- How do I know if I’m too stressed?
Some of the symptoms of ongoing stress are: depression and anxiety, anger, irritability, restlessness, your brain feels like it’s in a fog and you have trouble with memory, focus and concentration, feelings of being overwhelmed, racing thoughts, feeling like you can’t shut your mind off, trouble getting to sleep or sleeping too much, weight loss or weight gain. If you feel like you are too stressed then you are. When you start feeling like you are too stressed, you feel you’re having trouble coping, you need to find help. Look for stress management tools you can do on your own or find a coach or therapist who can help you reframe the stress you are feeling and give you some tools to cope. - How does stress affect the body?
Stress affects almost every body system. It starts small and as the stress continues the effects get bigger. We may feel upset stomach, heartburn, difficulty sleeping, our hair looses it’s shine, our skin looses it’s elasticity, we can develop brain fog and may have difficulty making decisions, we sometimes feel our heart racing, our thoughts racing. We may gain weight or lose weight. As the stress continues and we’re not dealing with it adequately, our immune function starts to suffer and we can get frequent infections, including skin infections, respiratory infections, even cancer. Chronic stress can lead to heart disease, diabetes, hight blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, heart attack and stroke, the list is extensive. It can take years of chronic stress to reach this stage. You can stop it and reverse it at any stage. You need to learn stress management tools with the assistance of a coach or therapist who will steer you to lifestyle and dietary changes, among other things. - Can stress change your behaviour?
Yes, stress can and does change behaviour. Stress can make you feel irritable, frustrated, sometimes even angry. You can feel overwhelmed and hopeless at times. You may have decreased contact with friends and family, feel a sense of loneliness. You may feel disconnected from others and even avoid other people, or they avoid you because you are irritable or angry so much.
How you cope with stressful situations is often learned when you are young and many of us didn’t have very good role models. We can learn new ways of coping at any age. You can learn new ways of defining and perceiving what stress actually is for you. - Can stress be good for you?
Yes. We need stress in our lives. Good stress is what we feel when we go on a date with someone new, when we go on a rollercoaster ride, or compete a sporting event. Good stress pushes us to be at our best. Good stress can make us stronger, more clear headed, able to make good decisions. It’s the excitement we feel that raises our pulse rate and we can find it thrilling, something to look forward to. There is no threat or fear. Good stress tends to be short lived, minutes, hours or a few days long. Then it’s over. Life would be boring without something to look forward to. It’s when your life starts to feel like everyday is a roller coaster ride that we can’t get off of, when it’s not fun or exciting, or you start to feel overwhelmed your stress becomes distress.
- Is there a test that can tell me if I’m too stressed?
There are many tools you can find online about stress. There is no actual test to diagnose stress. Stress is very subjective - What you may feel as being very stressful may not cause someone else any stress (and vice versa). You can get a blood test at a lab that will test for stress hormones in your blood. If your cortisol levels are up you have stress. But only you can determine what is too much stress for you. A few questions you can ask yourself to determine your stress levels are: Are you able to stay focused on the task at hand while you are at work? How often do you feel overwhelmed with your life? Do you have trouble falling asleep at night? Do you get a full night sleep - 7 to 8 hours ? Do you turn to unhealthy indulgences ( junk food, alcohol, drugs, weed,) when you feel overwhelmed? Have you noticed a change in your sex drive? Has there been irregular periods (for women) or impotence (for men)?
If you find yourself answering often or almost always to these questions, you, my friend, are stressed. As a coach and a therapist, I can help you. Please contact me. - Can stress cause cancer?
Yes. Ongoing chronic stress can cause cancer. When your stress is ongoing your immune system becomes weakened. When the hormones of stress are rushing through your body, telling your body we are in fight or flight mode, your body starts to conserve energy so it is available to fight or run. But the signal doesn’t get turned off because we keep it going. Your body continues to conserve energy, so the regular daily activities of cleaning, maintenance and regeneration of our body at the cellular level isn’t taking place they way nature intended. We start to rust inside. Our immune system is also put on hold, barley running at idle. So, when our scavenger cells in the blood go on their seek and destroy missions looking for wonky cells that aren’t working right anymore and need to be replaced, they get missed because our immune system is weakened and doesn’t see them as abnormal. We often have wonky cells that aren’t working right anymore and they typically get replaced. They can become cancer cells. With a strong immune system, our immune reaction gobbles them up before they start to cause any problems. Our bodies are truly amazing and very intelligent at the cellular level. It takes years of chronic stress and wear and tear to get to this point. So, you have many opportunities to change your diet and lifestyle and to manage your stress before you get sick. - Can stress cause a miscarriage?
This is a controversial question, depending on who you ask. Many healthcare professionals disagree on the answer to this question. A meta-analysis published online May 11, 2017, by Fan Qu, John Barry et al. “The association between psychological stress and miscarriage”. This study showed that while chromosomal abnormalities underlie the majority of early pregnancy loss, “ results show that psychological factors can increase the risk by approximately 42%”. The definition of stress used for the study is “any situation that overwhelms our ability to cope.” Psychological stress is also likely “to co-occur with other psychological factors such as anxiety and depression.” The occasional stressful situation or even stressful day is unlikely to harm either the mom or babe, ongoing heavy stress (as in not able to cope) early in pregnancy may be considered harmful to mom’s health and the baby’s health. - Will stress cause weight loss or weight gain?
Most people experience weight gain, although it isn’t unusual for weight loss to happen. Some people are so distracted by their stress they may forget to eat or may lose their appetite and not feel like eating. Some people have actually learned to turn to food for comfort when they are stressed. Did your parent or grandparent get out sweets or make a favourite food for you when you were upset coming home from school?
The stress hormones can have a lot to do with the appetite and metabolism . Cortisol, in particular, is secreted to stimulate fat and carbohydrate metabolism for energy production in the fight or flight response. Cortisol also stimulates the release of insulin, which can, in turn, increase your appetite in cases of chronic stress or poorly managed stress over the long term. Learning stress reduction and stress management can and often does, lead to weight loss, or at the very least a stabilization of weight. - Can stress cause constipation or diarrhea?
Diarrhea is more common than constipation, some people actually get both and alternate between diarrhea and constipation. Your gut has a lot of nerves going through it. The largest is the vagal nerve. It’s like a super conductor between the brain and the gut, so your brain can impact your gastrointestinal tract as much as your gastrointestinal tract can impact your brain. When you’re stressed you can actually get muscle spasms in your gut so things don’t move along so smoothly. The spasms can happen throughout your belly causing discomfort and diarrhea. If the spasms come and go in only parts of your intestines then you can become constipated as things get blocked up. - Can depression be caused by stress?
Yes. Depression can be caused by stress and stress can be caused by depression. When we are under chronic long term stress, our brains and bodies are taxed beyond what they are made for and things can start to go wrong. Just as our bodies can become sick so can our minds. You can feel overwhelmed and hopeless at times. You may have decreased contact with friends and family, feel a sense of loneliness. You may feel disconnected from others and even avoid other people, or they avoid you because you are irritable or not much fun to be around. Depression can disrupt your life even more because we tend to isolate ourselves when we are depressed. Isolation can makes us feel even more stressed. If you think this is happening to you, get help. Talk to your healthcare professional or contact me. I can help you.
There are many stress management techniques that can be tailored especially for you that you can work on your own or with a friend or family member. You are not alone. Please reach out and contact me.
