Symptoms Of Stress

January 22, 2011 by admin  
Filed under About Stress

Symptoms Of Stress

Stress and anxiety have been with us since the dawn of time. With the increase in pressures of modern day living, more and more of us are suffering from the negative effects of stress in our day to day life.

When discussing stress it is important to remember that some level of stress is necessary for us to function in our everyday lives. It helps to motivate us, and we all need motivation to survive and prosper in life. It is important, however, to develop and maintain a happy balance between too much and too little stress. Interestingly enough, people who are underperforming and bored with their routine are just as vulnerable to the effects of negative stress as are people in high stress situations.

Generally speaking, symptoms of stress can be broken down into three categories – Psychological symptoms, Physical symptoms and Emotional Symptoms. These symptoms are an indication of the exsistance of moderate to severe stress. The presence of stress would be indicated by a combination of a few symptoms, rather than just one of the symptoms.

Psychological Symptoms of stress include:
Confused thinking, poor decisions, poor attention, disorientation, slowed thinking, memory lapses, forgetfulness, undue daydreaming.

Physical symptoms of stress include:
Tension headaches, dizziness, palpitations, choking sensations, churning in the stomach, vomiting, hand tremor, sweating, rapid heart rate, shortness of breath, nervous diarrhoea, frequency of passing urine and pins and needles in hands.

Emotional Symptoms include:
Undue anxiety, mood swings, low self-esteem, sudden anger, feeling alone, feeling guilty, wanting to hide, easily startled, easily upset, undue concerns.

Stress is one of the most common causes of general illness and disorders in the world today. It has become that much a part of our everyday life that many of us have learnt to ignore many of the above symptoms and continue on with our lives. Stress does, however, seem to sneak up on us without warning, often leaving in its wake long term effects on both our physical and emotional wellbeing.

Because we all have different personalities and different life experiences, life events will affect each of us differently, even at different stages in our lives. It is important to be aware of, and monitor for yourself, how you are feeling at any given time in your life. It is sometimes very difficult to distinguish between feelings of stress which may be moderate to severe, and depression. It is often worthwhile visiting your local medical practitioner to discuss appropriate treatment methods with them.

One thing that we can be absolutely sure of, stress has the potential to dramatically affect our emotional wellbeing. Stress is one condition that does not discriminate against age, race, gender or financial background. We are all equally susceptible at any stage in our lives.