Stress

The word stress alone might just be enough to set your nerves on edge. Everyone experiences stress and anxiety from time to time. Some people may cope with stress more effectively or recover from stressful events quicker than others. Stress is a response to a threat in a situation. Anxiety is a reaction to the stress. It’s important to know your limits when it comes to stress to avoid more serious health effects.

Whether in good times or bad, most people say that stress interferes at least moderately with their lives. Chronic stress can affect your health, causing symptoms from headaches, high blood pressure, and chest pain to heart palpitations, skin rashes, and loss of sleep.

What is stress?

Stress can be defined as the brain’s response to any demand. Many things can trigger this response, including change. Changes can be positive or negative, as well as real or perceived. They may be recurring, short-term, or long-term and may include things like commuting to and from school or work every day, traveling for a yearly vacation, or moving to another home. Changes can be mild and relatively harmless, such as winning a race, watching a scary movie, or riding a rollercoaster. Some changes are major, such as marriage or divorce, serious illness, or a car accident. Other changes are extreme, such as exposure to violence, and can lead to traumatic stress reactions.

How does stress affect the body?

Not all stress is bad. All animals have a stress response, which can be life-saving in some situations. The nerve chemicals and hormones released during such stressful times, prepares the animal to face a threat or flee to safety. When you face a dangerous situation, your pulse quickens, you breathe faster, your muscles tense, your brain uses more oxygen and increases activity—all functions aimed at survival. In the short term, it can even boost the immune system.

However, with chronic stress, those same nerve chemicals that are life-saving in short bursts can suppress functions that aren’t needed for immediate survival. Your immunity is lowered and your digestive, excretory, and reproductive systems stop working normally. Once the threat has passed, other body systems act to restore normal functioning. Problems occur if the stress response goes on too long, such as when the source of stress is constant, or if the response continues after the danger has subsided.

How does stress affect your overall health?

There are at least three different types of stress, all of which carry physical and mental health risks:

• Routine stress related to the pressures of work, family and other daily responsibilities.

• Stress brought about by a sudden negative change, such as losing a job, divorce, or illness.

• Traumatic stress, experienced in an event like a major accident, war, assault, or a natural disaster where one may be seriously hurt or in danger of being killed.

The body responds to each type of stress in similar ways. Different people may feel it in different ways. For example, some people experience mainly digestive symptoms, while others may have headaches, sleeplessness, depressed mood, anger and irritability. People under chronic stress are prone to more frequent and severe viral infections, such as the flu or common cold, and vaccines, such as the flu shot, are less effective for them.

Of all the types of stress, changes in health from routine stress may be hardest to notice at first. Because the source of stress tends to be more constant than in cases of acute or traumatic stress, the body gets no clear signal to return to normal functioning. Over time, continued strain on your body from routine stress may lead to serious health problems, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, anxiety disorder, and other illnesses.

How can I cope with stress?

The effects of stress tend to build up over time. Taking practical steps to maintain your health and outlook can reduce or prevent these effects. The following are some tips that may help you to cope with stress:

• Seek help from a qualified mental health care provider if you are overwhelmed, feel you cannot cope, have suicidal thoughts, or are using drugs or alcohol to cope.

• Get proper health care for existing or new health problems.

• Stay in touch with people who can provide emotional and other support. Ask for help from friends, family, and community or religious organizations to reduce stress due to work burdens or family issues, such as caring for a loved one.

• Recognize signs of your body’s response to stress, such as difficulty sleeping, increased alcohol and other substance use, being easily angered, feeling depressed, and having low energy.

• Set priorities-decide what must get done and what can wait, and learn to say no to new tasks if they are putting you into overload.

• Note what you have accomplished at the end of the day, not what you have been unable to do.

• Avoid dwelling on problems. If you can’t do this on your own, seek help from a qualified mental health professional who can guide you.

• Exercise regularly-just 30 minutes per day of gentle walking can help boost mood and reduce stress.

• Schedule regular times for healthy and relaxing activities.

• Explore stress coping programs, which may incorporate meditation, yoga, tai chi, or other gentle exercises.

Facts about stress

• Three-fourths of the human population undergo stress in varying levels in a 2-week period. The working population is particularly subject to emotional, physical, and mental stress.

• Stress is one of the main factors causing insomnia and other sleep disorders. When stressors are present, the body naturally heightens its response system, thus, leading to wakefulness.

• Laughter is usually the best natural medicine. It lowers levels of cortisol, adrenaline, and epinephrine, which are stress-aggravating hormones; and it releases feel-good hormones, such as, dopamine.

• Chewing gum eases, not only the jaw, but stress as well. Ancient Mayans and Greeks chomped on resin gum; stress sure had been around a long time.

• Stress causes chest pain, high cholesterol, cardiac problems, depression, and a host of assorted problems. It is not the culprit that causes gray hair; but it does cause hair loss.

• In the 1930s, Hans Selye, an endocrinologist, first used the term stress in an organic framework. He used the term in his study with animals which, he concluded, had similar responses to stress as humans, e.g., hypertension, lingering back pain, and chronic abdominal problems.

• Stress triggers blood vessels to close, thereby reducing profuse bleeding from a flesh wound. The term stress means to draw tight, which originated from the Latin word stringere.

• A stressor, the stimulus that causes stress which can be real or imagined, can affect a person in a short term (acute) or over long periods (chronic).

• Highly stressed women have a higher tendency for suicide, particularly working mothers who lack substantial support and understanding from others, than most women with moderate levels of stress.

Tips to Manage Anxiety and Stress

When you’re feeling anxious or stressed, these strategies will help you cope:

• Take a time-out. Practice yoga, listen to music, meditate, get a massage, or learn relaxation techniques. Stepping back from the problem helps clear your head.

• Eat well-balanced meals. Do not skip any meals. Do keep healthful, energy-boosting snacks on hand.

• Limit alcohol and caffeine, which can aggravate anxiety and trigger panic attacks.

• Get enough sleep. When stressed, your body needs additional sleep and rest.

• Exercise daily to help you feel good and maintain your health.

• Take deep breaths. Inhale and exhale slowly.

• Count to 10 slowly. Repeat, and count to 20 if necessary.

• Do your best. Instead of aiming for perfection, which isn’t possible, be proud of however close you get.

• Accept that you cannot control everything. Put your stress in perspective: Is it really as bad as you think?

• Welcome humor. A good laugh goes a long way.

• Maintain a positive attitude. Make an effort to replace negative thoughts with positive ones.

• Get involved. Volunteer or find another way to be active in your community, which creates a support network and gives you a break from everyday stress.

• Learn what triggers your anxiety. Is it work, family, school, or something else you can identify? Write in a journal when you’re feeling stressed or anxious, and look for a pattern.

• Talk to someone. Tell friends and family you’re feeling overwhelmed, and let them know how they can help you. Talk to a physician or therapist for professional help.

• Get help online. We offer online help guided by professional coaches to help you turn healthy anxiety management into a habit.