Learn The Signs You Are Overly Stressed And What You Can Do
People often view stress as a fact of life. It’s true that society has become more stressful for a lot of people. Indeed, research suggests that we will now spend more than 30% of our lives at work away from family and friends. If you take into account sleep and traffic or idle time, this means that we will spend more time working than doing anything else. So, it’s no real wonder that we feel overly stressed or totally drained. However, it’s important that you don’t just accept this reality. You need to make sure that you are tackling your stress head on. The reason for this is quite simple. Stress can have profound impacts on your physical as well as your mental health. Here are some of the key signs that you are stressed and the issues that you might be experiencing right now.
Signs You Are Stressed
There are multiple signs that you are under singificant levels of stress. Some of the issues worth mentioning here are only skin deep, but others could have a damaging impact on your future and overall well being.
Physical Changes
Stress can cause physical changes to your body. One of the most worrying physical changes linked to stress is arguably pain. Chronic pain is a common side effect of stress and tension because the body will find an effective way to deal with the problem.
Chronic pain with a psychological cause will still feel incredibly real to you and have a significant impact on your wellbeing. You might develop other physical issues too. For instance, you might find that you experience issues with bloating or weight gain. This can occur even if your diet hasn’t changed. Stress has even been linked to some serious and significant long term health issues including cancer.
Cosmetic Changes
The impact of stress can also be superficial but that doesn’t mean it’s something that won’t concern you. The changes stress can trigger may lead to a knock in your levels of self confidence. That’s why you need to make sure that you are not leaving it to fester. For instance, one of the most common cosmetic changes of stress would be differences in your hair. Your hair can seem far weaker, flatter or thinner overall if you are overly stressed. You might also notice changes like dry skin. It’s worth exploring dry skin: causes, treatment and prevention strategies if you are worried about an impact like this.
Fatigue
Stress can also make you feel exhausted and far more tired than usual. It’s possible that you find it more difficult to get up in the morning and you could also need to take regular breaks throughout the day. Getting through a complete day of work could become a complete and total nightmare. The reason for this is that the issues causing you stress are weighing you down and ultimately resulting in an emotional weight. One of the ways that you can deal with this is by writing down anything bothering you before you sleep. That way, you are more likely to get the high quality rest required.
Anxiety
Anxiety can also be more of a struggle for people who find themselves overly stressed. You could find that situations that you used to be able to deal with cause you more anxiety than usual. This can be a struggle and some people find that high levels of anxiety make it difficult to function effectively on a daily basis. If you are worried about levels of anxiety, then you might want to speak to your doctor about the right treatment option.
Irritation
In terms of other emotional changes, stress can easily make you more irritable. You’ll likely find small things that never bothered you before now make you annoyed and even angry. This is because there will be issues in your life that you are struggling to deal with and manage. As such, it’s important to make sure that you do think about how to put the right coping mechanisms in place. We’ll talk a little further down about some of the different mechanisms that you can use to cope with high levels of stress as well as some of the major side effects.
Behavioral Swings
If you are overly stressed, you might also struggle with significant and dramatic changes to your behaviour. This can occur at any time throughout the day and can go far beyond levels of irritation. You might end up lashing out at the people around you. The problem here is that it can cause a strain on both personal and professional relationships, ultimately causing a long term impact on your life.
Usually, it will be the people around you who might first notice a change like this.
What Can You Do
You might already recognize that these issues are present in your life and impacting your health. If so, then it’s important to take the right steps here and ensure that you do improve your overall health. Here are some of the suggestions that we recommend.
Remove Stress From Your Life
First, you might want to think about removing elements of your life that are causing you high levels of stress. One of the most common examples could include your worklife. As mentioned, work is where we now spend the majority of our time. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If you choose to freelance or even run your own business, then you can avoid the stress caused by being away from people that matter the most. At the very least, you should strive to work for a company where you feel happy, appreciated and content.
Meditate
If you are struggling with stress, then you might want to think about mediitating. Meditation can be one of the best ways to get your levels of stress under control. People often assume that meditation is going to be difficult. We’re pleased to say that this isn’t the case. You should start by focusing on learning how to clear your mind. Once you have achieved this step, you can then move forward and think about how to focus on issues that are causing you tension. Meditation is a powerful tool and there are lots of guides online that will show you how to approach this the best way.
Therapy
It’s worth noting that some issues with stress can be deeply rooted in your psyche. It’s possible that there’s an issue causing you stress which impacted your life years ago. If you are concerned that this might be the case, then you should consider exploring an option like therapy. Therapeutic treatment is ideal because you will have an expert helping you to address the problems that you are experiencing like a guide through the back of your mind where thoughts are buried. Cognitive therapy can help even if you don’t feel overwhelmed or overly stressed.
We hope this helps you understand some of the key signs that you are struggling with high levels of stress in your life and the right steps that you can take here. By exploring the best options, you can make sure that stress doesn’t become a constant burden or impact your living standards.
Remember, if you are feeling stressed there likely is going to be a root cause that you need to address head on. It’s important that you don’t continue to suffer in silence because high levels of stress can have a significant impact on the short and long term aspects of your health
