People can experience many negative effects from stress. While stress can leave you with a sense of strain and pressure, it can lead to other problems as well. There are many ways stress can enter your life. If you’re dealing with a substantial amount of debt, or you’re going through a divorce then stress is almost guaranteed. Stress can also rear its ugly head if you’re unemployed, or have been dealing with the loss of a loved one.
Why exactly does this happen? Stress allows the body to respond to a threat or urgent situations. While stress is often associated with hindrance, it is actually protecting you. The problem is, many people miss the signs of stress and their situation gets worse as a result. Recognizing the signs of stress is crucial if you want to manage it. If not, it can impact your daily life and it’ll only exacerbate the problem. There are eight telling signs that you should be aware of. You may have thought these signs were unrelated to stress, but that simply isn’t the case. Surely a little headache can’t be a sign of your problem, can it? The answer to that question may surprise you.
1. Frequent Colds
The common cold may not be so common if you keep getting it. Every week day, employees go to work and students go to school. With so many people interacting on a daily basis, it’s easy to catch a cold. If you are getting frequent colds it could be a telling sign of stress. Stress can cause you to lose out on sleep, smoke more, and throw your diet off. These things weaken your body and leave you susceptible to more colds.
When your body is under intense pressure and strain, it throws your immune system for a loop. This makes it difficult for your body to fight off viruses and bugs that would otherwise cause you to simply let out a sniffle. If you notice that you are constantly getting colds, it may be time to take it as one of the symptoms of stress. It may be easy to catch a cold, but getting one every month or so certainly is not. To help rid yourself of this nasty occurrence, you can try meditating to lower your levels of strain. Exercising will release chemicals in your body called endorphins. This can trigger positive feelings, which in turn can help your situation greatly.
2. Low Energy
Low energy is one of the clearer indicators of excess strain and pressure. When you trap yourself in a state of high stress it tends to take a lot out of you. This is why when you are given some unexpected negative news, you feel drained and almost lifeless. When this happens, your orexin levels are greatly reduced and begin to shut down. Letting something weigh you down can leave you feeling fatigued and if you’re not careful, your situation can become chronic. Even if you get a healthy amount of sleep at night, you can still have low energy.
3. Headaches
We often brush off headaches because of how easy it is to pop an Advil pill to get quick relief. Too often, people will ignore the root of the problem as long as they can get a short-term solution. Have you ever considered that headaches are a result of stress? It sounds obvious that the thoughts in your head mixed in with high levels of pressure would lead to headaches. Unfortunately, this is lost on many people as they simply want the pain to stop. Try some deep breathing and take a break from the things that are causing you strain.
4. Upset Stomach
While the thoughts in your head and your emotions play a significant role when it comes to stress, the stomach shouldn’t be overlooked. Like your brain, the stomach also has nerves. This area also happens to be significantly sensitive. If you’ve ever had butterflies in your stomach before going out on a date, or delivering a speech, you know that this part of the body is triggered when you’re going through a bevy of emotions. When you have an upset stomach and you don’t believe it’s due to food, you should take it as one of the symptoms of stress.
5. Rapid Heartbeat
A heart rate of 60 to 100 beats per minute is considered normal. If it goes above those levels without exercising, then some other factors are at play. If you’re noticing a rapid heartbeat often, consider stress as the main culprit. Many people who maintain a healthy lifestyle are often confused as to why their heart rate isn’t normal. With how much energy they spend frustrated over personal issues, they don’t take the time to consider that it’s taking away the progress that they’ve made. Take some time alone in a quiet area to listen to some calming music and put your mind at ease.
6. Insomnia
Nights without sleep are all too familiar to those dealing with insomnia. The sleep disorder alone can cause a person to be frustrated. When someone is dealing with stress, that person may find trouble sleeping. If you’re going through this, you may constantly be thinking about what you should be doing or how you’re going to get out of a particular situation. These constant thoughts seem to have no end and it makes it difficult for you to get some sleep. It’s important to remember that your mood and sleep are closely linked. A healthy sleep means and improvement to your well-being.
7. Loss of Libido
In men and women, the loss of libido can easily be connected to stress. When you’re dealing with personal issues, sometimes sex is the last thing on your mind. As it is, you’ve already spend all of your energy worrying about the circumstances in your life. All of the signs mentioned above can cause you to lose your sex drive. It’s easy to indulge in unhealthy behaviors when you are under a massive amount of pressure. It’s important to note that these counterproductive practices can leave you feeling miserable in bed with your significant other. Take this as another symptom if you are losing interest in having sex.
8. Tense Muscles
Finally, the eighth sign is tense muscles. If you’ve ever been handed a seemingly impossible task by your boss with an unreasonable deadline, you have probably tensed up. Muscle tension can be seen as an instant reflex reaction to stain and pressure. If you are feeling tense, there are a number of solutions for you. Doing some yoga or getting a massage is sure to get you feeling more relaxed in a short period of time. If you can’t will yourself to do strenuous activities just yet, you can settle for the massage as it requires little effort on your part.
