Everyone experiences stress from time to time, some more than others. The stress can get a lot worse if you have to keep all kinds of balls in the air at the same time. But our body is smart – with all kinds of indications your body lets you know that it is just getting too much. What stress symptoms does the body show when you take too much?
When you worry about the health of your loved ones, you have deadlines for school or work, you have to take care of yourself and your family at the same time, and also find a moment to do the housework, your stress level skyrockets.
Never feeling stressed again is a goal that is unachievable for most people, but it is useful, if not one must, to learn to recognize your own limits. When you have reached your limit, you should take time for yourself and relax well. How you do that is entirely up to you: watch series, read a book or take a nap with your phone off.
13 Stress Symptoms You Can Recognize
There are some obvious stress symptoms that can help you recognize that you’re too stressed and that it’s time to take action.
1. You are not in control of your emotions
Anger is often the result of intense stress or fears. You worry about a deadline or your relationship because you feel like you’re out of control. And when you lose control, you often take it out with outbursts.
2. Your stomach is bothered by stress
Your gut is also known as your second brain. This is because the abdomen contains at least as many nerve cells as your actual brain and there is a clear connection between our abdomen and our brain. The butterflies you feel in your stomach when you are in love are a good example of this. If you often have pain in your stomach, suffer from diarrhea or other intestinal complaints, your body sends a signal. Stress could very well be the culprit.
3. Tension in your body due to stress
Are your neck and shoulders always tight? Do you suffer from muscle pain, but have you not done a special workout? Here, too, your body could be telling you something. Muscle pain is one of the most common complaints when it comes to stress. This is because you are tensing your shoulders, jaw and neck all day long.
4. Stress headache
One of the most common stress symptoms: headaches. These headaches are often caused by those cramped neck and shoulder muscles.
5. Stress Hyperventilation
If you suffer from stress, your breathing can respond to it. Often people under stress breathe higher and faster than is good for them. This can lead to suboptimal breathing, which can eventually lead to chronic hyperventilation.
Respiratory expert says: ‘If you experience how much power there is in your breathing, then you have gold in your hands’
6. Heart arrhythmias as a stress symptom
If you are stressed, you will notice that you have to deal with a higher heart rate. That’s okay for a while, but long-term stress can cause various unpleasant physical complaints. For example, it is a risk factor for cardiovascular problems, such as arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, vascular cramps, myocardial infarction and cardiac arrhythmias, we read on the website of the Heart Foundation.
7. You can’t get a bite down your throat
We often see that people who suffer from stress cannot get a bite down their throat. This has to do with the hormone catecholamine, which causes the feeling of satiety. Because of our evolution, stress is linked in our brains with ‘flight’. Fleeing is more important than eating, which means that eating (and therefore the appetite) becomes secondary. The result: you are no longer hungry.
8. You’re broke, but can’t fall asleep
You go to bed early thinking you can get nine hours of sleep, but before you know it, it’s half past two in the morning and you’re halfway through a new series on Netflix. It sounds strange, but when you’re really exhausted, it can become difficult to sleep well. If you don’t get enough sleep, you increase the stress in your body and your body starts working on adrenaline. Adrenaline, in turn, causes you to fall asleep badly. Try reading a book before going to sleep and turning off your phone. You will find that this already makes a difference.
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9. Your memory is failing you
When you are stressed, you often also feel like your head is overflowing and you are going crazy. Stress causes a malfunction in the part of your brain that stores important information and memories, but also ensures that you cannot easily retrieve these memories. To the simplest questions such as ‘what is your address?’ you can’t answer and you’re completely blank for a while. Pretty scary that you can’t remember things like that, but if you take a deep breath and focus your mind elsewhere, the answer just pops into your mind later.
10. Your immune system is about to collapse
People who are under a lot of stress often turn to unhealthy ways to feel better about themselves. Think of eating junk food, smoking, drinking and still that episode of a series binge instead of sleeping: all factors that ultimately make you more susceptible to bacteria or diseases in the long term. But of course you want to prevent that during this period.
11. You have cold feet or hands
The most obvious reason for cold feet and hands is, of course, cold. However, it can also indicate stress: cold and stress have the same effect on the body. In both, the blood vessels in the hands, feet, ears and nose narrow, so that less blood flows through them. The blood has to keep your important organs warm. You cannot live without these organs.
12. Almost no sex drive due to stress
Sex is actually a good way to release your stress. But unfortunately, when you are too stressed, you have no or less desire for sex. This does not go well for most. When you reduce your stress, this also has a positive effect on your sex life.
13. You are cynical
Not only physical complaints can be signals that you have too much stress. Changes in your psychological state and in your behavior can also indicate this. Cynical comments, especially when it comes to work, are a sign that you’re burned out. Cynicism arises from a lack of faith and hope.
Recognizable? These six ways are scientifically proven to be good against stress.
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Pay attention: you can recognize that you are under a lot of stress by these 13 symptoms