The key is to find the sensory input that works for you. Does listening to an uplifting song make you feel calm? Or smelling ground coffee? Or maybe petting an animal works quickly to make you feel centered? Everyone responds to sensory input a little differently, so experiment to find what works best for you. Learn to relax. When practiced regularly, these activities can reduce your everyday stress levels and boost feelings of joy and serenity. They also increase your ability to stay calm and collected under pressure.
Eat a healthy diet. Get your rest. Feeling tired can increase stress by causing you to think irrationally. At the same time, chronic stress can disrupt your sleep. Authors: Jeanne Segal, Ph. Stress Management — Enhance your well-being by reducing stress and building resilience. Harvard Health. Stress Effects on the Body — An interactive guide to how stress affects the physical health of your body. American Psychological Association.
This holiday season alone, millions of people will turn to HelpGuide for free mental health guidance and support. So many people rely on us in their most difficult moments. Can we rely on you? All gifts made before December 31 will be doubled. Cookie Policy. Learn to recognize overwhelming stress—and what you can do about it. What is stress? Fight-or-flight response: what happens in the body When you feel threatened, your nervous system responds by releasing a flood of stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol, which rouse the body for emergency action.
Depression and anxiety Pain of any kind Sleep problems Autoimmune diseases Digestive problems. Skin conditions, such as eczema Heart disease Weight problems Reproductive issues Thinking and memory problems. Cognitive symptoms: Memory problems Inability to concentrate Poor judgment Seeing only the negative Anxious or racing thoughts Constant worrying. Emotional symptoms: Depression or general unhappiness Anxiety and agitation Moodiness, irritability, or anger Feeling overwhelmed Loneliness and isolation Other mental or emotional health problems.
Physical symptoms: Aches and pains Diarrhea or constipation Nausea, dizziness Chest pain, rapid heart rate Loss of sex drive Frequent colds or flu. Behavioral symptoms: Eating more or less Sleeping too much or too little Withdrawing from others Procrastinating or neglecting responsibilities Using alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs to relax Nervous habits e.
Major life changes Work or school Relationship difficulties. Financial problems Being too busy Children and family. Pessimism Inability to accept uncertainty Rigid thinking, lack of flexibility. Your heart races, your breath quickens, and your muscles ready for action. This response was designed to protect your body in an emergency by preparing you to react quickly. But when the stress response keeps firing, day after day, it could put your health at serious risk.
Stress is a natural physical and mental reaction to life experiences. Everyone expresses stress from time to time. Anything from everyday responsibilities like work and family to serious life events such as a new diagnosis, war, or the death of a loved one can trigger stress. For immediate, short-term situations, stress can be beneficial to your health. It can help you cope with potentially serious situations. Your body responds to stress by releasing hormones that increase your heart and breathing rates and ready your muscles to respond.
Chronic stress can cause a variety of symptoms and affect your overall well-being. Symptoms of chronic stress include:. In your brain, the hypothalamus gets the ball rolling, telling your adrenal glands to release the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones rev up your heartbeat and send blood rushing to the areas that need it most in an emergency, such as your muscles, heart, and other important organs.
When the perceived fear is gone, the hypothalamus should tell all systems to go back to normal. Chronic stress is also a factor in behaviors such as overeating or not eating enough, alcohol or drug abuse, and social withdrawal.
Stress hormones affect your respiratory and cardiovascular systems. During the stress response, you breathe faster in an effort to quickly distribute oxygen-rich blood to your body. If you already have a breathing problem like asthma or emphysema , stress can make it even harder to breathe.
Under stress, your heart also pumps faster. But this also raises your blood pressure. As a result, frequent or chronic stress will make your heart work too hard for too long. When your blood pressure rises, so do your risks for having a stroke or heart attack. Under stress, your liver produces extra blood sugar glucose to give you a boost of energy. See more conditions. Healthy Lifestyle Stress management.
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Please try again. Something went wrong on our side, please try again. Show references How stress affects your health. American Psychological Association. Accessed March 5, Stress and your health. Department of Health and Human Services. Seaward BL. Essentials of Managing Stress. Burlington, Mass. Manage stress. Warning signs of a heart attack. American Heart Association. See also Chronic stress Stress and your health Do you respect the mind-body connection?
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