Stress Awareness Week: How stress affects people

(Original post by DrawTheLine)
As part of Stress Awareness Week, we wanted to talk about the ways stress can affect us. Everybody reacts differently to varying levels of stress, and it's important to recognise the signs of stress before it gets too much for you or someone you know.

Let's start with the emotional effects of stress. There's absolutely loads of different things people can be feeling or experiencing mentally when they're stressed, but here are just a few.

• Feeling overwhelmed
• Feeling irritable
• Feeling overly anxious or scared
• Experiencing low self-esteem
• Experiencing racing thoughts
• Feeling very worried
• Struggling to concentrate or make decisions

You may be recognising a few of these signs in yourself. This is a good thing, as it means you're aware of how stressed you are.

Now let's move on to the physical effects of stress. Again, there's a few different things that can happen, and this list isn't exhaustive, but it gives you a good idea of how our bodies physically respond to stress.

• Getting more headaches
• Having tense muscles
• Feeling dizzy or light-headed
• Struggling to sleep
• Feeling constantly tired
• Changes to your appetite or diet

A lot of these physical reactions may not solely be related to stress, but you can typically tell when they are stress-related and when they aren't. These physical signs are ones you are more likely to notice in other people, and that others will notice in you.

Finally, we should look at behavioural effects of stress. A combination of emotional and physical effects will inevitably affect how we behave around others as well. These may include:

• Increased smoking, drinking or taking drugs
• Snapping at people for no reason
• Withdrawing yourself from social situations
• Avoiding people or situations you are stressed about

This is a lot of information in one go! But hopefully now that you're aware of what to look for when it comes to stress, you'll be more able to nip it in the bud and help yourself or others out when they need it. Keep your eyes peeled for information in the hub thread on how to tackle stress later on in the week!

DISCLAIMER:

(Original post by DrawTheLine)
As part of Stress Awareness Week, we wanted to talk about the ways stress can affect us. Everybody reacts differently to varying levels of stress, and it's important to recognise the signs of stress before it gets too much for you or someone you know.

Let's start with the emotional effects of stress. There's absolutely loads of different things people can be feeling or experiencing mentally when they're stressed, but here are just a few.

• Feeling overwhelmed
• Feeling irritable
• Feeling overly anxious or scared
• Experiencing low self-esteem
• Experiencing racing thoughts
• Feeling very worried
• Struggling to concentrate or make decisions

You may be recognising a few of these signs in yourself. This is a good thing, as it means you're aware of how stressed you are.

Now let's move on to the physical effects of stress. Again, there's a few different things that can happen, and this list isn't exhaustive, but it gives you a good idea of how our bodies physically respond to stress.

• Getting more headaches
• Having tense muscles
• Feeling dizzy or light-headed
• Struggling to sleep
• Feeling constantly tired
• Changes to your appetite or diet

A lot of these physical reactions may not solely be related to stress, but you can typically tell when they are stress-related and when they aren't. These physical signs are ones you are more likely to notice in other people, and that others will notice in you.

Finally, we should look at behavioural effects of stress. A combination of emotional and physical effects will inevitably affect how we behave around others as well. These may include:

• Increased smoking, drinking or taking drugs
• Snapping at people for no reason
• Withdrawing yourself from social situations
• Avoiding people or situations you are stressed about

This is a lot of information in one go! But hopefully now that you're aware of what to look for when it comes to stress, you'll be more able to nip it in the bud and help yourself or others out when they need it. Keep your eyes peeled for information in the hub thread on how to tackle stress later on in the week!

DISCLAIMER: