8 Mistakes to Avoid When You're Dealing With Stress

By Aditya Sudhir

It seems that you can do nothing about stress. There will never be more or fewer hours in a day, the bills won’t stop coming, and your family and work responsibilities will always be demanding. But a simple realization that you are in control of your life can make a great change. In fact, this realization is the foundation of stress management and a reminder of mistakes to avoid when you're dealing with stress.

Stress is the most commonly used term and is widely experienced in this modern civilized society. The definition says-" stress is our response to an event that disrupts or threaten to disrupt our physical or psychological functioning."

It is normally defined in terms of adjustment as when a person is not able to adjust to the demands that exceed his adjustment or coping capacity. He experiences physical and psychological changes that create problems for him. Anything that puts high demands can be stressful. Here are some of the common causes of stress:

• Stressful life events: Incidents like the death of someone very close or failure can cause stress and depression.
• Frustration: This can arise from physical, social and internal reasons. Fire, injury, flood, accident, war, cyclone are some of the physical sources of frustration. The obstacles in our value system such as restrictions on inter-caste marriage or inter-religion marriage, rapid social change, competition, religious intolerance put a great deal of stress, and these are called social frustration.

Internal frustration comes from personal limitations such as physical deformity, struggle for power, considering you ugly, or lack of intelligence or prestige. Unrealistic high standards of life, high levels of aspiration also become a source of stress. Low self-concept and inferiority complex may lead to serious stress.

• Threat: Certain stress situation which we perceive as damaging or threatening to our survival produce stress. Diagnosis of a life-threatening disease like cancer, fear of AIDS, brain tumor, loss of social status carry lots of threat to us with which we can’t cope up with.
• Hassles in Daily life: Our daily life is filled with minor irritation which can be referred to as hassles. They are frequently experienced like the common quarrel at home, the problem relating to education, shopping, having too many tasks to do in less time, can be a source of stress.
• Work: Most adults spend an ample amount of time at work. Some of the factors producing stress can be sexual harassment, discrimination or extreme overload of tasks, etc. Interestingly, being asked to do too little can also cause stress as it produces an intense feeling of boredom which can be very stressful.
• Internal sources of stress: It arises out of the personality variable. Introverts are more susceptible to stress.

Eight mistakes to avoid while dealing with stress

• Venting your emotions: When you are stressed you are likely to get irritated over small issues, and you will vent your emotions on others in the form of anger or irritation.
• Avoiding sleep: Many times when we are worried about something and get stressed. When we just can't control our minds, and these thoughts don't let us sleep. This leads to more mental illness and sleep deprivation.
• Overthinking: Obsessing over stress can increase the stress level. If you keep on thinking about the worries, you are just disturbing your brain more.
• Taking the support of stimulants: Eating caffeine or tobacco during stress gives temporary relief, but they worsen the situation and cause dependency.
• Skipping meals: There is a loss of appetite when we are stressed, and we don’t feel like eating anything. This decreases the body functions, and the brain function also slows down which increases stress levels.
• Binge eating: During severe stress, people crave for specific foods, but if you pamper your body with these foods and start binge eating it will relax you, but it will decrease serotonin level causing more mental health issues.
• Mind what you watch: You should not watch depressing news or thriller movies or videos during stress, rather than try watching mood uplifting videos.
• Isolating yourself: Many people think that they will hurt others in the irritation or they don’t like discussing the problems with others, so they quietly handle all stress alone which leads to intensified stress.

Stress has various side effects that damage our body. It causes fatigue, headache, sweating, high blood pressure, asthma, insomnia, alcoholism, drug addiction, peptic ulcer, rapid breathing, increased heartbeat, skin problems, baldness, etc.

There are certain behavioral disorders caused by stress like quarrelsomeness, lack of efficiency, incompetency, overeating, absent-mindedness, low performance, lack of concentration, irregularity, and lack of job satisfaction. Apart from worries, anxiety, phobia, irritability, restlessness, moodiness, hopelessness, apathy is also caused by stress. These stressful conditions lead to depression and other psychological problems. So, let us now see how to deal with these situations. Here are four simple ways to manage your stress and live a peaceful life.

• Meditation: It can calm the mind and relieve stress. Meditation can be done in at any time. It stops us from overthinking and relaxes our mind, body, and soul.
• Time management: Many people lack the art of managing their time in an efficient way. For this reason, they can’t cope up with their daily task and fall into stress. Schedule your activities as per priority and execute it accordingly. Doing the tasks in a well-organized way can save time and decrease pressure.
• Physical exercise: Many physicians suggest that walking, aerobics, swimming, jogging, cycling, etc. are the best ways to cure or deal with stress.
• Social support: You need to expand your friend circle and talk your heart out to relax your mind. Talk to people, friends, family or colleagues when stress levels become high.

Stress is known as a silent killer, and it can be very harmful if it is not addressed. When you are stressed, opt for a healthy lifestyle, and you will see the difference yourself.

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