Stress and Mental Health:What Your Body is Telling You and When Therapy May Help

How many times have you found yourself feeling “stressed”?

Maybe you’ve been up late searching for ways to manage, reduce, or get rid of your stress.

Do you find yourself thinking of stress as a problem?

Do you assume that once you are no longer “stressed” that everything will be better but it doesn’t happen that way?

While stress is commonly thought of as the enemy, as mental health professionals, we see stress differently.

Stress: An Informational Process

Stress is an adaptive process designed to keep you safe.

Everyone experiences stress but stress is experienced in different ways.

That is because stress is a process shaped by your experiences, thoughts, feelings, values, genetics, brain, and body.

If you value success, then your experiences, thoughts, and feelings related to success will influence your stress levels regarding your success. If you care more about sports, you will be more likely to experience stress around your favorite team losing. If you grew up in a family where emotions were ignored, then experiencing any emotion can be stressful.

Paying attention to your signs of stress and understanding why you are “stressed” can help you respond in ways that promote learning and adapting to challenges.

This type of stress, also known as eustress, can be positive and is important for growth and well-being.

Unfortunately, although stress is a normal process, sometimes it works a little too well and can “do too much”, even when it’s not needed.

When Stress Stops Being Adaptive and Becomes Disruptive

Your body may tell you that it’s time to seek additional support in many ways. A few ways stress may show up include:

• Having difficulty falling or staying asleep
• Experiencing random physical pain that can’t seem to be explained
• Noticing that you may be forgetting things or having a difficult time concentrating
• Feeling more irritable, numb, angry, guarded, or sad than usual
• You may be eating more or less than is normal for you

When stress requires skills outside of your current coping capacities, overwhelms your system, or is ignored for a long time, it can create problems in the short-term and, potentially, in the long-term.

If You Find Yourself Struggling with Stress-You Don’t Have to Figure it Out Alone

You are probably aware of all the self-help stress management strategies and have tried:

• Ignoring your stress
• Exercising
• Deep breathing
• Trying different productivity tools
• Avoiding the source of stress
• Journaling
• Thinking positively

But nothing seems to be working.

Stress is information but sometimes it can be difficult to decode alone.

If your stress is related to a single, short-term, or external cause, these strategies are more likely to help you manage your stress effectively.

But, as humans, things may be more complicated than that. While these strategies are helpful, you may need additional support.

How to Understand Your Stress

Many factors contribute to your experience of stress.

As mental health professionals, we assess many factors including how long you’ve been experiencing stress, the source, and how much distress it is causing you. This helps us figure out if you are dealing with acute stress, chronic stress, or traumatic stress.

We also explore the source(s) and whether the source is external (e.g., unemployment, recent breakup, or death of someone close) or internal (e.g., perfectionism, people-pleasing, difficulty identifying or expressing emotions) Often stress is a combination of internal and external sources shaped by your experiences, beliefs, emotions, and thoughts.

Working with a therapist can help you figure out the root cause(s) so that you are better able to choose effective strategies.

Stress- and Trauma-Related Therapy is often a good fit for people who:

• Are high-achieving but never feel good enough or struggle with imposter syndrome
• Feel responsible for everything
• Struggle with changing roles (e.g., becoming a parent)
• Have recently lost an important relationship
• Are stressed by internal or external expectations or pressures
• Navigating challenging relationships with family

We don’t believer everyone needs therapy but you don’t need to be in crisis to benefit from therapeutic support.

If you’d like to learn more about your stress and are interested in therapy, Áṣẹ Center for Stress and Trauma may be able to help if you live in North Carolina.

Complete the Áṣẹ Center for Stress and Trauma inquiry form today to get started.