Stress and anxiety can race through your sanity like a herd of wild horses, scattering any remnants of calm and productivity you might have held over from the holidays.
What is stress and can it be managed?
Stress is your body’s reaction to pressure and threats.
Stress is increased when we feel that we cannot control or manage the situation we are in.
There are many reasons for stress, but regardless of why you feel stressed, the impact on your health remains the same.
The three main types of stress
Acute stress is when you experience a highly charged, traumatic or high-pressure situation, that is usually limited to a couple of days. This is short term stress. While all stress negatively impacts your health, short term acute stress that is a once off occurrence will unnecessarily have a lasting detrimental impact on an otherwise healthy person. This can take the form of a panic attack, sleep problems or indigestion, but will improve once the stressful situation has abated.
Chronic stress on the other hand is an increased level of stress resulting from a long term, high pressure, high stakes situation. This type of stress ongoing stress can lead to serious health problems.
Traumatic stress is stress caused by a once-off traumatic experience that you perceive as life threatening, and over which you have no control, but which will have long lasting effects. This type of stress can cause post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD and should be taken extremely seriously, and be treated by a trained professional.
The physical symptoms of stress include:
- Blurred eyesight and sore eyes,
- Insomnia or oversleeping
- Digestive problems such as heartburn and constipation,
- Generalised fatigue,
- Muscle aches and headaches,
- Painful and difficult breathing.
- Panic attacks
- Heart palpitations
- High blood pressure
The psychological symptoms of stress include:
- Depression or anxiety,
- Anger, irritability, or restlessness,
- Feeling overwhelmed, unmotivated, or unfocused,
- Racing thoughts or constant worry
- Problems with your memory or concentration.
Your stress impacts others
One of the major draw backs of constantly being stressed is that it can lead to extremely bad, erratic, and risky decision making. This can mean that you neglect your job or personal life, or even pose a danger to yourself or others by engaging in risky behaviours such as substance abuse, negligent driving, misuse of firearms and generally being confrontational.
What is Cortisol?
Recently, stress has been linked to type two diabetes because of increased cortisol levels. Under normal conditions, cortisol plays an important role in regulating many of your bodily functions as a crucial hormone produced by your adrenal gland. Cortisol is however also the so called “Stress Hormone”. This means that chronic stress leads to an overproduction of this hormone, which in turn causes Hypoglycaemia which can cause type two diabetes.
Find out how stresses you are by taking the PSS (Perceived Stress Scale) test.
(The PSS test was initially formulated in 1983 but remains one of the most popular and accurate stress indicators and will be able to give you a good base line of your stress levels.)
What next?
Now that you know what stress is, and why it is important to manage it as part of your life, let’s look at ways to sustainably and effectively combat the negative impact of stress.
The most important thing to do once you know you are stressed is to be kind to yourself. Self-criticism will do nothing to alleviate your stress and will only add feelings of guilt to your already stressed-out psyche.
- Be proactive.
Anticipate high stress periods and plan ahead, ensuring that you are better prepared to deal with it.)
- Take care of your physical health
Stay active, eat well, stay hydrated and sleep enough.
- Be self-aware
There is just so much one person can do. Learn to say no – you’re allowed to lean out.
If you take care of your mental and physical health, and understand the dangers of stress, you can easily steer 2023 into the fast lane, clearing every hurdle with air to spare.
Sources
What is stress?
Types of stress
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22187-cortisolypes
How stressed are you? (Downloadable PDF)
What does cortisol do in my body?
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22187-cortisol
Stress management courses
For a personalised stress busting plan
Dealing with stress