Stressed Out?

Stress is an inevitable part of our lives. It is when we get too much stress in our lives and we mis-manage that excess stress, that we can begin to suffer adverse health effects.

Types of Stress:
When trying to understand the nature of stress, it is important to clarify what type of stress we are talking about. And then we can un-pick the trail that stress leaves in our lives, and correctly identify its' original source.

For instance, if someone is feeling tired all of the time because they feel too stressed-out to sleep very well, then simply tackling the sleeplessness may not be enough. Perhaps, they are not sleeping well because they drink too much coffee during the day. And the reason they drink too much coffee is because they are doing a job which demands a high degree of alertness. So, in this example, the person is finding their job stressful. However, that's not the end of it. If we explore further, we find that in their work environment there are many poorly designed work-flows, and that many of the staff are under-trained, because the company they work for thinks it saves them money by not training people properly.

So, broadly speaking, in order to find the root cause of our excess stress, start to think of stress as potentially being physical, mental, emotional or environmental in nature. This model is a little artificial, but it is a good starting point.

Symptoms Of Too Much Stress:
With this model in mind, we can begin to identify some of the most obvious symptoms of excessive stress. Some of these symptoms can also become unhealthy ways to manage that excess stress.

Some of the most obvious symptoms of too much stress in someone's life include:
1. Domestic violence: Expressed as anger, lack of closeness, hyper criticism, physical and emotional abuse.
2. Substance abuse: Drinking too much alcohol, taking recreational drugs, smoking too much tobacco
3. Self-Destructive habits: Gambling, too much food, too little food, lack of exercise.
4. Personality Changes: Becoming humourless, suddenly lacking motivation.

As shown in the example above, we live complex lives, and it is not always obvious what they key "stressor" is in someone's life. In fact, it may be the convergence of two or three stress factors which turns a normal healthy activity, into a form of self-medication designed to deal with a stress overload.

Mismanaging excess stress through prolonged self-medication, without addressing the primary stressor(s) can often lead to complex health issues. And these complex health issues can be difficult to diagnose accurately and to treat effectively. One of these further problems is that of treating the presenting symptom and not dealing with the underlying cause. Drug based therapies often work in this way, that is, masking the presenting symptoms whilst leaving the core problem untouched.

An example of this may be a person suffering stress due to the threat of being made redundant from their job and a sudden death in their family, during the same period in time. Someone in this situation, is unlikely to go out and become a crack addict over-night. However, they might begin to drink too much alcohol to manage their feelings of stress, which is culturally acceptable, readily available to them and it is already a part of their normal life.

In this example, their self-medication using alcohol starts a further stress cycle. As too much alcohol has both physical health and mental health adverse side-effects, which become stressors in themselves. So a few years down the line, and this person is asking their doctor for something to help them with their digestive problems, or some other nebulous health complaint, which has no obvious pathological cause.

The medication they receive from their doctor is a further chemical stressor on the person's body. Plus the medication is only tackling a presenting symptom, which is several links in the chain away from the original causes of the person's current stress related health problems.

Healthy Ways To Manage Stress:
It is very difficult to the point of being almost impossible to avoid stress in our lives. Fortunately, there are several healthy ways to manage too much stress in our lives, which can be very effective, enjoyable and which have few, if any, unwanted side-effects.

These healthy ways to manage stress in our lives include:
a. Regular non-stressful exercise
b. Daily meditation
c. Massage therapy on a regular basis
d. A healthy and balanced food diet
e. The appropriate counselling support for known stress inducing situations
f. Having interesting hobbies, where we can express our creativity
g. An awareness and understanding of the key symptoms (red-flags) of too much stress. So we can spot it in ourselves and in other people in our lives who impact upon us.

© David R. Durham.