About 89% of the population in India say they are suffering from stress compared to the global average of 86%. Nearly 75% of respondents here do not feel comfortable talking to a medical professional about their stress. (Source: 2018 Cigna 360° Well-Being Survey – Future Assured, article from Economic Times dated July 10, 2018)
We usually say that we are feeling a bit stressed out or tensed. It is important to understand stress before we talk about dealing it. We need to be aware how our body and mind react to any stressful event and how it can be accessed by a normal person without any expert advice.
Understanding
What is stress? Is it always negative? What are it’s types? Can stress be managed and cope up with?
Stress is our body’s reaction to any change that occur in the environment around us that may require an adjustment or a response. And as we are saying body’s reaction, our body can react with emotional, physical and mental responses. For example, a job change or shifting to a new home, these changes requires an adjustment or response, therefore, creating some amount of stress.
Is Stress always negative?
Stress is not always negative; it can be positive as well. However, it matters a lot how we perceive the situation and how we react. The situations can be positive or negative, however, our understanding plays a vital role in dealing with it. In some cases, the change in environment plays a vital role. Let us see this with an example, a female delivers a baby, it is a happy event or the change which has happened in her life, like it is one of the best feeling to become a mother for a female. But this change will require a lot of reaction, in this case all three reactions will be required (physical, mental and emotional). This stressful event becomes positive for them and they are motivated to become a better mother and a better person overall. This kind of stress was named eustress or positive stress which arises from a positive event in life (Selye, a famous psychologist). We can understand from here that the cause of stress or also called stressor does play a very important role in determining how our reaction to it will be. How we perceive that change will be directly proportional to the stress we will go through.
Different levels of Stress
Stress can have different levels depending on the intensity of that event or change happened in our environment. Stress starts with most common one which occurs frequently due to any life event or situation. For example, an assignment deadline, or an argument with a colleague at work, or an argument with a family member. Our body goes through physical, emotional and mental changes but those changes may not affect our health directly. However, things can go difficult when the stressful events occur more often and we are not able to manage them properly. And that can deteriorate our mental and physical health significantly. For example, situations such as prolonged poverty, marital issues, any kind of continued abuse etc. People going through situations like these are prone to affect their health badly with the stress, if they ignore that stress.
How to identify, if you have stress or not?
There are several changes as we talked about earlier in our body due to a stressful event. Let us discuss some common changes so that you can identify if you are going through some stress or not.
Behaviour Changes: anger or irritability, anxiety and depression, short-tempered, impatient, tense.
Mental Changes: Mental fatigue, difficult in learning new things, weak memory, unable to concentrate and few others.
Interpersonal relationships deteriorate.
Tensed Muscles
Different types of pain in the body such as headache, back pain, jaw pain, ligament problems.
Stomach and Bowel Problems: Such as acidity, constipation, acid stomach, diarrhoea.
High Blood Pressure
Chest Pain and Heart Diseases
Frequent Cold/Flu
Allergies
Dizziness
Rapid Heart Beat as well as rapid breathing
These were twelve symptoms, but there can be several others. Identify them and see if you should work for the ways to reduce the stress and get relieved from any of the above symptoms.
In our next article, we will be able to understand different ways to overcome stress and manage it, especially in the current scenario, where nobody is aware what is going to happen to this COVID-19 situation. Stay in touch, keep reading for some valuable insights and self help links and procedures to maintain your mental health. Thank you very much! Stay Home! Stay Safe!
References
Health Psychology (Concepts in Health and Well-being), Manika Ghosh, Published by Pearson
Health Psychology, Edition 10, Shelley E. Taylor, Published by McGraw-Hill Education
Psychology, Edition 5, Saundra K. Cicarelli and J. Noland White adapted by Girishwar Misra, Published by Pearson
https://spacioustherapy.com/3-types-stress-health-hazards/
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/89-per-cent-of-indias-population-suffering-from-stress-most-dont-feel-comfortable-talking-to-medical-professionals/articleshow/64926633.cms
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/11874-stress
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