April: Stress Awareness Month

Stress is unavoidable. Now more than ever, it's important to understand stress and how to manage it. While stress can beneficial, too much of it can be harmful.

When the body senses a threat (or stressor), it goes on high alert, and once the threat passes, the body quickly recovers. At least, that's the way it's supposed to work. Stressors can include health matters, work, money, family issues, racism or gender inequality, and regular daily hassles. With unrelenting or too many stressors, your body might be in a constant state of high alert, leading to poor concentration, bad moods, professional burnout, and mental and physical health problems. When stress becomes chronic, the body cannot return to normal functioning. Chronic stress can be linked with health conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, and anxiety.

Stress affects women and men differently. Many conditions associated with stress such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression , and anxiety are more common in women than men.

Beyond sex and gender differences, there are individual differences, too. Some people are more resilient than others. Stress affects them less or more temporarily, and they might even peform better under stress. Resilence to some extent, can be learned, and there are some simple, practical things that people can do that may make a difference. Dr. Janine Austin Clayton, Director of the NIH Office of Researh on Women's Health, states some resilient people might also appreciate their lives, family, friends, or other matter more after stress.

Stress management and resiliene building are particularly important to the health of women. Here are several tips to help women, as well as men:

1. Recognize and counter signs of stress. Your body sends signals that it's stressed, including difficulty concentrating, headaches, cold hands, tight muscles, nervous stomach, clenched teeth, feeling on edge, fidgety, irritable, or withdrawn. Knowing how your body communicates can help you deal with stressful moments. Learn to recognize and name these feelings, either to oneself or to a freind. Then, take action to counter their effects. For example, deep breathing, stretching, going for a walk, writing down your thoughts and taking quiet time to focus can help induce relaxation and reduce tension.

2. Take time for yourself. Make taking care of yourself a daily routine. It's not selfish or self-indulgent and it might require saying "no" to requests or prioritizing yourself along with your responsibilities. Start with small changes in your routine to help build resilience to stressful circumstances. Work in time to exercise, eat healthy foods, participate in relaxing activities and sleep. In fact, including a regimen of exercise, which for some may include yoga or meditation, can be very importnt when feeling stressed. Also, take time to notice the "good minutes" in each day or to do something that you enjoy, such as reading a book or listening to music, which can be a way to shift your attention and focus on the positive rather than the negative.

3. Try new routines. From scheduling bath and bedtimes to blocking off time to plan and prioritize tasks, addtional structure can provide a daily framework that allows you to attune to your body's signals. Then, you can take steps to manage stress earlier than you potentially once did.

4. Stay connected and make new friends. Thanks to technology, staying in touch with family, friends, and other groups in your life is easier than ever. Having or being a person to talk with can be reassuring and calming. Video features can enhance the connection between telecommunications and online communications for some people.

5. See problems through a different lens. Experts call changing how we think about and respond to stress "reframing". View sitting in traffic or around the house as an opportunity to enjoy music, podcasts, or pleasant views. Reduce anger in response to rude or aggressive behavior by imagining what might be happening in that person's life. Keeping situations in perspective is an important way to boost stress resilience. Other steps inlude positive thinking and creating plans before you begin to resolve problems. You can practice reframing and get better at it over time.

6. Seek help with problems. Many people experience the same day-to-day strains related to caregiving, relationships, health, work, and money. Look to friends, family, or other trusted individuals or resoures for tips and information.

7. Talk to a health professional if stress is affecting your well-being, you feel you cannot manage the stress your're experiencing, or stress has caused you to engage in or increase substance use. Seek appropriate care if stress is harming your relationships or ability to work. If you have suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Lifeline chat is a service available to everyone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition, if you need help locating a mental health provider, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Admiistration (SAMHSA) offers a site that can assist you at https://findtreatment.samhsa.gov. People who have experienced traumatic stress (directly or indirectly experiencing life-threatening and dangerous events) should find a treatment provider who practices trauma informed care- see https://go.usa.gov/xvydm for details. Additionally, in times of disasters and other sorts of emergencies, the National Disaster Distress Helpline ( call 1-800-985-5990) can provide crisis counseling, emotional support and referrals to care related to disasters and public health emergencies.

Recognizing individual signals of a body's stress responses and learning to respond to those signals in new ways can help build the emotional, intellectual, and physical strenght that comprise resilience, which can help you tackle future stressors.

Reference

National Institue of Health: https://orwh.od.nih.gov/in-the-spotlight/all-articles/7-steps-manage-stress-and-build-resilience