Mod­ern life is full of has­sles, dead­lines, frus­tra­tions, and demands. For many peo­ple, stress is so com­mon­place that it has become a way of life. Stress isn’t always bad. In small doses, it can help you per­form under pres­sure and moti­vate you to do your best. But when you’re con­stantly run­ning in emer­gency mode, your mind and body pay the price.

If you fre­quently find your­self feel­ing fraz­zled and over­whelmed, it’s time to take action to bring your ner­vous sys­tem back into bal­ance. You can pro­tect your­self by learn­ing how to rec­og­nize the signs and symp­toms of stress and tak­ing steps to reduce its harm­ful effects.

Stress is a nor­mal phys­i­cal response to events that make you feel threat­ened or upset your bal­ance in some way. When you sense dan­ger – whether it’s real or imag­ined – the body’s defenses kick into high gear in a rapid, auto­matic process known as the “fight-or-flight” reac­tion, or the stress response.

The stress response is the body’s way of pro­tect­ing you. When work­ing prop­erly, it helps you stay focused, ener­getic, and alert. In emer­gency sit­u­a­tions, stress can save your life – giv­ing you extra strength to defend your­self, for exam­ple, or spurring you to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident.

The stress response also helps you rise to meet chal­lenges. Stress is what keeps you on your toes dur­ing a pre­sen­ta­tion at work, sharp­ens your con­cen­tra­tion when you’re attempt­ing the game-winning free throw, or dri­ves you to study for an exam when you’d rather be watch­ing TV.

But beyond a cer­tain point, stress stops being help­ful and starts caus­ing major dam­age to your health, your mood, your pro­duc­tiv­ity, your rela­tion­ships, and your qual­ity of life.

The Body’s Stress Response

When you per­ceive a threat, your ner­vous sys­tem responds by releas­ing a flood of stress hor­mones, includ­ing adren­a­line and cor­ti­sol. These hor­mones rouse the body for emer­gency action.

Your heart pounds faster, mus­cles tighten, blood pres­sure rises, breath quick­ens, and your senses become sharper. These phys­i­cal changes increase your strength and sta­mina, speed your reac­tion time, and enhance your focus – prepar­ing you to either fight or flee from the dan­ger at hand.

Effects of chronic stress

The body doesn’t dis­tin­guish between phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal threats. When you’re stressed over a busy sched­ule, an argu­ment with a friend, a traf­fic jam, or a moun­tain of bills, your body reacts just as strongly as if you were fac­ing a life-or-death sit­u­a­tion. If you have a lot of respon­si­bil­i­ties and wor­ries, your emer­gency stress response may be “on” most of the time. The more your body’s stress sys­tem is acti­vated, the eas­ier it is to trip and the harder it is to shut off.

Long-term expo­sure to stress can lead to seri­ous health prob­lems. Chronic stress dis­rupts nearly every sys­tem in your body. It can raise blood pres­sure, sup­press the immune sys­tem, increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, con­tribute to infer­til­ity, and speed up the aging process. Long-term stress can even rewire the brain, leav­ing you more vul­ner­a­ble to anx­i­ety and depression.

Many health prob­lems are caused or exac­er­bated by stress, including:

* Pain of any kind
* Heart dis­ease
* Diges­tive prob­lems
* Sleep prob­lems
* Depres­sion
* Obe­sity
* Autoim­mune dis­eases
* Skin con­di­tions, such as eczema


How much stress is too much?

Because of the wide­spread dam­age stress can cause, it’s impor­tant to know your own limit. But just how much stress is “too much” dif­fers from per­son to per­son. Some peo­ple roll with the punches, while oth­ers crum­ble at the slight­est obsta­cle or frus­tra­tion. Some peo­ple even seem to thrive on the excite­ment and chal­lenge of a high-stress lifestyle.

Your abil­ity to tol­er­ate stress depends on many fac­tors, includ­ing the qual­ity of your rela­tion­ships, your gen­eral out­look on life, your emo­tional intel­li­gence, and genet­ics.
Things that influ­ence your stress tol­er­ance level

* Your sup­port net­work – A strong net­work of sup­port­ive friends and fam­ily mem­bers is an enor­mous buffer against life’s stres­sors. On the flip side, the more lonely and iso­lated you are, the greater your vul­ner­a­bil­ity to stress.
* Your sense of con­trol – If you have con­fi­dence in your­self and your abil­ity to influ­ence events and per­se­vere through chal­lenges, it’s eas­ier to take stress in stride. Peo­ple who are vul­ner­a­ble to stress tend to feel like things are out of their con­trol.
* Your atti­tude and out­look – Stress-hardy peo­ple have an opti­mistic atti­tude. They tend to embrace chal­lenges, have a strong sense of humor, accept that change is a part of life, and believe in a higher power or pur­pose.
* Your abil­ity to deal with your emo­tions. You’re extremely vul­ner­a­ble to stress if you don’t know how to calm and soothe your­self when you’re feel­ing sad, angry, or afraid. The abil­ity to bring your emo­tions into bal­ance helps you bounce back from adver­sity.
* Your knowl­edge and prepa­ra­tion – The more you know about a stress­ful sit­u­a­tion, includ­ing how long it will last and what to expect, the eas­ier it is to cope. For exam­ple, if you go into surgery with a real­is­tic pic­ture of what to expect post-op, a painful recov­ery will be less trau­matic than if you were expect­ing to bounce back immediately.

Causes of stress

The sit­u­a­tions and pres­sures that cause stress are known as stres­sors. We usu­ally think of stres­sors as being neg­a­tive, such as an exhaust­ing work sched­ule or a rocky relationship.

How­ever, any­thing that puts high demands on you or forces you to adjust can be stress­ful. This includes pos­i­tive events such as get­ting mar­ried, buy­ing a house, going to col­lege, or receiv­ing a promotion.

What causes stress depends, at least in part, on your per­cep­tion of it. Some­thing that’s stress­ful to you may not faze some­one else; they may even enjoy it.

For exam­ple, your morn­ing com­mute may make you anx­ious and tense because you worry that traf­fic will make you late. Oth­ers, how­ever, may find the trip relax­ing because they allow more than enough time and enjoy lis­ten­ing to music while they drive.

Top Ten Stress­ful Life Events

1. Spouse’s death
2. Divorce
3. Mar­riage sep­a­ra­tion
4. Jail term
5. Death of a close rel­a­tive
6. Injury or ill­ness
7. Mar­riage
8. Fired from job
9. Mar­riage rec­on­cil­i­a­tion
10. Retirement

Signs and symp­toms of stress overload

It’s impor­tant to learn how to rec­og­nize when your stress lev­els are out of con­trol. The most dan­ger­ous thing about stress is how eas­ily it can creep up on you. You get used to it. It starts to feels famil­iar – even nor­mal. You don’t notice how much it’s affect­ing you, even as it takes a heavy toll.

The signs and symp­toms of stress over­load can be almost any­thing. Stress affects the mind, body, and behav­ior in many ways, and every­one expe­ri­ences stress dif­fer­ently.
How do you respond to stress?

Psy­chol­o­gist Con­nie Lil­las uses a dri­ving anal­ogy to describe the three most com­mon ways peo­ple respond when they’re over­whelmed by stress:

* Foot on the gas – An angry or agi­tated stress response. You’re heated, keyed up, overly emo­tional, and unable to sit still.
* Foot on the brake – A with­drawn or depressed stress response. You shut down, space out, and show very lit­tle energy or emo­tion.
* Foot on both – A tense and frozen stress response. You “freeze” under pres­sure and can’t do any­thing. You look par­a­lyzed, but under the sur­face you’re extremely agitated.

Keep in mind that the signs and symp­toms of stress can also be caused by other psy­cho­log­i­cal and med­ical prob­lems. If you’re expe­ri­enc­ing any of the warn­ing signs of stress, it’s impor­tant to see a doc­tor for a full eval­u­a­tion. Your doc­tor can help you deter­mine whether or not your symp­toms are stress-related.

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