Stress is not called the “silent killer” for nothing. Being overstressed can cause numerous health problems and pains which won’t be resolved until you get to the underlying issue. We rarely recognize the symptoms of stress until they flare up and it’s often too late to reverse the damage done.
WebMD describes stress as “…any change in the environment that requires your body to react and adjust in response. The body reacts to these changes with physical, mental, and emotional responses. Stress is a normal part of life. Many events that happen to you and around you — and many things that you do yourself — put stress on your body. You can experience good or bad forms of stress from your environment, your body, and your thoughts.
Here are the 9 main signs that show you’re under too much stress:
We rarely listen to our body until it starts screaming from pain. When you’re overstressed, the body begins to break down, causing numerous digestive problems, heart palpitations and tense muscles. Your arthritis will flare up, you will experience splitting headaches and your body will be in pain. Don’t ignore these symptoms and try to resolve the underlying issue of your stress in order to stay healthy.
Any kind of problem with your sleeping patterns may be a sign of too much stress. If you’re suffering from insomnia and can’t go to sleep because of too much stress, you need to resolve it or your life will get worse before you know it. Try yoga or other meditation techniques, and start eating a healthy diet and exercise every day in order to deal with your stress and sleep well again.
Stress can even affect your weight – it may slow down your metabolism and make you gain weight, but the constant worries may also make you lose weight. A change in appetite shows a change in the physical and emotional state, and not addressing the issue will make things worse. Food is energy for our body, and what we put in our stomach is a sign of how we handle stress. How we treat our body is based on our mental capacity to deal with stress, so make sure to manage it before things spin out of control.
- You can’t stop thinking about work or problems
If you’re unable to fall asleep at night worrying about your work or problems, it is definitely a sign of being overstressed. However, worrying won’t help – as the great Mark Twain said, “Worrying is like paying a debt you don’t owe.” Worrying won’t resolve the problem – it will only escalate things. If you’re constantly checking your phone or mail for work, it’s a sign that you need to face the real problem and resolve the suffocating stress.
Not being able to stay still is definitely a sign of being overstressed. If a walk, or watching a movie can’t help you relax, you need to address the underlying cause of your stress. Remember – the mind is your worst enemy, so manage your anxiety and fears in order to stay healthy, both physically and emotionally. Constant stress will wear you down and push things further deep inside of you, until you start feeling pain.
- You have no patience with others
One of the main symptoms of being overstressed is the inability to have patience with others. In this kind of situation, our loved ones usually receive the most wrath. If this is the case, you are probably tormented by stress, so it’s time to ask for help and slow down a bit.
When stress takes over your body, it affects your mental health. If you’re happy one moment and sad the next, your hormones are definitely affected by stress. Bottling things inside won’t help you, and is the main cause why you’re feeling that way. This may hurt the relationships with your loved ones and enhance your anxiety and mental disorders. Being overstressed can also cause obsessive compulsive disorders and drug and alcohol addictions.
According to Carolyn Jacob, MD, hair loss is one of the major signs of being overstressed. “Typically, people shed about 100 hairs a day. Most people don’t even notice. Sometimes, a significant stress of sort may spark a change in your body’s routine physiological functions, and cause a disproportionate number of hairs to go into the resting phase at the same time. Then three to four months later, sometimes longer, all those resting hairs are shed. The effect can be alarming. The types of events that disrupt the normal hair cycle can be caused by the substantial physiological stresses on your body.” If you have been experiencing hair loss recently, try to reduce your stress and your condition will improve.
The loss of libido is one of the things people usually don’t relate with stress. However, when the stress levels rise, the stress hormone secretion responsible for the sexual response may get affected, causing exhaustion and the inability to experience intimacy. If you’re suffering from this problem, you need to reduce your stress, which you can do with meditation techniques or some type of relaxation. Your partner shouldn’t be affected by this problem – just express your fears and concerns and talk to them in order to overcome the problem.
Souece : healthylifeheadlines.com