Stress is a state of tension of the organism caused by a strong emotional and/or physical load. Since childhood we are subjected to pressures that come to us from many different areas: school performance, behavior, expectations that others or we ourselves have created, social relationships, physical appearance, academic and work achievements, economic situation … etc..
Certain levels of pressure are stimulating and help us to improve our performance. Even the competitiveness that some activities involve can be pleasurable if kept at moderate levels. Popularly we consider that a person is stressed when he/she has a heavy workload, a very full agenda and very little free time, but this is not entirely true and we will see why.
Stress: its triggers and symptoms
– Stress is not necessarily negative, in fact, it is an activation system that allows us to react in difficult situations. It only becomes a problem when it causes physical symptoms (insomnia, increased or decreased appetite, diseases such as hypertension, heart, immune, dermatological or any other type of problems) or psychological symptoms (manifestations of anxiety, irritability, sadness, depression, hostility, irritability, alcohol abuse and other addictions, smoking, etc.).
These problems occur when stress levels are excessive or when stress is triggered by innocuous situations that do not pose a threat.
– The problems derived from stress appear in very diverse situations, both due to physical and/or emotional overload and in environments with a lack of stimuli, situations of concern such as unemployment, economic difficulties, relationship problems, relationships with children, feelings of loneliness and in jobs that are not socially recognized.
– The stress syndrome is caused by a combination of three elements: environment, negative thoughts and physical responses. Therapeutic intervention is aimed at acting on these components and consists of a varied mix of strategies that include medical and pharmacological approaches in the most extreme cases, where drugs such as antidepressants and anxiolytics would be indicated in the first instance.
Can changing habits and behavior help us to relieve stress?
Although medication can be an important aid at the beginning, it must be withdrawn later and it becomes necessary to acquire coping and problem-solving strategies. It is also vitally important to analyze the behaviors and thoughts involved in the genesis and maintenance of the problems. In addition, we must study and change the habits in our lives that are harmful to ourselves.
Addressing aspects related to behaviors (as well as dysfunctional thoughts and beliefs, both at the level of prevention of the appearance of stress and treatment when problems become evident) is very effective and there are several treatments that contemplate it. One of them with a widely recognized effectiveness are the cognitive-behavioral therapies, specialized in this type of situations.