Cortisol Causes Sugar Cravings
The other reason cravings for sugary food increase is the effects of a stress hormone called cortisol, a hormone that a small gland above your kidneys called the adrenal cortex releases. Your body releases cortisol when it is under physical or mental stress.
Under the influence of cortisol, you experience changes in appetite and crave sugary food over healthier choices. Cortisol can lead to changes in other parts of your life: sleep, mood, memory, and even your ability to learn new things. When cortisol is high, its common to have trouble staying asleep, as cortisol has an activating effect.
Here Some Option Deal With Stress How Do You Handle Stress
Work, school, or relationships may cause stress if you let them. It may be longer if youre dealing with personal or financial challenges or a loved ones death.
While some stress is helpful, like stress that motivates you to study or excel in a sport, untreated long-term stress is connected to depression, heart disease, obesity, and weakened systems.
Since 2007, the annual stress in America poll by the Yankee Psychological Association has found that women report more stress than males.
Girls have higher demands than men, such as taking on more home duties or facing stress differently. Chronic stress has physical and emotional consequences if not appropriately managed.
stress manifests in numerous ways. stress affects a womans ability to conceive, pregnancy health, and postpartum adjustment.
It can also worsen feelings of discharge and physical attraction. It may be difficult for women to relax with multiple duties.
High-stress persons may try to handle their tension by overeating, undereating, consuming alcohol, or lounging around the house.
The good news is that it reduces stress. Here are seven helpful coping strategies:
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How To Handle Stress At Work
- Luana Marques, PhD, Contributor
If youre currently working, you probably know what it feels like to be stressed on the job. A must-do project arrives without warning. Three emails stack up for each one you delete. Phones ring, meetings are scheduled, a coworker drops the ball on a shared assignment.
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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Or Anxiety How To Spot And Handle Ptsd Symptoms
Today I bring you a guest post from my blogging friend Krystian Howe, of the amazing blog entitled, With Love, Me. Krystian has experience living with anxiety and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder . Because of the importance of mental health awareness, I asked her to share her experience and insights into living with this diagnosis and PTSD symptoms. So without further ado, I hand you over to Krystian. Enjoy!
This post contains affiliate links, meaning I earn a small amount if you make a purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you.
Tip : Manage Your Time Better
Poor time management can cause a lot of stress. When youre stretched too thin and running behind, its hard to stay calm and focused. Plus, youll be tempted to avoid or cut back on all the healthy things you should be doing to keep stress in check, like socializing and getting enough sleep. The good news: there are things you can do to achieve a healthier work-life balance.
Dont over-commit yourself. Avoid scheduling things back-to-back or trying to fit too much into one day. All too often, we underestimate how long things will take.
Prioritize tasks. Make a list of tasks you have to do, and tackle them in order of importance. Do the high-priority items first. If you have something particularly unpleasant or stressful to do, get it over with early. The rest of your day will be more pleasant as a result.
Break projects into small steps. If a large project seems overwhelming, make a step-by-step plan. Focus on one manageable step at a time, rather than taking on everything at once.
Delegate responsibility. You dont have to do it all yourself, whether at home, school, or on the job. If other people can take care of the task, why not let them? Let go of the desire to control or oversee every little step. Youll be letting go of unnecessary stress in the process.
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Make Food Choices That Keep You Going
Low blood sugar can cause anxiety and irritability, while eating too much can make you lethargic. A healthy diet can help you get through stressful work days. By eating small but frequent meals, you can help your body maintain an even blood sugar level, maintain your energy levels, stay focused and avoid mood swings.
What The Interviewer Wants To Know
The interviewer really wants to know whether you can handle job-related stress, and what you do in particularly stressful situations at work. This is especially important if youre interviewing for a position where stress is an integral part of the job. That’s because job stress can have a negative impact on workplace performance.
The hiring manager may also be wondering whether stressful issues outside of work can impact your job performance. Employers look for candidates who can deal with a range of stressful situations, whether these are personal or work-related.
Also Check: How To Tell If You Are Stressed
How Does Worry Work
Worry actually has an important function in our lives, according to Luana Marques, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the president of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. When we think about an uncertain or unpleasant situation such as being unable to pay the rent or doing badly on an exam our brains become stimulated. When we worry, it calms our brains down. Worry is also likely to cause us to problem-solve or take action, both of which are positive things. Worry is a way for your brain to handle problems in order to keep you safe, Dr. Marques explained. Its only when we get stuck thinking about a problem that worry stops being functional.
Example #: For Sales Jobs
As a sales professional, I understand that customers can become impatient or dissatisfied with solutions. I am always careful to stay polite and treat customers well, even when they are difficult. If time allows, I take a short break between customers if needed helps me to decompress and lower my blood pressure after a difficult interaction.
Finally, as the nature of the job is high pressure, I am practiced at staying positive and focused. I set myself daily, weekly and monthly goals I can see what to do next. I also do regular physical exercise and seek support from family members if the daily stress gets too much.
Key Takeaways: This answer is good because it discusses that sales is a customer-facing role and that the customer can bring stress into the environment. It discusses reducing stress by managing the customer relationship and managing your time.
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Tips For Overcoming Test Anxiety
So, how can you get over test anxiety? Here are some test anxiety tips to help:
For more urgent matters, contact one of the following resources: Crisis Text Line or NAMI HelpLine,
Tip : Learn How Managers Or Employers Can Reduce Stress In The Workplace
It is in a manager’s best interest to keep workplace stress to a minimum. Executives can act as positive role models, especially in times of high stress, by following the tips outlined in this article. If a respected manager can stay calm in stressful work situations, it is much easier for their employees to stay calm.
In addition, there are a number of organizational changes that managers and employers can make to reduce workplace stress, including:
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Tip : Learn To Relieve Stress In The Moment
When youre frazzled by your morning commute, stuck in a stressful meeting at work, or fried from another argument with your spouse, you need a way to manage your stress levels right now. Thats where quick stress relief comes in.
The fastest way to reduce stress is by taking a deep breath and using your senseswhat you see, hear, taste, and touchor through a soothing movement. By viewing a favorite photo, smelling a specific scent, listening to a favorite piece of music, tasting a piece of gum, or hugging a pet, for example, you can quickly relax and focus yourself.
Of course, not everyone responds to each sensory experience in the same way. The key to quick stress relief is to experiment and discover the unique sensory experiences that work best for you.
Effects Of Uncontrolled Stress
Work-related stress doesnt just disappear when you head home for the day. When stress persists, it can take a toll on your health and well-being.
A stressful work environment can contribute to problems such as headache, stomachache, sleep disturbances, short temper, and difficulty concentrating. Chronic stress can result in anxiety, insomnia, high blood pressure, and a weakened immune system. It can also contribute to health conditions such as depression, obesity, and heart disease. Compounding the problem, people who experience excessive stress often deal with it in unhealthy ways, such as overeating, eating unhealthy foods, smoking cigarettes, or abusing drugs and alcohol.
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Tip : Interrupt The Worry Cycle
If you worry excessively, it can seem like negative thoughts are running through your head on endless repeat. You may feel like youre spiraling out of control, going crazy, or about to burn out under the weight of all this anxiety. But there are steps you can take right now to interrupt all those anxious thoughts and give yourself a time out from relentless worrying.
Get up and get moving. Exercise is a natural and effective anti-anxiety treatment because it releases endorphins which relieve tension and stress, boost energy, and enhance your sense of well-being. Even more importantly, by really focusing on how your body feels as you move, you can interrupt the constant flow of worries running through your head. Pay attention to the sensation of your feet hitting the ground as you walk, run, or dance, for example, or the rhythm of your breathing, or the feeling of the sun or wind on your skin.
Take a yoga or tai chi class. By focusing your mind on your movements and breathing, practicing yoga or tai chi keeps your attention on the present, helping to clear your mind and lead to a relaxed state.
Practice progressive muscle relaxation. This can help you break the endless loop of worrying by focusing your mind on your body instead of your thoughts. By alternately tensing and then releasing different muscle groups in your body, you release muscle tension in your body. And as your body relaxes, your mind will follow.
Relaxation techniques can change the brain
Be Clear On Requirements
A factor known to contribute to job burnout is unclear requirements for employees. If you dont know exactly what is expected of you, or if the requirements for your role keep changing with little notice, you might become extremely stressed.
If you find yourself never knowing if what you are doing is enough, it may help to have a talk with your supervisor. You can take the time to go over expectations and discuss strategies for meeting them. This can relieve stress for both of you!
Read Also: What To Do When You Are Very Stressed
List Down Your Soft Skills
To answer such a question, make it a point to jot down your soft skills, such as adaptability, communication, time management, organization, leadership and problem-solving.
The reason for listing these inter-personal skills is because when in stress, these traits are the ones you will rely on majorly. Also, your interviewer will be interested in learning about how your soft skills can benefit the organization.
How Not To Answer How Do You Handle Stress
Stress? Never experienced it.
As we said, an interviewer wants to hire someone they know will be reliable when things get tough but playing the emotionless robot card isnt going to win you any points.
Besides, everyone experiences stress, so saying you dont just means youre lying and nobody wants to hire a liar.
Stress just motivates me to work harder.
While this might seem like the right answer, its not. Hiring someone who is convinced they need to solve every problem themselves means they might not realize at some point that their problem is too big to handle alone.
A lone wolf employee might end up waiting too long to bring in additional help resulting in a problem that could have been solved much earlier and cheaper blowing up into something much bigger and much more expensive.
I remove myself from the situation, take time to look at it from all angles, and then attack whatever is causing me stress in the most efficient way.
Another sounds like it should be rightbut its not! answer.
In this case, youre telling the hiring manager that when things get toughyou leave. And yes, we know you said you come back after youve formulated your plan of attack, but stillwe cant get past the part where you walk away for an unknown amount of time.
Dude, I dont know about you, but I like to unwind by grabbing a beer and just feeling the mellow wash over me after work.
All were going to say istheres a thing called oversharing.
MIKE’S TIP:
Read Also: How To Relax The Body From Stress
The Effects Of Stress On Your Body
Stress can be normal, especially that it is already part of our daily lives. When you experience stress, a part of your brain, specifically the hypothalamus reacts, allowing the release of stress hormones. Stress hormones are the same hormones that make you sense the fight or flight response of your body.
When you are threatened, stressed, or having an intense emotion, you will feel that your heart is beating fast, as your heart rate increases. Your breath also becomes faster, your muscles start to shake, and for some, it leads to uncontrollable shedding of tears.
Chronic stress can affect your body, both in terms of your physical health and mental health. If left untreated or unmanaged, it may result in consistent irritability, anxiety disorder, depression or major depressive disorder, insomnia, headache, back pain, shoulder pain, diarrhea, constipation, stomachache, and nausea and vomiting.
For some, stress is diverted to overeating, substance abuse , as well as social withdrawal. It can even lead to certain illnesses and serious health conditions like high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack, type 2 diabetes, heartburn or acid reflux, erectile dysfunction for males, and irregular, heavier, or more painful menstruation for females.
Read Also: What You Do To Relieve Stress
Example Answers: How Do You Handle Stress And Pressure
Now that you’ve got a good idea of how to respond to the classic How do you handle stress? interview question, let’s run through some sample answers.
Here’s your first example:
I was recently assigned a last-minute project. Instead of panicking, I took a few moments to outline a schedule and map out my game plan. Then I got to work. I made sure to communicate my progress with my manager so that they could stay in the loop. If any problems came up, I looped them in so we could troubleshoot and continue to make progress. I was able to complete the project on time, and the client was thrilled.
Here’s another example:
I don’t like to let stress take over a situation. Instead, I like to stay focused on the task at hand. For example, if a client isn’t happy with our product, instead of dwelling on it, I like to focus on proactively communicating with them. I like to get to the bottom of the issue, troubleshoot it, and then find a common ground that’ll allow us to move forward.
Here’s a final example:
I’ve found that a healthy amount of stress motivates me to stay on track and work as efficiently and effectively as possible. For example, deadlines are important to me. If my manager doesn’t give me deadlines, I set them for myself. That’s how I’m able to consistently turn in assignments on time.
Curious about how you should answer this and other common job interview questions? Get personalized advice from one of our professional interview coaches today!
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