Tight deadlines, long commutes stuck in Lusaka traffic, a demanding job, and a poor work-life balance are common causes of daily stress.
We’ve all felt stressed out at some point, but how we manage our stress can significantly impact our overall health and wellbeing.
What is Stress?
The human body is designed to experience stress and react to it, and it keeps us alert, motivated and ready to avoid dangerous situations. When stressed, our nervous system fills the body with hormones that prepare us to run away from or confront these dangers, referred to as the fight/flight mechanism.
In more modern life, stress is a natural feeling of not being able to cope with specific demands and events. These demands can come from work, financial pressures, relationships and other situations, but anything that poses a real or perceived threat or challenge to a person’s wellbeing can cause stress.
What does stress do to our bodies physically?
When stressed, the body produces larger quantities of the chemicals cortisol, epinephrine (Adrenaline) and norepinephrine, and these chemicals trigger the following physical reactions;
- Increased Blood pressure and pulse rise
- Breathing speeds up
- The digestive system slows down (Causing digestive issues like constipation)
- Immune activity decreases
- Heightened muscle preparedness – this is where muscles become tenser, causing aches and pains.
- Alertness – therefore, sleepiness decreases, causing insomnia
What are the different types of stress?
Stress is not only mental or emotional; the environment or our workplace can also cause stress. As well as mental, Stress can be mechanical (caused by repetitive movement, bad posture, sitting or driving for long periods, lifting heavy weights, or overexercising). Stress can even be Chemical if someone is overexposed to toxic substances such as pesticides, smoke, industrial chemicals, and some food additives.
Most mental health experts classify stress into two categories; Acute and Chronic:
Acute Stress: It is usually short term and is the most common form of Stress. Acute stress often develops when people consider the pressures of events that have recently occurred or can happen in the build-up to an event. For example, a person may feel stressed about a recent argument at work or an upcoming ZRA deadline. However, the stress will disappear once someone resolves the dispute or meets the deadline.
Acute Stress does not cause the same amount of damage as long term, chronic stress. Short term effects include tension headaches, sleepless nights, an upset stomach, and a moderate amount of distress. However, when repeatedly exposed to acute stress over an extended period, it can become chronic and harmful to your overall health.
Chronic Stress: this type develops over a long period and is more harmful to our health. Poverty, dysfunctional families or an unhappy marriage are examples of situations that can cause stress to become chronic. Chronic stress makes it very difficult for the body to return to an average level of hormonal activity which can contribute to problems in the following systems:
- Cardiovascular
- Respiratory
- Sleep
- Immune
- Reproductive
A constant state of stress can also increase a person’s risk of Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. Also, it can lead to depression and anxiety when Stress becomes chronic.
Three different types of stressors can contribute to these types of stress:
- Routine stress, such as childcare, homework, financial responsibilities, being late for a meeting, being stuck in traffic on the South end roundabout, etc.
- Sudden and disruptive changes such as an unexpected death or suddenly losing your job
- Traumatic stress can happen due to extreme trauma, a severe accident, an attack, an environmental disaster, or a war.
How will you notice you are stressed?
There are many physical manifestations of stress; these can include:
- Sweating
- Pain in the back or chest
- Muscle tightness/pain/aches
- Jaw clenching/teeth grinding
- Cramps or muscle spasms – Fainting
- Headaches
- Nervous twitches
- The sensation of pins and needles
- Erectile dysfunction and loss of libido
- Sleeping difficulties
Stress can also provoke emotional manifestations; they include:
- Anger and irritability
- Burnout
- Panic attacks
- Concentration issues
- Depression and sadness
- Fatigue and forgetfulness
- Insecurity and restlessness
When chronically stressed, people can exhibit certain behaviours like:
- Food cravings or eating too little – therefore weight loss or weight gain
- Sudden angry outbursts or crying
- Drug, Tobacco and alcohol misuse
- Gambling
- Participating compulsively in watching TV series, internet shopping, social media etc
- Social withdrawal and Relationship issues
How can we deal with our Stress ourselves?
Dealing with Stress is a personal commitment. It usually necessitates a change in lifestyle, a change in the way we perceive stressful events, and trying to lower the effects our stressors have on our bodies.
I always say the first step to getting better is awareness. Noticing the signs and symptoms of stress is the first step to doing something about it.
The following lifestyle measures can help people to manage or prevent stress-induced symptoms:
- Exercise: Exercise increases your overall health and sense of well-being, putting more pep in your daily steps. But exercise also has some direct stress-busting benefits. It pumps up your endorphins. Physical activity may help increase the production of your brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters, called endorphins.
- Reducing the intake of alcohol, drugs, and caffeine can even increase stress!
- Nutrition & Diet: A healthy balanced diet containing plenty of fruit and vegetables is essential in helping the body through Not Vitumbuwa and fast food!
- Prioritise and time management: It helps to take a little bit of time organising a daily to-do list. Set aside time to manage your schedule and plan some time to relax and perhaps pursue some hobbies. Your priority should be your health, so take time in your day for yourself!
- Breathing and Relaxation techniques: Meditation, breathing techniques, and yoga can help slow down the heart rate, calm down the nervous system and promote relaxation.
- Talking to friends and family helps a person share their troubles and reduces feelings of isolation.
- Notice and acknowledge the signs: it is essential to note when you notice changes in your body and not ignore them. Be mindful of any changes.
- Find your stress-relieving activity. Identify an activity that helps you relax. It could be reading a book, going for a walk, listening to music, having a hot bath, spending time with a pet, going to a yoga class, exercising, singing in a choir, etc.
How can Physiotherapy help with Stress?
Physiotherapy can help manage stress and the symptoms of stress by giving you the time you need for yourself. In a physiotherapy session, we use massage, trigger points, fascia release, cupping, stretches and exercises to correct muscle imbalance, improve strength and reduce pain.
There are many other ways in which physiotherapy can help with Stress:
- Reduce stress sensitivity – exercise prescription is a common element in physiotherapy treatments; studies show that regular exercise can lower perceived Stress by up to 50-78%, which will reduce stress sensitivity and stress symptoms.
- Improve sleep – relaxation techniques, posture training, patient education on lifestyle, and optimal sleep positioning to improve sleep quality and duration.
- Lower cortisol levels – Diaphragmatic breathing is clinically proven to significantly lower cortisol levels, improve relaxation, and improve concentration; a physiotherapist can teach you this.
- Ease depression – through exercise prescription and physiotherapy sessions, as it is clinically proven that exercise is as effective as antidepressants!
- Improve the quality of life – physiotherapy guided exercise improves physical condition, self-esteem, the perception of self-worth, and quality of life.
– Written by Michele Thomas-
