How to manage and reduce stress

• Updated on: 2024-02-29
• Read original article here

How to manage and reduce stress
This guide provides you with tips on how to manage and reduce stress.
Stress is a feeling of being under abnormal pressure, from an increased workload, an argument with a family member, or financial worries.
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Stress affects us in many ways, both physically and emotionally, and in varying intensities. Research has shown that stress can sometimes be positive. It makes us more alert and helps us perform better in certain situations. However, stress has only been found to be beneficial if it is short-lived. This guide aims to give tips on managing and reducing stress.
1. What is stress?
Stress affects us in many ways, both physically and emotionally, and in varying intensities.
Research has shown that stress can sometimes be positive. It makes us more alert and helps us perform better in certain situations. However, stress has only been found to be beneficial if it is short-lived. Excessive or prolonged stress can lead to illnesses such as heart disease and mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.
During situations that make you feel threatened or upset, your body creates a stress response. This can cause various physical symptoms, change how you behave, and lead you to experience more intense emotions.
 
2. Physical symptoms
People react differently to stress. Some common symptoms of stress include sleeping problems, sweating, or a change in appetite.
Symptoms like these are triggered by a rush of stress hormones in your body, which allow you to deal with pressures or threats when released. This is known as the “fight or flight” response. Hormones called adrenaline and noradrenaline raises your blood pressure and increase your heart rate and the rate at which you perspire. This prepares your body for an emergency response. These hormones can also reduce blood flow to your skin and reduce your stomach activity. Cortisol, another stress hormone, releases fat and sugar into your system to boost your energy.
As a result, you may experience headaches, muscle tension, pain, nausea, indigestion and dizziness. You may also breathe more quickly, have palpitations or suffer from various aches and pains. In the long-term, you may be putting yourself at risk from heart attacks and strokes.
All these changes are your body’s way of making it easier for you to fight or run away. Once the pressure or threat has passed, your stress hormone levels usually return to normal. However, if you’re constantly under stress, these hormones remain in your body, leading to the symptoms of stress. If you’re stuck in a busy office or on an overcrowded train, you can’t fight or run away, so you can’t use the chemicals your body makes to protect you. Over time, the build-up of these chemicals and the changes they produce can be damaging for your health.
3. Behavioural and emotional effects
When stressed, you may experience many different feelings, including anxiety, irritability or low self-esteem, which can make you withdrawn, indecisive or tearful.
You may experience periods of constant worry, racing thoughts, or repeatedly going over the same things in your head. Some people experience changes in their behaviour. They may lose their temper more easily, act irrationally, or become verbally or physically aggressive. These feelings can feed on each other and produce physical symptoms, making you feel worse. For example, extreme anxiety can make you feel so unwell that you then worry you have a serious physical condition.
4. Identifying the signs of stress
Everyone experiences stress. However, tackling your life, health and well-being are important to tackle it as soon as possible when it affects your life. While stress affects everyone differently, there are common signs and symptoms you can look out for:
Feelings of constant worry or anxiety
Feelings of being overwhelmed
Mood swings or changes in mood
Irritability or having a short temper
Difficulty relaxing
Eating more or less than usual
Changes in sleeping habits
Using alcohol, tobacco or illegal drugs to relax
Aches and pains, particularly muscle tension
Diarrhoea and constipation
Feelings of nausea or dizziness
Loss of sex drive
If you experience these symptoms for a prolonged period of time and feel they are affecting your everyday life or making you feel unwell, you should speak to your GP. You should ask for information about your support services and treatments.
5. What causes stress?
All sorts of situations can cause stress. The most common involve work, money matters and relationships with partners, children or other family members.
Stress may be caused either by major upheavals and life events such as divorce, unemployment, moving house and bereavement, or by a series of minor irritations such as feeling undervalued at work or arguing with a family member. Sometimes, there are no apparent causes.
6. Relationships
Relationships are a great support in times when we feel stressed. However, from time to time, the people close to you, be it a partner, parent, child, friend or colleague, can increase your stress levels.
Events such as ongoing minor arguments and disagreements to larger family crises, such as an affair, illness or bereavement, are likely to affect how you think, feel and behave. This may consequently have an impact on your stress levels.
You can find out more about investing in healthy relationships at: mentalhealth.org.uk/relationships
7. Work-life balance
The pressure of an increasingly demanding work culture in the UK is one of the biggest contributors to stress among the general population.
While traditional working hours are 37 hours a week, the recent and dramatic rise in Britain’s working hours suggests this is likely to increase. 20.1% of the UK working population work 45 hours or more per week.
The human costs of unmanaged work-related stress are extensive. Feeling unhappy about the amount of time you spend at work and neglecting other aspects of life because of work may increase your vulnerability to stress. Increased stress levels can lead to burn-out or more severe mental health problems if not addressed early enough.
Mental health problems such as anxiety and depression are considered the leading cause of work absences, accounting for up to 40% of sickness leave. In 2008, mental health accounted for 442,000 cases of work-related illnesses and had an estimated cost of £13.5 million. As a result, mental ill health now accounts for a significant proportion of long-term sickness and early retirement, cited as the leading cause of illness for 20% of NHS employees.
8. Money
Money and debt concerns place huge pressure on us, so it is no surprise that they have a marked effect on our stress levels.
The effects of the economic crisis have affected everyone in some capacity. Recent statistics from StepChange Debt Charity found an increased demand of 56% for debt advice and support from 2012-2014. Citizens Advice have seen a similar increase in the number of people experiencing stress about finances, dealing with 6,407 debt problems every working day.
A survey conducted in 2013 found that 42% of those seeking debt help had been prescribed medication by their GP to help them cope, while 76% of those in a couple said debt had affected their relationship.
The combination of chronic stress and debt can result in depression and anxiety and has been highlighted as a factor linked to suicidal thoughts and attempts. If you are worried about your finances and debts, it is important that you do not try to deal with them alone. There is a lot of help and support available to you through organisations such as www.StepChange.org and www.citizensadvice.org.uk .
You should also talk to your GP or a trusted health professional if you are worried about how debt affects your mental and physical health.
9. Smoking, drinking and drug use
Some people smoke, drink alcohol and use recreational drugs to reduce stress. However, this often makes problems worse.
Research shows that smoking may increase feelings of anxiety. Nicotine creates an immediate, temporary sense of relaxation, leading to withdrawal symptoms and cravings.
Similarly, people may use alcohol to manage and cope with difficult feelings and temporarily reduce feelings of anxiety. However, alcohol may make existing mental health problems worse. It can make you feel more anxious and depressed in the long run. It is important to know the recommended limits and drink responsibly.
Prescription drugs, such as tranquillisers and sleeping tablets, which may have been prescribed for good reasons, can also cause mental and physical health problems if used for long periods. Street drugs, such as cannabis or ecstasy, are usually taken for recreational purposes. For some people, problems start as their bodies get used to repeated use of the drug. This leads to the need for increased doses to maintain the same effect.
10. How can you help yourself?
Stress is a natural reaction to difficult situations in life, such as work, family, relationships and money problems.
We mentioned earlier that moderate stress could help us perform better in challenging situations, but too much or prolonged stress can lead to physical problems. This can include lower immunity levels, digestive and intestinal difficulties such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), or mental health problems such as depression. Therefore, we must manage our stress and keep it healthy to prevent long-term damage to our bodies and minds.
When you are feeling stressed, try to take these steps:
• Realise when it is causing you a problem. You need to make the connection between feeling tired or ill and the pressures you face. Do not ignore physical warnings such as tense muscles, over-tiredness, headaches or migraines.
• Identify the causes. Try to identify the underlying causes. Sort the possible reasons for your stress into those with a practical solution, those that will get better anyway given time, and those you can’t do anything about. Try to let go of those in the second and third groups – there is no point in worrying about things you can’t change or things that will sort themselves out.
• Review your lifestyle. Are you taking on too much? Are there things you are doing which could be handed over to someone else? Can you do things in a more leisurely way? You may need to prioritise things you are trying to achieve and reorganise your life so that you are not trying to do everything at once.
You can also help protect yourself from stress in several ways:
• Eat healthily. A healthy diet will reduce the risks of diet-related diseases. Also, there is growing evidence showing how food affects our mood. Feelings of wellbeing can be protected by ensuring that our diet provides adequate amounts of brain nutrients such as essential vitamins and minerals and water.
• Be aware of your smoking and drinking. Even though they may seem to reduce tension, this is misleading as they often make problems worse.
• Exercise. Physical exercise can be very effective in relieving stress. Even going out to get some fresh air and doing some light physical exercise, like walking to the shops, can help.
• Take time out. Take time to relax. Saying ‘I just can’t take the time off’ is no use if you are forced to take time off later through ill health. Striking a balance between responsibility to others and responsibility to yourself is vital in reducing stress levels.
• Be mindful. Mindfulness meditation can be practised anywhere at any time. Research has suggested that it can reduce the effects of stress, anxiety and other related problems such as insomnia, poor concentration and low moods in some people. Our ‘Be Mindful’ website features a specially-developed online course in mindfulness, as well as details of local courses in your area: bemindful.co.uk
• Get some restful sleep. Sleeping problems are common when you’re suffering from stress. Try to ensure you get enough rest. For more tips on getting a good night’s sleep to read our guide ‘How to...sleep better’ at: mentalhealth.org.uk/howto
• Don’t be too hard on yourself. Try to keep things in perspective. After all, we all have bad days
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