Warning Signs You’re Under Too Much Stress
Sneaky, isn’t it?
The way life can creep up on you. One minute everything is going well, and it’s all under control.
The next you realize you’ve got a bit too much going on.
How did that happen?
You thought you had balance but now you find yourself constantly busy. Constantly trying to jam it all in. Constantly moving faster, racing from one thing to the next.
Some days you still feel in control, but on others, you’re not so sure. And those other days seem to be becoming more frequent.
In fact, you’re starting to wonder if you’re losing your tiny mind.
So,how do you know when you’re under too much stress?
Well, it’s an individual thing. But if you’re experiencing many of the following symptoms on a regular basis, you need to make some changes.
You’re more pessimistic than you used to be, and negative self-talk seems to be taking over. You feel a little like you’ve lost your “old self”, who used to see things more positively.
That sense of overwhelm you used to get from time to time is becoming constant. Everything seems too much.
The mental list of things that need doing each morning just to get out the door is exhausting.
It’s harder and harder to make decisions. You find yourself neglecting your responsibilities and procrastinating more than usual because you just can’t make a choice.
You’re agitated all the time. You can’t concentrate properly, you can’t relax, and your mind is constantly racing.
It has to be everything or nothing at all.
Stress Triggers Are The Same For Everybody
Everybody deals with stress differently, so its important to know that youre on a unique journey.
Not only does each person have unique stress triggers, but the symptoms and duration of stress also vary for everybody. Dont let others downplay your stress or try to tell you your feelings associated with stress arent valid.
Weird Dreams All The Time
Suzanne Tucker / Shutterstock
Strange dreams or even the same ones every night ca be a symptom of stress. They make you feel anxious and on the edge. If you normally dont dream and now all of a sudden its the opposite, go back and think whats changed in your life and if there is anything that adds even a little stress to your day. It could be the trigger.
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The First Step: Acknowledging The Issue
Getting the right help for psychosomatic symptoms involves acknowledging the issue as being psychological in nature. This can be the hardest part. Many of us can cope with the idea of having headaches from sinusitis but admitting they are caused by stress or worry can be difficult, perhaps because it makes us feel weak. There is still a stigma around mental health issues however minor, and it is almost easier in our society to disclose a physical health need rather than a mental health one. This often leads to patients searching for a physical cause for their symptoms with countless investigations and tests. This is not only costly and inconvenient for the patient but actually worsens the problem as it adds to the anxiety and stress.
Stressed Or Depressed Know The Difference
If you are feeling overwhelmed by stress, you are not alone it’s practically a fact of life on college campuses. A poll conducted by mtvU and the Associated Press in the spring of 2009 reported that 85% of students say they experience stress on a daily basis.
Stress is good if it motivates you but it’s bad if it wears you down. Many factors can contribute to the stress you experience, and this stress can cause changes in your body that affect your overall physical, mental, and emotional health.
Depression is more serious and long-lasting than stress, and requires a different kind of help. In a 2010 survey by the American College Health Association, 28% of college students reported feeling so depressed at some point they had trouble functioning, and 8% sought treatment for depression.
The good news is that depression is a highly treatable condition. However, it’s not something you can snap out of by yourself, so it’s important to get help. How do you tell the difference between stress and depression? Both can affect you in similar ways, but there are key differences. Symptoms of depression can be much more intense. They last at least two weeks. Depression causes powerful mood changes, such as painful sadness and despair. You may feel exhausted and unable to act.
Here are common signs of stress and depression. Which fits you best?
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Stress Symptom: A Sweet Tooth
Don’t automatically blame your chocolate cravings on your lady hormonesstress is a more likely trigger. When University of Pennsylvania researchers surveyed pre- and postmenopausal women, they found only a small decrease in the prevalence of chocolate cravings after menopausesmaller than could be explained by just a hormonal link. Study authors say it’s likely stress, or other factors that can trigger women’s hankering for chocolate.
The Future Only Exists In Our Thoughts
The future exists only in our thoughts, but it still triggers a stress response
Imagine biting into a juicy lemon. If you really engage with this thought and imagine it, your mouth will draw together and produce more saliva even though the lemon isnt real. Its the same with the future. The future exists only in our thoughts, but it still triggers a stress response. It is within this context that the most useful solution to the problem is to be found.
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Questions To Ask Yourself
Whos in my support network? Everyone should have people in their life who are positive influences, support providers, and role models for healthy living. They can be friends, family members, mentors, spiritual leaders, colleagues, and mental health professionals.
What activities do I enjoy? Your work might be enjoyable, but everyone needs hobbies that arent about competition or personal accomplishment. What helps ease your worries and makes you more mindful about your body? These activities might include reading, dancing, gardening, board games, crafts, etc.
What are my sleep habits? If youre getting roughly 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night, youll be able to think more clearly, boost your immune system, and concentrate better on work and relationships. A simple step such as turning off screens an hour before bed can make a huge difference in your sleep quality.
Am I saying no to unnecessary tasks? Ideally you should be able to pass on tasks that demand too much of you, arent your responsibility, or dont fall in line with your personal values and objectives. If youre not sure where to start, take a look at your schedule and to-do list, and see what can be delegated or removed completely.
Am I organized? Start to declutter your life. When you can manage tasks with an accurate schedule and prioritized to-do list, you reduce the unnecessary anxiety that can accompany a cluttered and confusing agenda.
Worried You May Be Suffering From High Stress
Take our 2-minute stress level quiz to see if you could benefit from further diagnosis and treatment.
If you are experiencing any of these signs you may want to take action to reduce stress today. Here are some simple but revealing questions you can ask yourself to pinpoint areas for improvement or change. Asking the right questions can identify what improvements you can make to feel more relaxed and in control of your health.
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Stress Is Bad For You
Its true that long-term feelings of stress can lead to medical problems, but that doesnt mean that all stress is bad. The reason our bodies react to stress is to prepare for situations where increased muscle tension or a higher heart rate may be necessary for a better health outcome. In addition, stress reactions help you identify triggers so that unnecessary stressors can be addressed or avoided altogether.
Weight Gain Around The Waistline
Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock
A lot of people who are overstressed experience change in habits such as drinking more and eating more which can result in weight changes instead of being careful, exercise regularly, speak to friends or family and realize that they are not in this alone, according to Borenstein. The extra pounds people gain under stress is usually abdominal fat because the adrenaline and cortisol make you hungry for carbs and fat. If your jeans arent fitting anymore and its very difficult to lose the recently gained weight even though you are exercising regularly, stress is likely the key reason why.
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Take Care Of Your Body
A healthy body can help you manage stress. Get 7 to 9 hours of sleep, eat healthy food, stay hydrated and exercise regularly. Go easy on the caffeine. Shorting yourself on sleep, and especially pulling an all-nighter, robs you of energy and your ability to concentrate. A healthy diet improves your ability to learn. Don’t skip breakfast.
Recognising Your Stress Triggers
If you’re not sure what’s causing your stress, keep a diary and make a note of stressful episodes for two-to-four weeks. Then review it to spot the triggers.
Things you might want to write down include:
- the date, time and place of a stressful episode
- what you were doing
- a stress rating
You can use the diary to:
- work out what triggers your stress
- work out how you operate under pressure
- develop better coping mechanisms
Doctors sometimes recommend keeping a stress diary to help them diagnose stress.
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~method : The Dictionary & Practice
If every single method fails you, go here, it will highlight the stressed and unstressed syllables in any word you look up. There are lots of possibilities: sometimes you may get words with only stressed syllables, and it will give you a primary and secondary: daylight, or where both are stressed moonlight. So have fun!
But just know that practice will make you much better at this and you will start to see patterns in 2,3, or 4 syllable words and be able to retrieve the results faster than taking out your phone and looking it up, so good luck practicing here is a list of words to try!
Make sure to try the frequency method before the sounding-it-out method, as practice will soon have you understanding where the stress is without having to repeat the word
Here is Some Practice Try Out Your New Skills!
Monkey
So How Can You Get Started
Usually tapping is done when you have a feeling you would like to reduce. If you feel stressed, this would be a perfect time to start tapping. There are five steps:
Step 1. Rate your level of stress out of ten, where ten is the highest level and zero would represent complete calm. You can guess this number as it is just a way of you rating your feeling.
Step 2. We encourage people to state their feeling out loud in order to engage with it and pay attention to how you feel. Typically, you would say: Even though I feel really stressed at the moment because of ______, I accept this is how I feel.
It is important to be specific about why you feel stressed and think about that as you do the tapping process. As you say this statement out loud, tap on the point at the side of the hand, as shown below. Saying your problem out loud will not reinforce it you are actually being honest with yourself in this moment and acknowledging how you feel.
Step 3. Tap with two fingers through the eight acupoints shown below and just say the feeling . For example, you may say feel stressed while you think about what is making you feel stressed in that moment.
Step 4. When you finish tapping on the last acupoint , pause and take a breath. Re-rate your level of stress after that single round.
As a brief intervention that can be self-applied, tapping is now backed by more than 100 randomised clinical trials . It appears highly effective and rapid compared to conventional treatments.
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Social Media And Stress
So, if youre feeling stressed without any apparent reason, you can see there are plenty of opportunities for you to make life more difficult than it perhaps already is.
The good news, therefore, is that you can at the very least provide your body/mind with some stress relief by tackling the above issues.
In An Old House In Paris That Was Covered In Vines
I had to pick a stopping point, so the Old House In Paris is it. I own one of these houses and have many of the dolls and furnishings. The book was a favorite from childhood. The movies jadore! I love that spunky sprite Madeline. So when I came across this dollhouse sitting in a consignment store, I was stunned. They do not sell these in the United States, so I had not seen or heard of them. And Im an adult and have long stopped watching Madelines adventures.
But because I had started reading the books to my daughter, I couldnt resist bringing this dollhouse into my home with as many of Madelines friends as I could find on Ebay! I think I might enjoy it more than my kid, and I do get excited when I find an item here or there. The doorbell works. The lantern lights up. I can get plenty of accessories. And I even have Miss Clavel. And one day Ill get Genevieve the dog! .FOR MY GRANDCHILDREN.of course!
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So What Are The Signs Of Undiagnosed Stress
Broadly, they fall into three categories:
Psychological: Irritability, poor concentration and decision-making, memory loss, mood swings, chronic worrying, anxiety and low mood, nightmares and persistent bad dreams.
Physical: Cold hands, shakes and trembling, shortness of breath, heart palpitations or a racing heartbeat, niggly aches and pains, tension headaches, lower-back pain, problems with menstruation and indigestion, loss of libido, vulnerability to colds and infections.
Behavioural: Passive or aggressive behaviour, procrastination, increased alcohol or caffeine consumption, craving for sweet, sugary snacks and comfort eating, compulsive/impulsive behaviour, poor time-management, increased absenteeism from work and being accident-prone.
This is not a comprehensive list – and some of these symptoms may indicate an underlying health problem, so do see your GP if you are concerned. But many of them point to the fact that you’re stressed, even if you don’t think you are.
The good news is that stress is eminently treatable if you make a few key changes to your working habits and lifestyle. But to make those changes you first need to accept that things could be better.
For help and advice, contact a coach today. Simply pop your postcode into our search tool to find a coach in your local area who can help you combat stress.
Life Coach Directory is not responsible for the articles published by members. The views expressed are those of the member who wrote the article.
Factors That Can Make You More
So, how serious is your situation? What might be contributing to your feeling stressed all the time?
Read on
The following ten points youre unlikely to ever have considered as stressful to your body/mind
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Getting Help For Depression
If you think you might be depressed, take a depression screening. Print out the results or e-mail them to yourself and then show them to a counselor or doctor.
To get help, start with your student health center or counseling service on campus. Most community colleges provide limited free mental health services and can refer you to local providers for longer-term treatment. You can also talk to your family doctor. Your local Mental Health America affiliate can refer or in some cases provide services as well. To find the nearest MHA affiliate, call 800-969-6642 or go to Find An Affiliate.
Remember, depression and other mental health conditions are nothing to be ashamed of. Depression is not a sign of weakness, and seeking help is a sign of strength. Telling someone you are struggling is the first step toward feeling better. You will need the help of a mental health professional to beat depression. Talk therapy, antidepressant medication or a combination can be very effective.
In crisis? If you or someone you know is in crisis now, seek help immediately. Call 1-800-273-TALK to reach a 24-hour crisis center or dial 911 for immediate assistance.
What Is The Evidence For Tapping
The evidence for this simple approach to stress reduction has been growing exponentially. Research now shows tapping is beneficial for food cravings, depression, anxiety, phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Better still, follow-up studies show the benefits of tapping last over time, even up to two years later.
Its suggested tapping affects the stress centre in the brain and the memory centre . Both play a role in the decision-making process when someone decides if something is a threat.
Research has now examined primary school children who have used tapping in schools and found it helps with their focus and concentration. I was very interested in anything that would help my children at school and taught them tapping too.
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