Stress involves changes affecting nearly every system of the body, influencing how people feel and behave.
Stress can be a normal feeling in response to certain situations and is part of living a normal, healthy life. However when stress levels remain too high for too long it can have a significant impact on an individual’s physical health, mental health, personal relationships and functioning in the workplace.
Stress can be brought on by anything, but normally is related to a significant change in circumstances such as work pressures and deadlines, financial issues, relationship changes and family difficulties. Stressful events are generally unavoidable, however feelings of stress stem from an individual’s perception of their ability to effectively cope with the stressful event rather than the event itself. Experiencing stressful events cannot always be avoided, but you can develop the psychological tools and strategies so you are better able to manage them when they do arise.
Common symptoms of stress can include:
Feeling angry or irritable
Feeling anxious or worried
Feeling nervous
Experiencing mood swings
Feelings of hopelessness
Feelings of worthlessness
Ruminating thoughts
Difficulties concentrating
Low motivation levels
Ulcers
Hypertension
Increased heart rate
Headaches or migraines
Disrupted eating patterns
Muscle pains or aches (headache, backache)
Diarrhoea
Stomach pain
Withdrawal from social activities
Feeling overwhelmed or overloaded
Feeling wound up or tense
Avoidance of activities or obligations
Each person will experience stress differently, and may find they present with any number and combination of the above symptoms and symptoms not mentioned.
Getting help
Through treatment, your psychologist can begin to work with you to understand what is causing your stress, and to provide further insight into the stressors and your responses and ways to help you to manage stress more effectively.
One of the most difficult aspects of coping well with stress is the identification of where stress comes from, and the management of stress in early stages. Whilst stress will never be removed completely from your life as stressful circumstances will always arise, you can learn different coping strategies to manage stress in a much more productive way.
At Strategic Psychology we have trained psychologists who are able to work with you to identify and pre-empt your stress triggers to reduce the effect stressful events have on your life.
Match with a Psychologist
Steps you can take
You can contact us at Strategic Psychology via phone, email, or by dropping in to our office to arrange for an initial session with a psychologist to begin to address the impact stress is having on your life.
No referral is needed to access our services, however, you may be eligible for rebates under Medicare, in which case you will need to obtain a Mental Health Treatment Plan from your GP.