COLUMN: Let’s Talk Mental Health – Stress is a normal response

Let’s talk again about stress and how to manage it. We know stress is a normal psychological and physical response to the continually increasing demands of daily life.

Remember that our brains are programmed with an alarm system designed to protect us. When our brains perceive a threat, they send signals to our bodies to release hormones that initiate our response, sometimes called the “fight or flight” response. When the threat has passed, our bodies ideally return to their normal state of relaxation. The problem is the nonstop stress of modern life rarely allows our alarm systems to shut off.

We can acknowledge stress is a fact of modern life. We don’t want to get stressed about having stress! We likely can’t eliminate stress entirely, but we can take steps to lower it and reduce its impact on our health. There are many ways to do this; recognizing some will be effective for some people and not all will help everyone.

Implementing better ways to manage time is a good start. Many people accomplish more with less stress if they make a schedule and adhere to it. Prioritizing what’s most important will ease stress levels by motivating us to complete those tasks first.

Learn better ways to cope. We’ll identify how we’ve handled stress and be honest about what worked and what didn’t. We’ll replace the ineffective strategies with more helpful ones. This is our opportunity to adopt new ways of thinking. When we start to worry, we’ll try to stop those thoughts, release things we can’t change, and perhaps even learn to say “no.”

Good self-care helps. Getting plenty of rest, eating a healthy diet, not smoking, and limiting alcohol consumption prepares our nervous systems for optimal coping. Regular exercise is excellent to manage stress. Daily brisk walking or doing something we enjoy, such as a hobby, helps us unwind. Volunteer work or activity with others can be a great stress reliever.

We also want to speak up. Not communicating our needs and concerns creates more stress and can make our negative feelings worse. Assertive communication can help us express our feelings thoughtfully and tactfully. This makes it possible to ask for help, one of the most valuable skills we can develop to help manage stress. People who have strong support networks of family and friends manage their stress better. And sometimes stress is too great to handle alone. Talking to friends or family may be helpful or we may want to speak to a counsellor.

Another good outlet for our feelings is writing about things that bother us. Our writing will be private; no one else need see it, so we won’t worry about spelling or grammar. We just want to express our feelings to relieve stress and feel better. We may choose to talk, laugh, cry, or express our anger with someone we trust.

We can learn ways to relax our bodies, such as breathing exercises, muscle relaxation exercises, massage, yoga, or tai chi. While we are engaged in these activities we focus on the present. Meditation, imagery exercises, or listening to relaxing music can be helpful. If we try to see the humour in life, we may find that laughter really can be good medicine.

People often ask

Q. How do I measure my stress levels?

A. Sometimes we know where our stress originates. We experience stress during major life changes such as death of a loved one, getting married, or having a baby. At other times it may not be clear why we feel stressed. But it’s important to identify what causes stress for us. Everyone experiences and responds differently to stress.

Writing a stress journal is a good measurement tool. In a notebook write down when something makes you feel stressed. Then record how you reacted and what you did to cope. Such a journal helps identify what causes your stress and how much you’re feeling.

With this knowledge you can choose action responses to reduce your stress or enable you to handle it more effectively.