20 Ways to Find Out If You're Stressed

We all feel stressed at some time, and no two people react to, nor cope with, stress in the same way. In fact, some stress can be good for you; it can get you motivated to achieve a target. But too much stress can lead to ill health.

So, how do you know if you are stressed?

Take a look at the 20 major ways that stress can affect you and, if you recognise five or more, you may want to look into the ways to reduce your stress.

How do you feel?
1 Aches, pains, and headaches most of the time
2 You can hear your heart pounding
3 You feel nervous with butterflies in your tummy
4 Dry mouth
5 You are always tired, perhaps finding you are working yourself to exhaustion
6 The slightest thing can make you cry
7 You find you forget things, even more than usual
8 Things get on top of you. You lie awake at night thinking you can't cope

Which leads us to

Bedtime
9 Do you often feel tired and listless?
10 And then when you go to bed do you find it difficult to fall asleep? Perhaps you are waking up constantly during the night, and rising early.
11 When you do wake, are you drenched in sweat, or shivering
12 Do you find you need to visit the bathroom a lot more often that usual, especially during the night?

Things have changed
13 You may find you have lost your appetite for many things including food, fun or sex
14 Have you noticed you are eating more, or much less?
15 You are smoking and/or drinking more
16 Your sense of humour might have disappeared
17 And you find you become irritable at most things, including your loved ones.
18 Your personal appearance may begin to suffer because you just can't be bothered
19 Other people's troubles are no longer of any interest to you, and everything seems pointless
20 Even your pastimes and hobbies hold no interest for you

What are you going to do about it?
You've recognised five or more items that apply to you, what can you do? We all know we need to lead a healthy life, eat well and exercise, but often we lack both the time and the motivation.. And this can lead us on a downward spiral. The more stressed we feel the less likely we are to prepare good food, or take regular exercise.

There are two ways to go about changing things:-
1 Find the source of your stress and change it. If it is work related, can you take a holiday? Perhaps you can change your priorities or use time management skills to spend your time more wisely. Find ways to put more fun into your life. If you have family difficulties, perhaps you could have days out together where you just have fun.

2 Change your attitude to stressful situations.:-
You respond to events in both a physical and a mental way. Your physical response may be any of numbers 1 to 8 above in particular. If you feel stressful, try and relax. Take deep breaths. Learn some relaxation techniques. If you can't influence events, learn to accept them. If the traffic in front of you isn't moving, don't get upset. You can't do anything about it. Relax, and you'll feel better.

Mental responses are often anger or depression. Road rage is the result of stress. You feel anger at being delayed by someone's bad driving and you want to take it out on them to relieve your stress. In some circumstances you may become depressed and feel that you can't cope. Remind yourself of the good things in your life; the things that you can do well, and reaffirm your true worth. If you tell yourself you can cope, you will cope.

The first step in dealing with stress is to realise and admit that you are stressed, so take another look at the twenty items above and consider how you are going to deal with the ones that apply to you. If necessary, see your doctor, and get help coping with your stress.