Where do stress and anxiety fit in?

You probably know what it’s like when you are feeling really stressed out:

• your heart pounds
• you get hot and sweaty
• you get butterflies in your stomach
• you feel really tense
• it becomes harder to concentrate on one thing
• you become irritable
• you forget things more often than you would normally

Stress is part of all of our lives: bills to pay; assignments to get done; work to keep up with; friends to see; family to visit. Juggling all of this can be quite stressful. Stress is a very normal reaction to what’s going on in our lives. Sometimes we need a little bit of pressure to give us a push to achieve something, or to get some of those jobs ticked off our to-do list. This type of stress passes when the pressure is off.

When stress becomes a problem

Sometimes stress gets on top of people and it can affect your ability to cope with life. For some people stress problems are caused by their situation. Stressful situations may include:

• A stressful job,
• having money worries,
• being abused or billied,
• having physical health problems
• caring for someone else with disabilities

There are many other situations that can cause you to become over stressed.

Or, maybe there is no cause you can pinpoint for your stress, but you know that you feel stressed all the time and things that you used to handle cause you to feel overwhelmed. Anxiety disorders, like depression are illnesses and sometimes there is no obvious reason for feeling the way that you do.

Anxiety disorders

Anxiety disorders can feel like living your whole life in a high state of stress, so that even small problems feel like major issues. People who experience panic attacks can suddenly, and sometimes without knowing why, be overcome with feelings of absolute terror. Both anxiety and panic can really disrupt your life. It can feel difficult to control what is happening; why it is happening; and when it might occur.

There is a well-known link between anxiety-related illness and depression. People with anxiety disorders, often feel depressed and hopeless about life. And people with depression can also develop anxiety related illness.

Getting help

Like with depression if you feel that your stress is becoming harder to manage and that you aren’t coping with everything going on in your life, then it is important to talk to someone and see if there are things you can do to sort it out. Ignoring it won’t make it go away.

The tips on the getting help page are a good place to start or talk to us and get more information.

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Copyright: DAS, 2010. Last updated: 07/01/10