Stress Management
Need someone to help you develop stress management strategies? My Psychologist is experienced in providing treatment for stress management.
What is Stress?
Stress is often described as a feeling of being overloaded, wound up tight, tense and worried. We all experience stress. A good level of stress can motivate us to get a task finished. A bad level of stress can also be harmful to us. Stress has the ability to interfere with our ability to get on with our normal life. Having good stress management skills is very important to maintain your quality of life.
What are the signs of stress?
When we are faced with a stressful event, our bodies respond to it by activating the nervous system and releasing hormones such as adrenalin and cortisol. Adrenalin and cortisol hormones create physical changes in the body which cause us to react in a way to get through the stressful situation. This reaction is usually called the ‘fight or flight’ response. There can be an increase in our heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, metabolism and muscle tension. Our pupils can dilate and we can have an increase in our perspiration rate.
While these physical changes can help us meet the challenges of the stressful situation, they unfortunately can cause other negative physical or psychological symptoms if the stress continues and the physical changes do not calm down.
These symptoms can include:
- Headaches and other aches and pains
- Anger and irritability
- Fatigue
- Difficulty concentrating
- High blood pressure
- Weakened immune system
- Heart disease
- Sleep disturbance such as insomnia
- Upset stomach
- Feeling overwhelmed and out of control
- Feeling moody and tearful
Types of stress
Acute stress
Acute stress is best described as stress that is brief and specific to the demands and pressures of a particular situation, such as a performance or facing up to a difficult challenge, a deadline, or even a traumatic event.
Episodic acute stress
Some people can experience acute stress over and over again. If this is the case, such a situation can be referred to as episodic acute stress. These type of repetitive stress episodes can be due to a number of very real stressful challenges or events such as losing a job and health problems. For some people, episodic acute stress is a combination of the challenges they face and continuous worry about bad things that could happen.
Chronic stress
The third type of stress is called chronic stress. This type of stress involves ongoing demands, worries and pressures that seem to go on and on forever, with little or even no hope of easing. Chronic stress can be very harmful to people’s happiness and health. Although people can sometimes become used to chronic stress and feel they do not notice it that much, it will continue to wear people down and have a negative effect on their health and relationships.
When to seek professional help
If you have high levels of stress that have continued for a long period of time and/or stress that is interfering with you enjoying a healthy life, it is advisable to seek professional stress management help. Psychologists can help identify behaviours and situations that are contributing to your high stress. We can help you to make changes to the things that are within your control. Psychological treatment for stress or stress management is certainly one way to learn how to manage your stress effectively.
If you are looking for a psychologist in Adelaide that can assist with stress management we invite you to give My Psychologist a call to discuss your concerns and book an appointment.
