, helps you stay focused, energetic, and alert. This can save your life in an emergency, but too much of this response stops being helpful and starts causing major damage to your health, your mood, your productivity, your relationships, and your quality of life.
There are common warning signs and symptoms of stress. There are cognitive symptoms such as memory problems, inability to concentrate, poor judgment, negativity, anxiety and worrying, and emotional symptoms like moodiness, irritability or short temper, agitation, depression and feeling overwhelmed, lonely, or unable to relax. When it comes to the physical side of stress, you can experience aches and pains, diarrhoea or constipation, nausea, dizziness, chest pain, rapid heartbeat, loss of sex drive and frequent colds, and you can also exhibit certain behaviours such as eating and sleeping more or less, isolating yourself from others, nervous habits, procrastinating or neglecting responsibilities and using alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs to relax.
If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, they may indicate an underlying psychological or medical problem, and so it’s important to see a doctor for a full evaluation and to determine whether or not your symptoms are stress-related. If stress is the culprit, there are many things you can do to reduce it and the symptoms stress produces. Stress management involves changing the stressful situation when you can, changing your reaction when you can’t, taking care of yourself, and making time for rest and relaxation. You can activate your body’s relaxation response with techniques such as yoga, meditation, and deep breathing, and sensory stress-busting techniques can help you to stay cool and in control in the middle of stressful situations.
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