What is Stress?

Stress is a physical reaction to events that make you feel threatened or upset. This stress response from your body is its way of looking after you. Up to a certain point a stress response can be very helpful, especially in emergency situations stress can even save your life.

Your body will reach a certain point where stress stops being productive and starts causing damage to your health, the way you work, your moods and relationships. This leads to an overall reduction in your quality of life. The most telling sign of stress becoming detrimental to your health is when feelings of stress have almost become normalised in your day to day life.

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How does mental stress affect physical health?

Your body can’t tell the difference between physical or mental threats. It doesn’t matter whether you are running away from a physical threat or have racing thoughts about an issue at work, your body reacts the same way.

Continually allowing your body to be exposed to this kind of stress can lead to serious health problems, including raised blood pressure or a compromised immune system. This can increase your risk of having a heart attack or stroke and can speed up the ageing process.

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What causes stress?

Common external causes of stress:

• Major life changes
• Work pressures
• Financial problems
• Relationship difficulties
• Being too busy
• Children and family

Common psychological causes of stress:

• Inability to accept uncertainty
• Unrealistic expectations
• Pessimism
• Perfectionism

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How to manage stress

You can fix stress by removing the cause if you know what it is, and it is possible to remove it. If you can’t remove the cause then stress management is the way forward. Stress management involves changing the stressful situation when you can and changing your reaction when you can’t. Taking care of yourself, making time for rest and relaxation and getting enough sleep are also important factors.

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We are available for support

It’s also a good idea to find a stress release – team sports are a great way of being social while you exercise which is also proven to have a positive impact on reducing stress. Eating a well balanced diet and surrounding yourself with supportive people can help you manage your stress.

If you can, talk to your friends or parents. Remember that as your community pharmacists we are always here to support you with lifestyle and stress management advice. As the health professional you see most often we are always available if you need to talk.

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