Stress
Introduction
Do you experience ongoing fatigue, body aches and constant mood swings? Dealing with symptoms such as these might reveal that your body is being exposed to prolonged stress. It's easy to experience adrenal fatigue or depressive symptoms as a result of this constant exposure. Although it can feel like a painful way to deal with fears and worries, you can learn strategies that redirect the stressors and promote growth.
Stress is something that is related to internal and external factors. Whether the stress comes from our environment, job or relationships – it can cause difficulties in how we maintain our happiness and health. It can cause an imbalance when it is getting in the way of how we care for our mind and body. Too much stress can result in a lack of sleep, poor nutrition and a low self-esteem. All of us have felt the negative thoughts and feelings that come from worrying about something extensively. This is a fact of nature and although we see it as a negative response, it can be a positive experience if we look at it from a biological point of view. There are many people who choose to work with a therapist to help clear up the cause and learn how to deal with the negative effects of stress so that they can redirect it successfully.
When Stress Becomes Unhealthy
We are adaptive creatures because of the stressors that we have faced and overcome. As humans we have the ability to live in any climate and avoid dangerous situations. We've even learned how to live in space, where no other living creature has ever survived. So, why can stress make us feel out of control? When we experience an excessive amount of tension it can manifest itself in a behavioral and emotional manner. Some of us might begin to deal with it physically which can cause sleep disturbances and physical muscle pains. Too much of this feeling can produce extreme anxiety and a loss of enthusiasm. We might deal with the feelings by changing our eating habits and experiencing other emotions attached to stress such as depression. When we go through this in extreme amounts it can cause us to turn to unhealthy outlets such as substance abuse; short-term outlets can lead to a vicious cycle of both symptoms and poor decision-making. Although stress can be a good thing we must know how to manage it correctly. If we experience too much of it, it could be due to the fact that we are not dealing with our thoughts, worries and responsibilities in a way that is beneficial to us and those around us. It is necessary to work with a therapist when stressors take over our mental, emotional and physical health. A counselor can teach you how to manage these worries so that you feel more in control of your thoughts and behavioral responses.
Effects of Stress on Other Relationships
Stress comes in different forms and affects a variety of people. There are no standards that can be applied to it although some of us may be more prone to it than others based off of how we respond to worries and fears. When we are experiencing stress within our lives it can change the way that we interact with other people. In an attempt to deal with the frustration and fatigue it's easy to take our pain out on loved ones and spouses. Stress can even keep us from emitting positive behavior and compassion if we don't understand why we feel so much tension. Although it is dependent on individual factors, the quality of our relationships can deteriorate if we allow this internal conflict to grow into something much more damaging. This feeling might even come from a relationship that you have if you aren't getting the help and support that you desire. It's proven that people who have a stronger support network are less stressed. If you feel that you don't have enough moral support from your peers you can benefit from working with a therapist who will act as both a resource and guidance counselor. You can learn how to take these stressors and use them to grow and become better. You can also learn how to cut out some areas of your life that are taking away from balance and relaxation.
How Therapy Can Help
A counselor is going to teach you about the key aspects of an adaptive response to stress. We can learn how to shape our responses so that our brain mediates the feeling. Therapy teaches us about how our body responds to it to create more production and utilization. When we grasp how to shape our response and use it consistently we can prevent tension from building up and worsening in other areas of our lives. It's normal that our body goes through a quick reaction causing our heart rate and blood pressure to increase. An important step in management is avoiding the automatic fight or flight response. Instead of handling this feeling in a way that is progressive (through a learned response, exercise and nutritional eating) we tend to deal with it by turning to something that provides us with a temporary relief. A counselor can teach us how to care for our body so that we can avoid the excessive production of stress hormones and neurochemicals. By learning management techniques, meditation and how to care for ourselves we can avoid this damage. When we learn how to use stress in a way that contributes toward our needs we will then be able to grow from the worry and become better in how we respond to a challenge.
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