Stress Awareness Month
2 Apr
Written By Sian Clemens
April is Stress Awareness month. It’s a good time to reflect on your own stress or look for signs in others. Everyone struggles with stress at some point in their lives.
So what is stress?
Stress is how we react when we feel under pressure or threatened. It usually happens when we are in a situation that we don't feel we can manage or control.
It is the body’s physical response. The body releases a mix of hormones and chemicals to help us deal with a stressful situation. It causes blood to be diverted to muscles to prepare them for action, or it could lead to the shutting down of bodily functions, e.g. it can also affects our digestion, and so our hunger levels. This helps to prepare us for the fight or flight response.
We need a level of stress to survive, it’s not always a bad thing. Stress can be good.
It Helps Boost Brainpower.
It Can Increase Immunity—In the Short Term.
It Can Make You More Resilient.
It May Motivate You To Succeed.
Good stress helps us to go for that dream job, go on an adventure, engage in a challenge, ride a rollercoaster. But when stress becomes too much it can have a negative impact on you, and those around you. How do you know when stress is becoming too much?
According to the Stress Management Society a useful way to think about stress is to think of a bridge. When a bridge is carrying too much weight, it will eventually collapse. However, before this happens there are warning signs. The bridge might start bowing or buckling under the weight. You may hear creaking or groaning of the metal structures under too much pressure. If we take heed of these warning signs we can prevent a bridge from collapsing. So if we can fix a bridge before it collapses, can we look out for the signs of ‘bowing and buckling’ in human form and put in remedies to reduce the stress.
Firstly what would a ‘Bridge collapse’ look like to us? It could lead to:
· Mental and Emotional Breakdown
· Taking one’s own life
Secondly what are the signs and symptoms of stress, the ‘Bowing and buckling’ to look out for:
· Being more accident prone
· Forgetting things
· Showing a negative change in mood or fluctuations in mood
· Avoiding certain situations or people
· Using more negative or cynical language
· Becoming withdrawn
· Showing a prolonged loss of sense of humour
· Becoming increasingly irritable or short-tempered
· Having more arguments and disputes
· A tendency to suffer from headaches, nausea, aches and pains, tiredness and poor sleeping patterns
· Indecisiveness and poor judgement
· A problem with drinking or drug taking
· Looking haggard or exhausted all the time
Stress can kill if it remains unchecked.
Cardiovascular disease:
The heart is the first organ in the body to experience stress. The No. 1 killer on the planet today is heart disease and it’s no coincidence that as we find ourselves living under higher and higher levels of stress the instance of heart disease is increasing.
Cancer
Stress has a profound impact on how your body’s systems function. Health experts are still sorting out whether stress actually causes cancer. Yet there’s little doubt that it promotes the growth and spread of some forms of the disease. Put simply, stress makes your body more hospitable to cancer.
Stroke:
Stress can cause a rise in blood pressure. The main cause of haemorrhagic stroke is high blood pressure, which can weaken the arteries in the brain and make them prone to split or rupture.
So if we are able to recognise when we have too much demand on our bridge, we need to take action to prevent ourselves from getting anywhere near the bridge collapsing. It is important to look out for these signs in others. As when we are in a heightened state of stress we may not recognise the ‘bowing and buckling’ and will tell everyone, ‘I’m fine, just a bit busy!’
The Stress Awareness Society are running a 30 day challenge during April. Check out their website to find some useful resources to reduce your stress. Click here
There are resources on Stress Management Society website to help you commemorated Stress Awareness Month. Why not take the 30 day challenge?
It takes 30 days to turn actions into habits, which is why this is a month-long programme. The 30-day challenge will maximise your chances of turning useful knowledge and techniques into positive behavioural change. Can you imagine being able to reduce your stress and feel less anxious?
Here are some ideas to get you started:
How you could help someone during Stress Awareness Month?
Talk about Stress and its effects – lets work to reduce the stigma that is associated with stress by talking about the topic openly and freely with friends, family and colleagues.
Share your coping mechanisms – if something has worked for you why not share it. It might benefit someone you care about and in the meantime, it might help you take your focus off your own challenges.
Be nice to those who are stressed and anxious – we are all undoubtedly going to experience stress and anxiety in our lifetime so treat others going through it with compassion and empathy.
Look after yourself – we all need to think more about self–care. Take time out of your day to relax or do something that you enjoy. Don’t forget to exercise and eat well, even when you feel too stressed.
The most crucial thing you can do when you are stressed or anxious is to make sure you are continuing to look after yourself. Make time to relax when you need to and learn to say no to requests that are too much for you.
