International Stress Awareness Week Day 1: Understanding Stress This week is International Stress Awareness Week. Each day of the week we’ll look at a different aspect of stress. At the end of each day there’ll be an action for you to take, should you wish to do so, with the goal of teaching you how to cope with and manage stress, as well as tactics to help you to build strategies to cope with stress. It’s important to first understand stress and what stress feels like. Stress is the body’s response when we feel under pressure or threatened. Physically the body produces a response through a rush of hormones essentially preparing the body to fight or flee. While it’s great in helping us survive dangerous scenarios, when our body produces this response to inappropriate situations it’s challenging. Being in a state of stress for a long period of time can be damaging to our health, both physical and mental. Stress can look and feel different to different people. It’s important to understand how stress affects you so that you can then address it. Mind outlines the following possible emotional, mental, and physical signs and symptoms of stress.
You might feel:
You might physically experience:
Irritable, angry, impatient or wound up Over-burdened or overwhelmed Anxious, nervous or afraid Like your thoughts are racing and you can't switch off Unable to enjoy yourself Depressed Uninterested in life Like you've lost your sense of humour A sense of dread Worried or tense Neglected or lonely Existing
mental
getting worse
health
problems
Difficulty breathing Panic attacks Blurred eyesight or sore eyes Sleep problems Fatigue Muscle aches and headaches Chest pains and high blood pressure Indigestion or heartburn Constipation or diarrhoea Feeling sick, dizzy or fainting Sudden weight gain or weight loss Developing rashes or itchy skin Sweating Changes to your period or menstrual cycle Existing physical health problems getting worse
Today make a list of if you’re experiencing any of the above symptoms. Sit down and try to think about if it could be from stress or if there’s anything else that could be causing it. Tomorrow we’ll go through how to identify what’s causing your stress.