When people talk about stress, they usually describe feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or irritable. But stress doesn't always announce itself that way. Sometimes the first indication that something is wrong is physical.
You start getting headaches more frequently. Your shoulders are constantly tight. You're having trouble sleeping, your stomach is giving you fits, or you're exhausted even though you haven't done anything particularly strenuous.
There are plenty of possible explanations for those symptoms, and they shouldn't automatically be blamed on stress. But stress is one possibility worth considering, particularly when someone has been dealing with a lot for an extended period.
Our bodies are equipped to respond to stressful situations. Heart rate increases, muscles tense, and hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol help prepare us to react. It's a useful system when we're faced with something that requires an immediate response.
Unfortunately, the situations that trigger our stress response aren't always brief. Financial concerns don't disappear after a few minutes. Neither do relationship problems, work pressures, or the demands of caring for someone who needs us.
Over time, chronic stress can affect sleep, digestion, blood pressure, and other aspects of physical health. It can also complicate existing medical conditions.
What's interesting is how accustomed people can become to feeling lousy. They work around the headaches, learn to function on too little sleep, and accept that they're tired all the time. Eventually, they stop questioning it.
Sometimes people don't realize how much stress they've been under until something changes and they begin to feel better.
Of course, new, persistent, or worsening physical symptoms deserve medical evaluation rather than being dismissed as stress.
But when we're looking at someone's overall health, we need to consider what's happening in their life as well as what's happening in their body.
You can't always remove the things causing stress. Sometimes the responsibilities aren't going anywhere. Recognizing how those demands are affecting your health, however, is a good place to begin.
Christine Aman MBA, MSN, APRN, NPc
