We all have times when we feel stressed and overwhelmed. It’s that feeling we get when our lives are getting on top of us. In the modern world there are many things which can cause us to feel this way. These may include: work and family responsibilities, difficulties in our relationships, or major changes in our lives, such as divorce, moving house, starting a new job, retiring or even coping with an illness.
Having some stress in our life can actually be beneficial to us, as it can give us the motivation and energy to takes steps to address problems we are facing. However, if we experience too much stress over a long time it can be detrimental to our health and can place us at risk of many health issues, including: infections, heart disease, ulcers, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
Coping with stress
While we all experience stress, some of us appear more able to cope with it. Our ability to cope with stress is determined by a range of factors, like: how much support we have from friends and family, our willingness to discuss it with others, how we view our problem, our ability to formulate effective coping strategies, and our experiences of successfully dealing with stressful situations in the past.
We all use different approaches to coping with stress. These can include less helpful approaches such as: drinking or drug taking, withdrawing from friends and family, avoiding stressful tasks or taking it out on others. These approaches are considered less helpful because, while they offer some temporary relief from the discomfort of stress, they often do not help the problem and in many cases make things worse.
