Stress
What is stress? How do I recognise it? What are my options? And most importantly – what can I do to manage it?
What is stress?
Stress is how we react when our lives become too difficult, either because there are too many things to do, or because we don’t know what to do. We might feel stressed because we have too much work, or because someone close to us is sick. It could be a relationship break up or other personal friendship challenges. Or maybe we’re just feeling uptight about something that hasn’t happened yet.
In most cases, we don’t actually want to feel stressed. So why does it happen? Well, sometimes we can’t help it. But often, it’s down to our expectations. If we think we’ll never make progress, we’ll be disappointed every day. And if we believe we’re always doing the wrong thing, we’ll end up frustrated.
Some stress is normal
What is stress? Stress is a normal human response to life events. It helps us deal with change and challenge. It’s part of being alive.
In fact, our bodies are built to handle stress. Our brains produce chemicals that make us feel good about ourselves and others. We laugh, cry, and even sleep better.
When we’re stressed out, we tend to eat more and exercise less. We might take shortcuts like drinking coffee or smoking cigarettes. And we sometimes turn to drugs or alcohol.
We’ve been experiencing stress since the beginning of time. As humans evolved, our bodies adapted to cope with stress. But today, many people suffer from too much stress.
The good news is there are things you can do to manage stress. You don’t have to live under constant pressure.
When is stress a problem?
Stress can happen in many different situations. Some people experience acute stress – where the stress is caused by something happening now, such as a traffic jam. Others experience chronic stress – where the stress occurs over a longer period of time, such as unemployment.
Some forms of stress are health related, like the adrenaline rush you might get while running away from a bear. Other kinds of stress can cause problems, including anxiety disorders and depression.
Acute stress can make us feel tired, anxious and irritable. Chronic stress can lead to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and high blood pressure. Stress can even be harmful to children, causing poor school performance and behavioural difficulties.
What happens to the body during stress?
The body’s autonomic nervous system controls our heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, digestion, immune system, hormones, muscles and even how we see things. Our brain sends signals to every part of the body via nerves called axons. These nerves are bundled together into bundles called nerve fibers, which branch out across the body. There are three types of nerves: sensory, motor and sympathetic. Sensory nerves send information about what’s happening outside of us to the central nervous system. Motor nerves control muscle movement. Sympathetic nerves act like the brakes on our bodies, telling the rest of the body to slow down or stop moving.
Our brains communicate with each other via chemical messengers known as neurotransmitters. They carry messages from one neuron to another within the brain and throughout the body. Neurotransmitters affect everything from mood to memory. Stress affects the production of many neurotransmitters. Some neurotransmitters help us feel calm and relaxed while others make us anxious and fearful.
When a person experiences chronic stress, the fight-or-flight response becomes activated over and over again, causing physical damage to the body. This includes the following:
- Hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline become elevated.
- Muscles tense up.
- Blood vessels constrict and blood flow slows.
- Nerve cells die off.
Types of Stress
There are many different types of stress, some of which are positive and others that are detrimental. While it’s important to recognize what stressors you face in your daily life, there are times when stress levels go up and down throughout the course of a day. Each of us deals with stress differently depending on our personality traits, genetics, upbringing, and environment.
Acute stress: Acute stresses occur when something unexpected happens, such as a death in the family or a car accident. These events cause a sudden change in mood and emotional state. This type of stress usually lasts less than a week and tends to be positive in nature.
Chronic stress: Chronic stress occurs when someone feels stressed over long periods of time without relief. In some cases, people feel chronically stressed because of a difficult relationship, a demanding work schedule, or financial problems.
Episodic acute stress: When people experience episodic acute stress, they feel overwhelmed by one event and then recover quickly. For example, a person who loses his job could experience episodic acute stress. He might feel sad about losing his income and worried about how he will pay bills. But within a few days, he recovers and goes back to feeling normal again.
Episodic acute stressful events: People who experience episodic acute stressful events tend to feel stressed out for longer periods of time, sometimes for months or years. They may feel depressed, anxious, angry, or frustrated.
Traumatic stress: Traumatic stress refers to the effects of experiencing extreme physical or psychological pain due to war, natural disasters, accidents, abuse, rape, torture, or violence.
How is stress diagnosed?
Stress is subjective — not measurable. While there are many ways to measure stress, such as cortisol levels, heart rates, and blood pressure, there isn’t one test that measures stress objectively. However, people often report feeling stressed when they experience certain physical symptoms like headaches, stomachaches, fatigue, insomnia, irritability, and muscle tension. These symptoms can indicate that someone is under stress.
Healthcare providers can diagnose stress based on symptoms alone, or they can ask patients about their stress level. They might do this by asking questions like: “Do you feel stressed out most days?” Or, “Do you find yourself worrying about things?” People usually answer yes to both questions, indicating that they’re stressed.
Its because of these unknowns, variables and differences between each human body, stress can be completely invisible to someone yet causing them ongoing underlying impact.
If a patient experiences several of these symptoms over a long period of time, a healthcare provider may suspect that the patient is suffering from chronic stress. Chronic stress refers to prolonged periods of stress that cause physical changes in the body. Symptoms of chronic stress include headache, stomach aches, shortness of breath, and even depression.
A healthcare provider can treat stress by prescribing medications or recommending lifestyle changes to help manage the symptoms. Some common treatments include:
- Exercise
- Relaxation plans
- Antidepressants medication
- Sleep management
- Mindfulness training