Can Happy Events Cause Stress
Some of the situations listed above are often thought of as happy events for example, you might feel expected to be happy or excited about getting married or having a baby.
But because they can bring big changes or make unusual demands on you, they can still be very stressful. This can be particularly difficult to deal with, because you might feel there’s additional pressure on you to be positive.
“I’ve never been more stressed in my life than the 6 months leading up to my wedding… everyone kept asking me if I was happy and expecting me to be excited all the time, but I just couldn’t feel it. I ended up getting really ill.”
Additional Causes Of Anxiety And Their Cures
The above causes of anxiety may overlap and/or be exacerbated by:
For all of these issues, youll benefit from and feel tons better for following the advice on how to deal with the immediate symptoms that youll find further down the page.
People with the lowest combined aerobic and muscular fitness had 98% higher odds of depression, 60% higher odds of anxiety, and 81% higher odds of having either one of the common mental health disorders, compared to those with high levels of overall fitness.
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Lack Of Focus Direction Or Drive
It may be a simple thing of a lack of focus, direction or drive for your reason for sadness. You may have a great life, but you dont know which way to go next. You arent taking what you do have seriously. In fact, you may be taking what you have for granted.
The lack of gratitude may be the reason why you cant see the good even though its there. Youre forgetting why you started. You dont recognize yourself in the mirror because youve let yourself wander so far. But now, its time to get it all back.
Choose. Make choices. Act. It sounds simple, but it is not easy to get your drive back. You have to really want it. And that changes everything.
Your mindset is everything. If you cant view things with a positive spin, you will have nothing to do that is meaningful or productive. If your mindset is causing you to overlook what you do have and what you can have, its time to change it. Just with positive self talk, getting focused is about realizing what you deserve.
Its during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. Aristotle
If you want to find your drive, this article can help you: How to Get Motivated Every Day When You Wake Up
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You Have No Means To Channel Anxious Energy
Pre-lockdown, your partner wasnt with you all hours of the day. They didnt witness your anxious quirks under such an intense microscope. To them, your behavior is something brand new. For you, its ingrained in the very fiber of your being.
When you went to work and hung out in groups, you were able to channel some of that anxiety in different ways. You vibed and chatted with other individuals, made physical contact with family members, and used your creativity to create work.
Now, you are in a confined area with less avenues to channel and diffuse your anxiety. Naturally, your anxious behavior is going to disrupt the peace at home. Now, your partner is seeing a physical representation of what your mind deals with on a daily basis!
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Why You Might Be Tired All The Time
Before you see a GP, you may want to work out how you became tired in the first place.
It can be helpful to think about:
- parts of your life, such as work and family, that might be particularly tiring
- any events that may have triggered your tiredness, such as bereavement or a relationship break-up
- how your lifestyle may be making you tired
A GP will look at the following causes of tiredness:
- psychological causes
Psychological causes of tiredness are much more common than physical causes.
Most psychological causes lead to poor sleep or insomnia, both of which cause daytime tiredness.
Psychological causes include:
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Effects Of Stress On Your Health
When you are in a stressful situation, your body launches a physical response. Your nervous system springs into action, releasing hormones that prepare you to either fight or take off. It’s called the “fight or flight” response, and it’s why, when you’re in a stressful situation, you may notice that your heartbeat speeds up, your breathing gets faster, your muscles tense, and you start to sweat. This kind of stress is short-term and temporary , and your body usually recovers quickly from it.
But if your stress system stays activated over a long period of time , it can lead to or aggravate more serious health problems. The constant rush of stress hormones can put a lot of wear and tear on your body, causing it to age more quickly and making it more prone to illness.
If you’ve been stressed out for a short period of time, you may start to notice some of these physical signs:
Managing Everyday Stress And Anxiety
Certain lifestyle changes can help alleviate symptoms of stress and anxiety. These techniques can be used along with medical treatments for anxiety. Techniques to reduce stress and anxiety include:
- eating a balanced, healthy diet
- limiting caffeine and alcohol consumption
- getting enough sleep
- keeping a diary of your feelings
- practicing deep breathing
- recognizing the factors that trigger your stress
- talking to a friend
Be mindful if you tend to use substances like alcohol or drugs as ways to cope with stress and anxiety. This can lead to serious substance abuse issues that can make stress and anxiety worse.
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How Can You Help Yourself
If you’re feeling stressed, there are some things you can try to feel less tense and overwhelmed.
1. Recognise when stress is a problem
Its important to connect the physical and emotional signs youre experiencing to the pressures you are faced with. Dont ignore physical warning signs such as tense muscles, tiredness, headaches or migraines.
Think about whats causing your stress. Sort them into issues with a practical solution, things that will get better with time and things you can’t do anything about. Take control by taking small steps towards the things you can improve.
Make a plan to address the things that you can. This might involve setting yourself realistic expectations and prioritising essential commitments. If you feel overwhelmed, ask for help and say no to things you cant take on.
2. Think about where you can make changes
Are you taking on too much? Could you hand over some things to someone else? Can you do things in a more leisurely way? You may need to prioritise things and reorganise your life so youre not trying to do everything at once.
3. Build supportive relationships
Find close friends or family who can offer help and practical advice can support you in managing stress. Joining a club or a course can help to expand your social network and encourage you to do something different. Activities like volunteering can change your perspective and have a beneficial impact on your mood.
4. Eat healthily
5. Be aware of your smoking and drinking
8. Be mindful
Extra Support For Anxiety
If youre feeling so anxious that its impacting on your day-to-day life, you might need some extra support. See face-to-face help to see who you can talk to if you decide you want outside help.
Cognitive behavioural therapy has been found to be effective in helping people manage anxiety.
CBT helps you manage problems by thinking more positively. It frees you from unhelpful patterns of behaviour.
People like your local GP or a clinical or counselling psychologist can help you. If they cant, then they may refer you to a specialist.
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You Spend Too Much Time On Social Media
While the use of social media relates to screen time, it in and of itself carries a slew of adverse effects on ones mental health and stress levels. Remember, stress is a triggered response, and social media has been found to induce stress in different ways.
Social media causes us to compare. Whether consciously or subconsciously, the inundation of images of people who look better, sound better, or seem better than how you perceive yourself causes us incredible anxiety and feelings of low self-esteem. Social media gives you images of peoples happiest and most put-together moments, which can lead to unrealistic expectations of our own lives, which ultimately causes undue stress.
One of the darker sides of social media is that it is highly addicting. Social media has been proven to be both psychologically and physically addicting. Like any addiction, when you are without the source, your body and brain enter withdrawal symptoms. Being removed from social media, if you are addicted, can cause you to experience feelings of stress and anxiety.
In a strange twist, the act of trying to stop using social media as often and not being able to is another direct cause of stress. Many people attempt to limit or stop using social media to reduce stress, only to find that they are more stressed than before. This is a red flag that you are addicted to social media and should consult with your physician.
Common Signs And Symptoms Of Anxiety
Sufferers often
Anyone suffering from anxiety is, in my eyes, courageous they have nothing to be ashamed of.
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What Makes Us Stressed
Many things that can lead to stress: bereavement, divorce or separation, losing a job or unexpected money problems. Work-related stress can also have a negative impact on your mental health. People affected by work-related stress lose an average of 24 days of work due to ill health.
Even positive life changes, such as moving to a bigger house, gaining a job promotion or going on holiday can be sources of stress. If you feel stressed in these situations you may struggle to understand why or be unwilling to share your feelings with others.
The Effects Of Chronic Stress
Your nervous system isnt very good at distinguishing between emotional and physical threats. If youre super stressed over an argument with a friend, a work deadline, or a mountain of bills, your body can react just as strongly as if youre facing a true life-or-death situation. And the more your emergency stress system is activated, the easier it becomes to trigger, making it harder to shut off.
If you tend to get stressed out frequently, like many of us in todays demanding world, your body may exist in a heightened state of stress most of the time. And that can lead to serious health problems. Chronic stress disrupts nearly every system in your body. It can suppress your immune system, upset your digestive and reproductive systems, increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, and speed up the aging process. It can even rewire the brain, leaving you more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems.
Health problems caused or exacerbated by stress include:
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How Much Stress Is Too Much
Because of the widespread damage stress can cause, its important to know your own limit. But just how much stress is too much differs from person to person. Some people seem to be able to roll with lifes punches, while others tend to crumble in the face of small obstacles or frustrations. Some people even thrive on the excitement of a high-stress lifestyle.
Factors that influence your stress tolerance level include:
Your support network. A strong network of supportive friends and family members is an enormous buffer against stress. When you have people you can count on, lifes pressures dont seem as overwhelming. On the flip side, the lonelier and more isolated you are, the greater your risk of succumbing to stress.
Your sense of control. If you have confidence in yourself and your ability to influence events and persevere through challenges, its easier to take stress in stride. On the other hand, if you believe that you have little control over your lifethat youre at the mercy of your environment and circumstancesstress is more likely to knock you off course.
Your attitude and outlook. The way you look at life and its inevitable challenges makes a huge difference in your ability to handle stress. If youre generally hopeful and optimistic, youll be less vulnerable. Stress-hardy people tend to embrace challenges, have a stronger sense of humor, believe in a higher purpose, and accept change as an inevitable part of life.
Irritability And Feeling On Edge
2-minute read
If you are feeling unusually irritable or on edge, you may find it useful to talk to a family member or your doctor. Feeling irritable and anxious can be a symptom of a mental health condition like depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder.
Here are some tips you may find useful too:
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Reasons Why You Could Be Stressed About Nothing
The first three points are likely causing you to feel overwhelmed at times . The latter two are the probable results and are signs that the demands on you outstrip your resources.
And, lets face it, on top of everything else that could befall you in life, youre probably now also have to cope with the fall-out from the pandemic. Covid lockdowns, quarantines and/or closures with all their financial, social consequences are, of course, super-stressful with an inevitable impact on our mental health.
Then there are the less obvious things that contribute to you feeling stressed for no reason.
You Have Poor Organizational Skills:
One of the reasons you feel stressed even when you havent done any stressful chores is because you have poor organizational and management skills. When you dont have these skills, chances are you might plunge yourself into busy mode now and then.
The busy mode in question is when youre busy mentally but never on the tasks or chores that youre supposed to do physically. You can spend the whole day worrying and thinking of how to address the task but wont take action.
At the end of the day, after you might have wallowed in the thought of how cumbersome the task is and how to get it done, you might end up feeling stressed, tired and worst still, unable to achieve anything.
Its practically simple to overload the brain, though many think it isnt. Most people even prefer to store their to-do lists in their brains instead of writing them down. They believe the brain is capable of handling diverse information, which is true.
But the thing is, when you overload your brain, youre occupying a reasonable amount of space that you should have used for critical thinking to solve problems.
So, be organized. Find a way to balance your work and social life. You should also develop the habit of planning. Think about the things you need to do and write them down on paper. You can plan daily or weekly. The choice is yours to make.
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