When Stress Becomes Overwhelm

Everyone has a ‘stress threshold’, which is the point where stress becomes overwhelming.  This point is different for each one of us.  But whether you have a low stress threshold or a high one where it takes a major life event to upset your equilibrium, we all experience stress at some time.  And when that happens our bodies react in a similar way.

Stress is all fine if your body turns off the response as the stress subsides.  But when the stress in our lives never stops, or if it’s coming from many directions at once, our brains can no longer balance the stress and relax responses.  And that creates many serious health consequences.  One of these consequences is that our brain stops functioning well, especially when it comes to memory, both laying down new memories and retrieving old memories.

What Stress Looks Like

It can be easy to miss the signs that ongoing stress is becoming a problem because being stressed is not just about worry and anxiety.

Stress shows up in our body and behaviour in many different ways. In your physical body it can show up somatically with symptoms such as headaches, heart palpitations or chest pain, digestive issues, insomnia or back pain. Trying to reverse these symptoms becomes difficult because they are often attributed to other causes rather than stress.

Stress can affect your thinking and manifest in changed behaviours and habits. It can make you feel anxious, depressed, irritated or hopeless. But it can also cause emotional or excessive eating, substance abuse or avoiding going out or seeing friends.

When stress causes anxiety, it doesn’t always look like worry so again, it can be easy to overlook. This is what Anxiety May Look Like.

Managing Stress

Being in a chronic state of stress can be difficult to recognise because it can appear like ‘life as normal’. However, it’s important to take steps to reduce the effects of stress because they can be serious and even dangerous.

If stress has affected your ability to cope and you’re shifting towards overwhelm this video will help with 21 effective ways to manage stress.

Find more about the effects of chronic stress and how to manage it in the Conscious Mindset. Stress category.

Disclaimer

All information and opinions presented here are for information only and are not intended as a substitute for professional advice offered during a consultation. Please consult with your health care provider before trying treatment suggested on this site.

© Catherine Bullard and Happy Holistic Health, 2012. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Catherine Bullard and Happy Holistic Health with appropriate and specific direction to the original content