Stress

Types Of Stress

A study outlined four main varieties of stress that are experienced in many different situations from workplace to home. They are especially relevant to the life of a student. They include:

1. Time stress: It occurs when you feel worried about time, and more specifically when you don’t have enough time to accomplish all necessary tasks. 

2. Anticipatory stress: This kind of stress is seen before a test, assignment, or presentation. 

3. Situational stress: This type is usually experienced in an upsetting or alarming situation that one cannot control like the present situation of COVID-19.

4. Encounter stress: It is when one feels anxious about seeing certain people, either alone or in a group. 

Levels of stress

• Type A personalities: These individuals are outgoing, ambitious, rigidly organized, highly status-conscious, impatient, anxious, proactive, and concerned with time management. Type A personalities are often high-achieving "workaholics" and have a need to get things done that might actually become overwhelming.
• The "worrier": The worrier presents with almost incessant negative thoughts causing episodic acute stress on physical and mental health. These negative binge thinkers also tend to be over aroused and tense, but are more anxious and depressed than angry and hostile. Their thoughts are frequently filled with “What if….” statements.

3. Chronic stress: This type is long-term and seems never-ending and inescapable. It can stem from traumatic experiences, childhood trauma, personal issues with the spouse, or work pressure.

Symptoms Of Stress

Long-term or chronic stress affects the mind and can cause wear and tear on the body. This can lead to physical, emotional, and behavioral symptoms. They include:

Physical symptoms 

• Body aches

• Headaches

• Nausea

• Indigestion

• Constipation

• Diarrhea

• Chest pain 

• Palpitations (feeling like the heart is racing)

• Exhaustion

• Dizziness 

• High blood pressure

• Muscle tension 

• Temporp-mandibular joint problems (due to jaw clenching)

• Weak immune system

• Involuntary twitching or shaking

• Irregular or missed periods

• Getting sick more often than normal

• Reduced libido

Emotional symptoms

• Feeling overwhelmed

• Racing thoughts 

• Difficulty in concentrating

• Being irritable

• To be constantly worried, anxious, or scared

• Lacking self-confidence

• Expereincing troubled sleeping patterns

Behavioral symptoms

• Being extremely emotional

• Snapping at people

• Feeling tired all the time

• Avoiding things or people 

• Eating more or less than usual

• Drinking or smoking more than usual

• Being agitated all the time

• Experiencing sexual problems

• Change in eating habits

• Nail biting

• Pacing

• Abnormal failure or delay to complete everyday responsibilities

• Significant change in school or work performance

• Unusual desire for social isolation

• Frequent lying

• Trouble getting along with other people

Causes Of Stress

Stress can be caused by different things and seen during different stages of life. Outcomes related to stress can vary according to personal and environmental factors. Events caused by stress have a major influence on mood, sense of well-being, behavior, and health. 

Stress during childhood or adolescence

The most widely studied activities that can cause stress in children and adolescents are:

1. Violence

Studies have shown that many young people develop behavioral, emotional, or learning problems when they are mistreated by an adult, victimized by bullies, criminally assaulted, or witness domestic violence. The lesser-known adverse effect of experiences like violence exposure can lead to hidden physical alterations inside a child’s body that may affect life-long health in a negative way.

2. Abuse

This can be in the form of sexual, physical, or emotional abuse. In the most severe cases, abused children may exhibit many of the signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). There is also growing evidence that individuals who were abused or neglected as children may be sensitive to stress.

3. Divorce/marital conflict

According to studies, adult offspring of divorced parents report more current life stress, family conflict, and lack of friend support compared with those whose parents did not divorce.

4. Exam stress

Kids feel stressed and pressured by family members and schools during exams and it is normal. But exam stress can cause the child to feel anxious or depressed, and this might affect their sleeping or eating habits.

Note: Childhood stress is emerging as one of the common health concerns among today’s children. With the compulsive need to excel, emphasis on competing in every aspect of life, and peer pressure, children are predisposed to varying degrees of stress.

Understand childhood stress: The triggers, symptoms, and how parents can help.
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Stress during adulthood

Many things can cause stress. You might feel stressed because of one big event or situation in your life or it might be a build-up of lots of smaller things. Some of the most common causes of stress in adults are:

1. Personal causes

Some of the common causes include:

• Difficulties in our personal lives and relationships

• Unexpected life changes like moving house, having a baby, or starting to care for someone

• Daily life minor inconveniences like misplacing keys or forgetting to bring an important item

• Financial difficulties like debt or struggling to afford daily essentials

• Health issues of oneself or close family members

• Pregnancy and children

• Housing problems like maintenance or tenancy

• Feeling lonely and unsupported

• Stress while driving or being late

Note: Driving induced stress is a serious health concern, which leads to depression, anxiety, and heart-related diseases. More and more people succumb to it daily due to increased time spent in the vehicle.

Learn about ways to de-stress while driving.
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2. Professional causes

Stress may sound like a common factor related to the workplace, but the pressure leads to stress when there is little or no help and support from supervisors and colleagues. Work-related stress is often caused by the design of the job and the working system of an organization like poor management, and lack of support within the organization. Workplace stress includes:

• Being unhappy in the job

• Having a heavy workload or too much work pressure

• Long working hours

• Poor work management

• Unclear expectations of your work

• No involvement in the decision-making process

• Working under dangerous conditions

• Risk of termination

• Having to give speeches in front of colleagues

• Discrimination or harassment at work

Risk Factors For Stress

A stressor is an event or situation that causes stress. The reactions to stressors are highly influenced by genetics, early-life environment, and trauma, and contribute to differences in stress reactivity in different individuals. Risk factors for stress include:

Psychological factors

These are characteristics or facets that influence an individual psychologically and/or socially. Such factors can describe individuals in relation to their social environment and how these affect physical and mental health. Some of the psychological factors that increase the risk of developing stress include:

• Low self-esteem

• Decreased confidence

• Personality types

• Loneliness 

• Thinking too much

Lifestyle factors

Lifestyle plays a very important role in the development of stress. A healthy lifestyle can not only help one feel better, but it can also reduce the risk of some diseases, lengthen the lifespan, save money, and benefit in many other ways. Here are certain lifestyle choices that can act as a risk factors for stress:

• Not exercising enough

• Eating too much junk food

• Not getting enough sleep

• Smoking

• Drinking too much alcohol

Note: While a direct link between stress and heart disease has not been determined, people who are stressed on a daily basis often act in ways that increase their risk for developing heart disease.

Find out how stress can affect your heart.
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Effects of stress

Stress symptoms can affect the body, thoughts and feelings, and behavior. The susceptibility to stress varies from person to person. The factors that influenced the susceptibility to stress are genetic vulnerability, coping style, type of personality, and social support. Stress can have an effect on the whole body thus producing illness. Research shows that stress can alter the tissue morphology and mechanism of hormones. Effects of chronic stress on different organ systems and its relation with other diseases include:

Stress and immune response

Our immune system is an area that is susceptible to stress. There is a relationship between the brain, the nervous system, and the immune response. Several studies have shown that chronic stress exerts a general suppression of the immune system. 

Cytokines that play a crucial role in mediating the immune system are produced by stress-stimulated immune cells that convey feedback to the nervous system, further modulating the release of stress hormones in the brain. During chronic stress, the neuroimmune axis can be overstimulated and breaks down, thus causing neuroendocrine/immune imbalances that can cause chronic low-grade inflammation, acting as a precursor to various illnesses.

Stress and gastrointestinal disorders

Gastrointestinal diseases such as peptic ulcer (PU) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are known to be greatly influenced by stress. Certain stressful life events have been associated with the onset of symptom exacerbation in other common chronic disorders of the digestive system such as functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGD), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD). 

Stress and cardiovascular disorders

Psychological stress is a significant risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD) and CHD mortality. Studies have found a positive relationship between life stress and myocardial infarction (heart attack) and sudden death. Myocardial infarction is reported to have a higher prevalence of four stress factors such as stress at work and at home, financial stress, and major life events in the past year.

Stress and cancer

The relationship between breast cancer and stress has received particular attention. However, more research is needed to find if there is a relationship between psychological stress and the transformation of normal cells into cancerous cells. One area that is currently being studied is whether psychological interventions can reduce stress in cancer patients, thus improving immune function and possibly even prolonging survival.

Stress and psychiatric disorders

A lot of research has been done to find the relation between recent life events contributing to the onset of psychiatric illness. The association between stressful life events and psychiatric illness is through this disease. Although the evidence to support this hypothesis is not conclusive, it is stronger than the association with physical or medical illness. Recent life events are held to have a major etiological role in neuroses (mental illness), the onset of neurotic depression (mixed depressive illness) and acts as a precipitating factor in schizophrenic episodes (losing touch with reality).

Pandemic-related stress is real!

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a variety of stressors, some of which have been linked to intense stress reactions, such as posttraumatic stress (PTS)-like symptoms. Learn tips to take care of mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Stress as a precursor of anxiety and depression

Stress is a common trigger for anxiety and it's important to catch anxiety symptoms early to prevent the development of an anxiety disorder. Symptoms of anxiety are usually an over-concern with the lack of control over one’s circumstances, either at work or in personal life.

Depression is widely accepted and is linked to stress. The usual symptoms are upset sleep patterns, fatigue, increased consumption of alcohol, muscle aches, and pains, poor self-esteem, or lack of self-worth, among a variety of others.

Stress and other medical conditions

• Asthma: Stress can enhance an allergic inflammatory response. In asthma, both external and internal factors are involved and the internal factor is most affected by the acute effects of psychological stressors.

• Rheumatoid arthritis (RA): RA involves the body turning on itself (an autoimmune response), it was hypothesized that a self-destructive personality may manifest itself; several investigators have found personality differences between RA sufferers and others. 

• Migraine: These headaches are the result of constriction and dilatation of the carotid arteries of one side of the head. These are supposed to be triggered by stressful events.

• Diabetes: There is evidence that emotionally stressful experiences are associated with endocrine disorders such as diabetes mellitus. Additionally, children who had stressful life events stemming from actual or threatened losses within the family occurring between the ages of 5 and 9 had a significantly higher risk of developing type I (juvenile) diabetes.

Diagnosis Of Stress

There is no specific test to diagnose stress. Diagnosis of stress may include a personal and family health history, blood and urine tests, and other assessments to rule out various medical conditions. 

A thorough, stress-oriented, face-to-face medical interview is currently the most practicable way to diagnose stress and its effects. It remains for future research to develop a cleaner methodology to diagnose this complex yet very common disorder.

Prevention Of Stress

In today’s world, stress has become a part of daily life. Preventing stress may look like an impossible task but trying these daily strategies can help prevent it to a greater extent.

• Not letting feelings, or emotions hamper the mood

• Managing work and tasks efficiently to avoid build-ups

• Taking good care of your body by eating right, exercising and getting enough sleep 

• Staying positive, practicing gratitude, and acknowledging the good parts of the day or life

• Accepting that you can’t control everything

• Finding ways to let go of situations that cannot be changed

• Learning to say “no” to additional responsibilities when busy or stressed

• Staying connected with people who keep you calm, make you happy, provide emotional support

• Balancing responsibilities with other activities you enjoy 

• Knowing the triggers and avoiding them efficiently

Specialist To Visit

A psychiatrist will provide treatment for stress through medication. But if you want to understand the underlying cause then the following professionals can help:

• Integrative medicine specialist

• Life coach 

Seek medical attention if you feel overwhelmed with thoughts, are using drugs or alcohol as your coping mechanism, or have thoughts about hurting yourself.

If you are noticing any of the symptoms, seek advice from our world-class professionals. 
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Treatment Of Stress

Stress is a normal part of life, and it can be good stress or bad stress. Bad stress comes with both physical and emotional reactions to certain triggers that can cause worry and tension. Stress usually fluctuates from situation to situation and challenging circumstances can act as stressors. More than the treatment, it is how you manage it. The methods in the management of stress include:

Therapy/counseling

Stress can take its toll on anybody, but correct therapy can help one manage it better. There are certain therapies that aim to prevent future stress as well. Here are the most commonly used therapies for stress and related mental health conditions:

1. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)

CBT is the most common type of therapy available to manage short-term stress, as it addresses thought patterns and behaviors. The aim of this therapy is to help the patient identify their stressors, and come up with healthier responses to reduce the impact of their triggers.

This therapy is not just used to help people with stress, but it has shown beneficial results in treating patients with anxiety disorders as well.

2. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) 

This therapy aims to work on long-term chronic stress and helps people move past challenges and create their own version of quality life. Acceptance and commitment therapy changes how people respond to stress.

3. Psychodynamic therapy

This therapy is used on a more long-term basis and aims to help one identify thought patterns that may dictate behavioral responses. It may be best suited for stress caused by long-standing issues which are intertwined with other mental health condition such as anxiety and depression. 

4. Positive psychology therapy

Positive psychology is a scientific field of study that is useful for stress because it is based on the perspective of “what works” instead of focusing on “what is wrong”. This therapeutic approach helps identify the patient’s character strengths as well as plan and take positive action to improve their life.

5. Behavioral therapy

It is similar to CBT with its focus on changes in behavior. But unlike CBT, behavioral therapy is more focused on one's actions, rather than their thoughts.

Behavioral therapy tends to work best for long-term triggers of stress, including traumatic events, as well as conditions such as anxiety, phobias, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
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6. Exposure therapy
This therapy is traditionally used to treat phobias, PTSD, and anxiety disorders. Exposure therapy is beneficial if the person has any mental health condition that causes them to avoid certain situations, objects, people, and places.

7. Group therapy

This type of therapy is used in dealing with extremely stressful events like natural disasters, child loss, divorce, and more. A trained therapist leads sessions and the group setting allows the person to feel empowered and less alone.

Medication

There is no specific medication for stress, but there are medications that can help alleviate or manage some of the signs and symptoms of stress. They are:

• Sleeping pills or minor tranquilizers for sleeping troubles 

• Antidepressants for anxiety along with stress

• Specific medication to treat any symptoms of stress like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or hypertension (high blood pressure).

Home-care For Stress

Worry, stress, and anxiety can trigger a host of health problems, but there are things one can do to overcome this. Mild to moderate stress levels can be managed with certain lifestyle modifications like:

1. Understand what is causing stress

It’s important to know the triggers and not to ignore physical warning signs such as tense muscles, tiredness, headaches, or migraines. Think about what’s causing your stress.

2. Make a plan

Doing too many things at a time or doing nothing at all can cause the work to build up leading to stress. Prioritizing things and reorganizing life can help manage everything.

3. Give importance to supportive relationships

Find close friends or family who can offer help and practical advice and provide support in managing stress.

4. Reduce smoking and drinking

Smoking and drinking may seem to reduce tension but it can make it worse. Alcohol and caffeine can increase feelings of anxiety.

Planning to quit smoking? Explore our smoking cessation range. 
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5. Eat healthy

A healthy and well-balanced diet can improve mood and can keep other disorders at bay as well. Getting enough nutrients (including essential vitamins and minerals) and water can help in the betterment of mental wellbeing.

6. Exercise regularly

Physical exercise can help manage the effects of stress by producing endorphins that boosts the mood. Walk for 15-20 minutes three times a week to stay healthy and fit.

7. Practice self-care

Relax and take some time out to indulge in self-care such as doing meditation, getting a foot massage, or anything that you love to do. But ensure to strike a balance between your responsibilities.

8. Get proper sleep

Sleep is an important factor that can affect stress levels. Reducing caffeine intake, making a “to-do” list for the next day or listening to music before going to bed can help sleep better. 

9. Be positive 

Try to keep a positive approach in life, find joy in small things and be grateful to your near and dear ones. 

Note: It is important to take it easy and not stress about everything, be it at home or at work. 

Learn how to effectively handle work stress.
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Management of workplace stress

Work stress tops the list of causes of stress, especially the journey in the corporate sector can feel like a roller coaster ride. It can lead to losing self-control and just working with the flow, often neglecting the impact of these levels of stress. But, it can be managed efficiently by the following:

• Reduce the job stress by taking care of yourself

• Get all the support needed

• Rest properly and adequately

• Connect with your inner self

• Organize and prioritize the tasks

• Delegate responsibilities wherever possible

Complications Of Stress

If stress becomes chronic it can lead to various mental and physical health issues such as:

• Anxiety: It is the brain's way of reacting to stress and alerting the person of potential danger ahead.

• Depression: It is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest and can interfere with daily activities.

• Bipolar disorder: A disorder associated with episodes of mood swings ranging from depressive lows to manic highs.

• Insomnia: It is a common sleep disorder that can make it hard to fall asleep, and hard to stay asleep.

• Phobias: A phobia is an anxiety disorder defined by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation.

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): It is a mental health condition that's triggered by a terrifying event, either experiencing it or witnessing it.

• Burnout syndrome: Burnout is not simply excessive stress. Rather, it is a complex physical, mental, and emotional reaction to constant levels of high stress. This syndrome is also called labor stress and can be characterized as being physical and emotional exhaustion of workers.

• Chronic fatigue syndrome: Also called myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), it is characterized by feelings of extreme fatigue, depression, and a general disappointment with life, which can last for several months or years.

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): It causes repeated unwanted thoughts or sensations (obsessions) or the urge to do something over and over again (compulsions).

• Heart disease: Stress may lead to high blood pressure, which can pose a risk for heart attack and stroke.

• Erectile dysfunction: It is defined as difficulty getting and keeping an erection. Stress and anxiety can interrupt how your brain sends messages to the penis to allow extra blood flow leading to this condition.

Alternative Therapies For Stress

Stress management is a wide spectrum of techniques and psychotherapies aimed at controlling a person's level of stress, especially chronic stress. The main purpose is to motivate and improve everyday functioning. Some of the ways to manage stress include:

Mind-based interventions

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a therapeutic technique in which an instructor guides participants in weekly activities like meditation and yoga in order to reduce stress levels. This technique generally uses yoga and meditation that can help those with anxiety, depression, chronic pain, addiction, immune disorders, high blood pressure, and more.

Acupuncture

It relieves stress by promoting the movement of Qi in the body, according to Traditional Chinese medicine (TMC). According to TCM, the energy that usually flows smoothly throughout the body can become stuck or scattered due to stress or disease. This can lead to muscle tension and acupuncture can help with that.

Aromatherapy

This can reduce the perception of stress, decrease levels of cortisol and increase contentment. Lavender aromatherapy has shown promising results in promoting sleep in infants and adults. Different aromatherapy scents bring different effects on people.

Here are some essential oils to calm your mind and body.
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Hypnotherapy

This is an effective method for coping with stress and anxiety. In particular, hypnosis can reduce stress and anxiety before a medical procedure, for example, breast biopsy. 

Massage

It releases feel-good hormones and relieves stress by lowering the heart rate, and increasing relaxation. Receiving a massage is beneficial to increasing the feeling of contentment and well-being as emotions such as anxiety and depression can be reduced once stress levels are decreased. 

Tai Chi

The researchers found that tai chi provided the same benefits for managing stress-related anxiety as exercise as it includes meditation and focused breathing. Some researchers also noted that tai chi may be superior to other forms of exercise for reducing stress and anxiety. 

Meditation and relaxation techniques have not gained as much popularity as yoga has in recent times. This majorly is because most people believe stress to be an uncontrollable part of modern life or do not give mental health its due attention.

Read about 5 relaxation techniques to fight stress and anxiety.
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Virtual reality

Researchers have taken the first steps toward developing a VR application for stress management, specifically an underwater virtual world that can be used for paced breathing techniques. Also, viewing computer-mediated forms of nature through slideshows of images or videos affects physio-psychological processes reducing stress levels. The VR effects that has the results include:

• Resting in the forest 

• Different types of forest

• A water landscape 

• Natural environment containing some facilities

Note: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted everyday living, leaving many in a state of psychological distress. While nature offers solace to promote mental health, the pandemic has reduced access to it. VR offers a safe alternative to experiencing nature.

Living With Stress

Like many other issues surrounding mental health, stress is often misunderstood or stigmatized. Here are some tips to cope with stress in a better way.

1. Do not procrastinate

In the age of social media, it is quite common to spend a lot of time on digital media which makes it difficult to strike a healthy balance between work and relaxation. This in turn can affect your productivity both at work and at home. In addition to restricting the use of social media, take tasks only that you can handle and prioritize your work to be on track with your work schedule. 

2. Know the stressors

The best way to manage stress is to know what is causing it and then work on it. For example, if a busy schedule is making you anxious, sit down and prioritize things, or if attending a traditional university isn't going to fit with your scheduling needs, consider transferring to an online university that may be a better fit.

3. Manage academics by organizing 

Organization is very important in academic life for dealing with stress. Stress can be managed with great efficiency by keeping academic notes organized, turning in assignments on time, and keeping track of all deadlines.

4. Eat, sleep and exercise regularly

A nutritious diet, enough sleep and daily exercise can beat stress to a large extent. A person has to be well-rested and healthy for the body to perform all the stress-relieving actions.

5. Do what you love

Take a break between classes, homework, work, and other obligations, and read your favorite book or watch a movie. You may not be able to drop everything on your to-do list at once, but don’t hesitate to spend some time doing anything that makes you happy. 

6. Talk to your loved ones

Surround yourself with people who you like to spend time with and enjoy their company. Talking to someone who makes you feel comfortable can relieve a great deal of stress.

7. Get professional support

Don’t hesitate to reach out for help from a professional. Trained psychologists or psychotherapists are generally the best types of mental health professionals for stress-related therapies. Their mission is to help you identify triggers of stress while collaboratively developing a plan with you to manage them. Psychotherapists are also referred to as “talk therapists.”

Excess stress takes a severe emotional toll and can lead to serious health consequences that affect the immune, cardiovascular and nervous systems. Read more about effective ways to cope with chronic stress.
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Tips for parents and caregivers

It is natural for children to worry when scary or stressful events happen in their lives. Monitor what children see and hear about stressful events happening in their lives. Here are some suggestions to help children cope up with stress.

• Maintain a normal routine

• Watch and listen to your children

• Be alert for any change in your child’s behavior

• Reassure your child about his or her safety and well-being

• Make sure your child gets plenty of sleep, eats right, exercises daily, and keeps a normal routine

• Take breaks from the news, internet, and conversations about any disaster

• Teachers and school personnel should create opportunities for students to communicate freely

Tips for employers and HR professionals

Managers and employers play a vital role in shaping the future of employees as they are the support pillars who can make or break any situation for them. HR can help organizations create a culture that respects people’s personal lives and their obligations outside work. Following are some tips that create a good working environment for the employees.

• Managers should improve communication with employees

• All employees should be motivated to give suggestions

• The HR should coach and train managers on having reasonable expectations from employees

• Encouraging an informal form of communication through lunch meets, get-togethers, chit-chat or gaming session at the workplace

• Incorporating wellness programs to improve overall employee health and cut back on stress and sick-day losses.