How to beat stress?

What is stress?

We have all experienced stress in one form or the other. It can be from various factors, internally and externally. Let's know what it exactly means! When the physical demand on the body or environmental and social situations become harmful, uncontrollable, or exceed our resources for coping, they cause stress. This affects the body's internal state and leads to psychological responses like anxiety, hopelessness, depression, irritability, and a general feeling of not being able to cope with the world. The factors that cause stress are called stressors.

Around 75% of bodily diseases are stress-related. They often factor in heart diseases. It is seen that stress is involved in unhappiness, irritability, and dissatisfaction. When stress lasts longer, they can hinder adaptation to the environment or create discomfort and distress, end up becoming stressors themselves.

What do stressors do to our bodies?

The body prepares us to cope with the stressors from the very beginning, called the emergency response or the state of alarm reaction. This promotes the bodily reactions to cope with stress.

When the body resists the effects of the continuous stressor, it enters a state of resistance. This is due to a hormonal response. When the hormone (Adrenocorticotropic hormone- ACTH) is released, they help the body to deal with the stressors adaptively for long periods. But when the hormone is maintained for longer hours at high levels in the blood, they become harmful and cause raising blood pressure.

The body's capacity to respond to both continuous and new stressors has been compromised and enters a state of exhaustion. When the stressors continue to last after this point, it exposes the body to increased susceptibility to disease. They also lead to psychosomatic (mind-body) disorders and cause mental stress.

How to cope with these stressors?

There are many ways to cope with stress, and it varies for every individual. Some of the healthy ways to cope with stressors are:

• Take breaks from working and screens.

• Reading or listening to new stories can help.

• Being informed about the surrounding is important but at the same time, taking a break from anything overwhelming is important too.

• This could include anything that is on social media, TV, mobile phone, etc. So, staying away from it for a while can sometimes prove effective.

• Taking care of yourself is vital when it comes to stress as it affects health.

• Eating healthy, exercising, getting plenty of sleep can help one boost their health.

• Take care of your body by taking deep breaths, stretching, avoiding alcohol, tobacco, and substance use, and continuing with a routine that has preventive measures recommended to you.

• Make time to unwind by doing something that you enjoy.

• Talking to others can sometimes help you cope with the problem, and you can share how you feel with parents, close friends, and doctors.

• Connecting with other people you trust and know care for can help you blow some steam off. This can be done online via video chat, phone, or mail.

• Avoid using drugs and alcohol as they may seem to create additional stress than you are already feeling.

• Recognizing when you need more help can guide you to gain control of the situation. When none of this work, consulting a psychiatrist would be a good idea.

Stress is not all bad. When we are on vacation, a little amount of stress can be useful in helping us adapt to some coping from the vacation mood. But when this stress becomes distressed, it affects our health and causes a threat to self-esteem. So, let's not stress take over us and plan our day better.