by Dr Deborah Lee, Dr Fox Online Pharmacy
Photo by Victoria Tronina on Unsplash
You can read all about stress – the silent killer – in my last TSN blog post.
Yes, it’s real, serious and scary. So, in this post, I’m writing about what we can do about it. Stress solutions.
– Can you recognise chronic stress symptoms?
– How can you stop stress taking control?
– What can you do to destress?
Read on and find out.
Signs of stress
Stress affects your feelings, your behaviour and causes a range of physical symptoms.
Feelings – It can make you feel worried, irritable, emotional, bad-tempered, snappy. You may find you can’t concentrate. You feel restless and on edge. Sometimes, people find their thoughts are racing, and they feel overwhelmed. Perhaps you feel low in mood and dread the future. You might be unable to switch off your thoughts, can’t join in with anything, and feel socially isolated, and lonely.
Behaviour – Some people bite their nails, pick at their fingers and pull their hair. Perhaps you are always thinking about food and unable to control your appetite, or not able to eat properly. You might be tearful. Sometimes people start drinking too much alcohol or smoking too much. You may feel you don’t want to join in social activities.
Physical symptoms – You might feel breathless, and sweaty, with a fast heartbeat. Even dizzy or light-headed. Sometimes stress can cause acute anxiety and panic attacks. Stress is often a cause of insomnia, leading to tiredness and daytime fatigue. It can cause headaches, sore eyes, blurred vision, muscle pain (due to increased muscle tension), indigestion, bloating and diarrhoea or constipation. Another common symptom is teeth grinding at night.
Stress also causes a variety of medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). These symptoms could quite literally be anything at all.
How to deal with stress
Think about your stress. What do you think is causing your symptoms? It may be a combination of things. Now try and think which of these things can you do something about? Those you can’t do anything about, you need to push to one side for now. Focus on the things you can change.
If this is work/home stress, for example, what changes can you make to relieve your stress? This might include – getting up earlier in the mornings to give yourself more time to get organised, planning your week – so your meals are planned and prepared in advance, having a designated evening to do your washing and ironing. Perhaps getting a cleaner?
Maybe you can speak to your boss and work from home 2 or 3 days a week? Perhaps you can delegate more to other team members at work? Can you manage your time better? Set a proper work-life balance. Use your downtime efficiently by switching off your mobile phone and computer and engaging in something fun like playing a sport, or joining an exercise class?
If you have money worries, who can help you? Do you trust anyone to come and discuss this with you? Can you go to Citizens Advice for help? It’s not good worrying and worrying – you need to address the problem, make a plan, and deal with it.
The key thing to remember is that you are in control of your own destiny. You need to control your life and not let your life control you.
If you feel depressed, and especially if you have been having suicidal thoughts, you must, must, must get help. See your GP, or phone The Samaritans on Freephone 116 123 anytime 24/7.
Ways to de-stress
There are many ways you can incorporate techniques to de-stress into your life. You need to realise the importance of doing this and make it a priority, not something you squeeze in occasionally if you have a spare moment.
Go back to basics – food, nutrition, sleep, exercise, and a healthy lifestyle. All of these factors directly affect your stress levels and your general health. Your body cannot function properly, and consequently, you will not feel well, unless all these factors are in place. Think of your body like a car – your car won’t go if it has no petrol, the engine won’t work without oil, you can’t start it without spark plugs. You need complete nutrition, the correct physiology and metabolism, and strong, well-oxygenated muscles for your body to work as it should.
Diet
You need to eat a varied, balanced diet, nutritionally complete diet, full of fruit and vegetables, which contain those all-important antioxidants. A good option is the Mediterranean Diet – which is delicious, interesting and easy to stick to. It can help you lose weight and lower cholesterol.
Sleep
Sleep experts recommend we all get 7 hours of good quality sleep per night. However, the average Brit gets less than 6 hours a night. 1 in 5 of us struggle to get to sleep every night. Don’t underestimate the seriousness of insomnia. If you are not sleeping well, take steps to improve this.
You need a set bedtime and a waking-up time. Make sure you have a dark bedroom, kept cool and well ventilated. A comfy bed with antiallergy bedding. Avoid mobile phones, TV and computer screens at least 2 hours before bedtime. Also, no caffeine or alcohol within the 6 hours before you get into bed.
Exercise
Your body needs to be used – like most things in life – it’s use it or lose it. When you exercise you stimulate your heart to pump more forcefully and improve the ability of blood to oxygenate in the lungs. Your physical and mental fitness are closely intertwined. When you exercise you raise levels of feel-good endorphins in the brain, and after exercise, you feel more positive and calmer.
We are all advised to do 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity exercise (MIT). This Is exercise enough to make you feel slightly sweaty and out of breath, and includes brisk walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, and dancing. For example, you might choose to do 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. But you don’t need to do it all in one go, you can do 3 x 10-minute sessions if you prefer. Whatever, you do, get up and get moving. Long periods of sitting still are bad for your health and will not help your stress levels.
Healthy habits
If I can make a plea – it’s really not good to rely on alcohol or smoking to help your stress. Neither of these is helpful. Many people say they can’t stop smoking because of their nerves. What they don’t realise is that smoking is the cause of their nerves. The nerves are due to nicotine withdrawal symptoms which set in as soon as the most recent cigarette has been smoked. As blood nicotine levels fall, the anxiety levels start to increase.
The only way to get out of this vicious spiral is to engage in a proper stop smoking programme, with personal support. There is so much that can be done to help you. Have you heard of bupropion (Champix) for example, which is a tablet that blocks nicotine cravings? Why not contact NHS Smokefree without delay and get started?
I’m afraid it’s a similar story for alcohol. It may feel good after a few drinks when you feel relaxed and disinhibited, but as your alcohol levels fall, this tends to wake you from sleep with a host of unpleasant hangover symptoms. Your body becomes tolerant to alcohol, and you need more and more to achieve the same effect with numerous poor health consequences. It’s full of calories and just helps you pile on the pounds and feel even more unfit and unhealthy.
If you feel stressed, alcohol is not the answer. It’s better to cut down on your drinking or stop drinking alcohol at all.
Final thoughts
Now you know how to recognise the signs and symptoms of stress and have a practical idea of how to get started with sorting your stress out and starting to deal with it. I would so like to encourage any of you reading this to really try and get to grips with this and start to feel better. Stress is everywhere and it is so dangerous, yet is kind of invisible, but having an insidious effect on all our health.
In my next post, I will write more about some specific ways you might like to destress, having worked on the basics set out here.
What steps can you take to deal with your stress?
Every journey starts with one small step!
For more information
– Mind – How to manage stress
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