Stress & Anxiety

Normal Feelings

Feeling stress and even some level of anxiety is normal. Many people experience it however, most people don’t admit it. Many do not recognize overwhelming symptoms or know what to do to feel relief. However, when ignored; stress can cause anxiety and serious life disruption.

One common misconception is that we want to look for a single cause for our stress. While we may experience a single event, our stress and anxiety is usually caused by a combination of different factors.

Self-Awareness

More often than not, we live one day after the last unaware of what is going on inside of us. At times, we reach a “Tipping Point” or experience “The Straw that Broke the Camel’s Back”. This one event or situation seems too small to cause such a significant response within us.

Rather, it is simply the final event added to all the other unresolved stressors going on inside of us. Often, when we begin to address what we feel inside, life improves.

Life On Life’s Terms

Stress is our internal and external response to the events in our lives. It is often defined as “life’s demands exceeding our resources”. It is what we feel inside and how we treat those around us. Very often, others around us will see the stress in us before we see it in ourselves.

Excessive stress can also be detrimental to daily living. However, if managed in a healthy way, occasional stress can be strengthening. In fact, certain levels and types of stress can be healthy and beneficial.

Anxiety is a choice. Typically, it is a learned behavior and by definition, it is worry about events that have not yet or may not occur.

Experiences

Both positive and negative experiences and life transitions can lead to stress. Some typical stressors include:

  • Job loss, change or demands
  • Marriage
  • Divorce or Breakup
  • Change in financial status
  • Birth of a child
  • Moving
  • Family
  • Relationships
  • Death of a loved one
  • Personal or family diagnoses of a serious illness
  • Change in Lifestyle Circumstances
  • School
  • Unresolved emotions
  • Closure from past events

These events are generally considered to be normal parts of everyday life. But by doing nothing, stress and anxiety will not go away on their own.

The Effects of Stress and Anxiety on Health

Few people can deny being stressed at least once in their lifetime. Certain levels of anxiety are actually beneficial.  Stress occurs in two typical forms: Acute and  Chronic. Left unresolved, stress can contribute to a myriad of mental health and physical health issues, at times, developing into anxiety and serious life obstacles.

  • Fatigue
  • Insomnia/ Hypersomnia
  • Anger
  • Poor nutrition
  • Substance abuse
  • Nervous response
  • Hypertension
  • Headaches
  • Compromised Immune System
  • Heart Attack/ Stroke
  • Churning feeling in your stomach
  • Light-headed or dizziness
  • Restlessness or inability to sit still
  • Headaches, neck tension or backache
  • Faster/ shallow breathing
  • Irregular heartbeat
  • Sweating or hot flushes
  • Nausea
  • Needing the toilet more or less often
  • Changes in your sex drive
  • Panic

If ignored, stress and anxiety will affect us physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally. Many times, speaking with someone we trust can give us relief.

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This page- Anxiety: https://www.daveswordsofwisdom.com/2018/10/how-to-recognise-anxiety-in-yourself.html
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