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Aug 10, 2023 · Common effects of stress. Stress symptoms can affect your body, your thoughts and feelings, and your behavior. Knowing common stress symptoms can help you manage them. Stress that's not dealt with can lead to many health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, obesity and diabetes.
- Chronic Stress Puts Your Health at Risk
The genes that control the stress response keep most people...
- Stress Basics
Don't wait until stress damages your health, relationships...
- Chronic Stress Puts Your Health at Risk
- Overview
- What are the types of reactions to stress?
- Examples of behavioral symptoms of stress
- What causes behavioral symptoms of stress?
- Tips for managing stress symptoms
- Bottom line
Honing your stress management skills can help improve common behavioral symptoms of stress like nail biting, skin picking, and overeating.
Stress happens when your body responds to a challenge. It can be from controlled stimuli, like lifting a heavy weight, or it can occur in response to real or perceived threats.
Your stress response is there to help you manage the challenge at hand. In the short term, it gives you a needed boost of energy and alertness. Stress that sticks around too long, however, and becomes repeated or chronic, can start to wear you down.
When you’re feeling stressed, stressed out, or stress-ing, you may start to notice the symptoms of prolonged stress. Because behavioral symptoms of stress are external, they’re often the ones recognized first.
Stress can affect everyone uniquely. Two people in the same exact situation of stress may have extremely different reactions.
According to Michelle English, a licensed clinical social worker from San Diego, California, stress reactions typically fall into four categories:
•Physical: experiences like headaches, muscle tension, fatigue
•Emotional: persistent feelings of anxiety, worry, anger, sadness
•Cognitive: poor concentration, memory changes, learning impairment
•Behavioral: social withdrawal, overeating, hair twirling, substance misuse
Behavioral symptoms of stress can be tricky to spot. They may be subtle, like picking at the skin around your fingers, or they can be more obvious, like going on a shopping spree.
According to the Stress in America 2020 report, nearly half of all adults report that stress negatively impacts their behavior in some way.
Examples include:
•nail biting
•skin picking
•lip chewing
Behavioral symptoms of stress vary widely, and everything from your genetics to your personality type can be influential.
“Just as we inherit physical traits, our genes can also make us more susceptible to experiencing heightened stress responses,” explains Dr. Raffaello Antonino, a counseling psychologist and senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University, London, England.
“Some individuals might have a genetic makeup that makes them more reactive to stress, influencing their brain chemistry and hormonal fluctuations.”
In addition to genetics, Antonino indicates behavioral stress symptoms are influenced by:
Building support
“Developing and maintaining relationships with supportive people in your life can help you create a strong support system that will be there when times are tough,” says English. When you have working support systems, you’re able to ease the burden of stress through sharing and connecting with others.
Developing new coping options
English also recommends cultivating alternative ways to cope with stress. This includes engaging in physical exercise, nature exposure, or participating in hobbies or crafts when you need to relieve some tension. Antonino adds that practicing mindfulness can be a way to create a space between stressors and your reaction to them, providing an opportunity to choose a more beneficial response.
Establishing boundaries
Setting clear boundaries for yourself and those around you can help limit how often you’re put in situations that feel overwhelming and stressful.
Behavioral symptoms of stress are your external responses when coping with challenging situations. Hair twirling, nail biting, fidgeting, and skin picking are all subtle examples.
Not everyone experiences behavioral symptoms when dealing with stress. Genetics, personal history, current coping mechanisms, and your support networks can all play a role in the type of symptoms you experience.
Jan 28, 2021 · Stress can lead to emotional and mental symptoms like: Anxiety or irritability. Depression. Panic attacks. Sadness. Often, people with chronic stress try to manage it with unhealthy behaviors, including: Drinking alcohol too much or too often. Gambling. Overeating or developing an eating disorder.
Feb 1, 2019 · Psychological stress signs. There’s a distinction between a stressor and actual stress. A stressor can be a person, place, or situation that’s causing you stress. Stress is the actual...
- Traci Pedersen
- Family. Sometimes the biggest source of stress occurs with those we love the most. Family issues are a major source of stress for many people. In the same 2021 Stress in America survey, 75% of Americans said that family responsibilities are a significant source of stress.
- Relationships. While healthy relationships can significantly enhance your life, they can also cause high levels of stress when things go wrong. About 68% of Americans say that relationships are a significant source of stress.
- Financial. Trying to make ends meet can be a big challenge for many people. Whether it’s a low-paying job, debt, lack of savings, high bills, inflation, or an unexpected major expense, financial struggles are cited as a source of stress for about 64% of Americans.
- Work. Whether you’re in the service industry, a corporate environment, or contract work, we spend a lot of time working. Most of us have had at least a few bad experiences in the workplace.
If you are stressed, you might feel: Irritable, angry, impatient or wound up. Over-burdened or overwhelmed. Anxious, nervous or afraid. Like your thoughts are racing and you can't switch off. Unable to enjoy yourself. Depressed. Uninterested in life. Like you've lost your sense of humour. A sense of dread. Worried or tense. Neglected or lonely.
Oct 27, 2022 · Psychological effects. Mental health. Causes. Signs. How to cope. Recap. Everyone experiences stress from time to time. When it becomes chronic, it can affect your mental health. While we all...
