Stressed Out?
By Maddy Nielsen
We all have heard being stressed negatively affects your health. But if I were to ask you how it affects someone, would you be able to answer? Stress is a natural response to demands and pressure in someone's life. It is due to a hormone in your brain that activates your “fight or flight” alarm system. This hormone causes you to start breathing quicker, tensing up, as well as start to sweat. This is your body’s way of getting ready to take action. You may be asking yourself, “If I deal with stress on a daily basis, when should I be worried it is affecting my health.” Short bursts of stress are normal. Like right before a test, you feel stressed. Long-term stress is what leads to the risk of mental and physical health problems. Long-term stress is also known as chronic stress.
Before I tell you how bad chronic stress is for someone’s health, we need to talk about the signs and symptoms. These symptoms are broken down into four different groups: Cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and physical. Each symptom’s severity ranges from mild to severe.
Cognitive symptoms refer to symptoms that are thinking-related. These symptoms may include but are not limited to difficulty concentrating, difficulty thinking, memory problems, lack of self-confidence, constant worrying, and or difficulty making decisions.
Some emotional symptoms of stress include moodiness, lower morale, irritability, feeling hopeless, feeling apprehensive or anxiety, feeling depressed, feeling unhappy, feeling guilty, feeling agitated, and or unable to relax.
Some behavioral symptoms of stress include changes in eating or sleeping patterns, social withdrawal, developing a nervous habit (I will explain later), increased use of substance abuse, neglect of responsibilities, and decline in performance and or productivity. A nervous habit would include nail biting, knee bouncing, teeth grinding, and others along that line.
Lastly, some physical symptoms of stress may include but are not limited to headaches, muscle tension, stomach problems, nausea, diarrhea or vomiting, loss of sex drive, rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, fatigue, and or other physical pain or discomfort.
Now that you have read the long daunting list of some of the physical, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive symptoms of stress, let’s talk about the risk factors they cause. Having long-term, or in other words chronic stress, it can lead to someone developing a mental health disorder and or life-threatening conditions. some life-threatening conditions include cardiovascular disease and stroke, high blood pressure, and a weakened immune system. stress can lead to mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. As well as it can lead to a substance use disorder, sleeping problems, pain, and bodily compliance such as muscle tension. Other risk factors include chronic headaches, difficulty conceiving, and gastrointestinal problems.
So now what? Treatment for chronic stress, or long-term stress, is a little more tricky than for someone who is struggling with short-term stress. Just like treating short-term stress, it is beneficial to exercise, eat healthy, work on time management techniques, set realistic goals, maintain a healthy sleep schedule, make time for leisure activities, practice mindfulness, and build stress reduction skills. For chronic stress, this list would help manage the stress. However, someone with chronic stress should seek out professional help so that they can make an action plan to help reduce and maintain their stress level. It's also good to go to a professional because chronic stress could be a result of an anxiety disorder.
Self-care is very important when it comes to maintaining someone's mental health. It's very important to take time out of every day just to relax and make sure that you are well-adjusted. one thing that I find very helpful is having a self-care calendar. Nowadays being busy is an understatement of how I'm feeling during any given month. I make a point to plan out my calendar for the month and give myself one day that I completely treat myself. This one day would include not doing any homework. I wouldn't do any chores. I would plan this day when I have the day off from work. I would spend my day doing things that make me happy. I would mainly read a book, possibly watch a movie, or go out with my friends shopping. Although some say that self-care should be a daily thing, doing daily tasks that are considered self-care can start to become a routine. And soon that self-care that you added to your day ends up being another chore to your list. I recommend that when you do your daily self-care you change it up now and then. This could include actively going to the gym one day and doing home exercise the next. Or this could include doing yoga one day and painting tomorrow. The most important thing to know is that self-care has no rules. It's been preached time and time again that you should have 30 minutes of exercise as your self-care, but as someone who doesn't like exercise that doesn't sound like self-care to me. It's just another chore on my list. Life is busy but you deserve to have a day for yourself. Minimum once a month!
References
Rector, N. A. (n.d.). 20131 stress. CAMH. Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://www.camh.ca/en/health-info/mental-illness-and-addiction-index/stress
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Caring for your mental health. National Institute of Mental Health. Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/caring-for-your-mental-health#:~:text=When%20it%20comes%20to%20your,can%20have%20a%20big%20impact.
Yale Medicine. (2019, November 15). Chronic stress. Yale Medicine. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/stress-disorder#:~:text=%E2%80%A2A%20consistent%20sense%20of,%E2%80%A2Involves%20psychiatry%2C%20psychology