Stress is a normal reaction, that people have when faced with excessive pressures or demands placed upon them. It arises when people worry that they won’t be able to cope with stress. It can be defined as a process of adjusting to situations that tend to disrupt or threaten to harm a person’s psychological and physical well-being.
Stressors or items which cause stress, can be external, or internal.
Some external stressors can be environmental, such as Noise, bright light, confined spaces.
Some stressors can be related to how we interact with people on a daily basis and instances of rudeness, bullying, aggression.
Major life events, can also be stressors, such as birth, death of a loved one, marriage, career changes, moving to a new location etc.
Internal stressors can be lifestyle choices like lack of sleep, busy schedule, use of substances to cope with stress. Our thinking patterns, such as unrealistic expectations, taking things personally, rigid thinking can also cause stress. Our personality can also be a contributory cause.
We all face stress, but when it starts affecting our social, personal and occupational life, we need to seek help for stress and undergo stress management from a psychiatrist.
- Symptoms of stress can be either physical, or psychological.
- Physical symptoms of stress can be sleeping difficulties, headaches, muscle tension, fatigue, palpitations, loss of appetite, low sexual drive etc.
- Psychological symptoms of stress can be anxiety, anger, irritability, overthinking, indecisiveness, loss of concentration.
Untreated stress, if not managed properly, can give rise to other issues such as reduced immunity, propensity to develop lifestyle diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, depression, raised cholesterol etc.
Stress management is mainly divided into 2 types.
- Identification of areas involved which are causing the disturbance and corresponding lifestyle modifications
- Stress management with medicines, which are taken for a short course to help correct the deficiency of some neurotransmitters in the brain which are depleted during times of stress.