Most of us are dealing with more on our plates than we’re used to. But is our “new normal” sustainable?
Just because you’ve adapted to the stressors in your life, it doesn’t mean you’re coping with them well or working on healing. But what, exactly, is chronic stress, and how does it manifest itself?
What is Considered Chronic Stress?
Many people seek counseling services because they have a sense of overwhelm. It can be triggered by a specific event or life in general. If these feelings of nagging pressure persist for weeks or months, it’s considered a chronic condition that may benefit from treatment of some kind. Whether you seek out talk therapy, relationship counseling, medication, or make modifications to your lifestyle, something has to change to either reduce your stress or help you respond to it better.
A high-stakes work environment can contribute to chronic stress, as can living with a long-term illness, dealing with consistent financial burdens, or being involved in unhealthy relationships. Counseling services can help identify specific symptoms, and determine what’s causing them. Once diagnosed, a professional can help you move forward with a treatment plan.
Symptoms of Stress
How do you know you’re living with too much consistent stress? Life is always throwing us curveballs, and sometimes we simply have to endure difficult situations. While this is a normal part of life, if the hits keep on coming without reprieve, we can suffer from a variety of symptoms. Chronic stress can manifest via the following:
- Difficulty concentrating
- Digestive problems or lack of appetite
- Fatigue
- Hypertension
- Insomnia
- Irritability
- Physical pain with no apparent cause
- Substance abuse
Someone living with chronic stress may also exhibit drastic changes in behavior; an extrovert may gradually or suddenly withdraw into themselves, whereas an introvert may try to put their problems on the back burner by becoming more social.
Long-Term Consequences of Living with Stress
It’s common to have the attitude that we can or have to handle everything on our own. But, doing so can have detrimental, long-term effects. Many of the aforementioned symptoms of chronic stress can be categorized as flight or fight responses. When the body is faced with potential threats, our sympathetic nervous system kicks into high gear. This is an instinctive response that allows our bodies to automatically react to danger and make split-second decisions to stay alive.
- Sympathetic Nervous System – The body’s automatic response system for handling perceived danger
- Parasympathetic Nervous System – The system that encourages the body to relax (aka “rest and digest”)
If you’re always in a responsive state of fighting your way out of danger or fleeing it (metaphorically or literally), the long-term effects could include developing an anxiety disorder, autoimmune disease, diabetes, depression, or even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
How Stress Affects Your Brain
Also, when your sympathetic nervous system is always in overdrive, you rewire how your brain processes information and the prefrontal cortex can actually shrink. Stress can also cause you to lose brain cells, and it can create a change in the balance of white and gray matter in your brain.
How to Deal with Chronic Stress
Depending on what your stressors are, you can learn to cope with them in a variety of ways. Corner Canyon’s counseling services offer a range of treatment modalities, and we aim to help you discover the best method for coping with and overcoming what ails you. Sometimes it isn’t possible to eliminate a stressor, so you have to learn to respond to it differently over time.
Common options for treating chronic stress include:
- Acupuncture
- Change in diet
- Exercise
- Goal setting
- Implementing time management skills
- Learning to set boundaries
- Massage
- Meditation and mindfulness practices
- Prioritizing sleep
- Therapy (various types)
Different types of therapy can be explored to help you change your thinking and behaviors. With the guidance of a counselor, you may learn more about your personal limits, and how to avoid situations that trigger your stress response. For children experiencing chronic stress, they may find benefits in play and art-based therapy, which allows them to express themselves and work through their struggles in a positive environment. Depression counseling may help you uncover that the cause of your mood disorder is actually stress.
Helpful Therapy Modalities for Addressing Stress
Behavioral Therapy
A method for changing behaviors in order to better cope with stress.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy
This process centers around changing the way you think about stress.
Exposure Therapy
A way to practice healthy responses to things you would typically avoid.
Group Therapy
If your chronic stress is related to a situation that others also deal with, group therapy can help you feel connected to others and reduce stress.
Psychodynamic Therapy
A practice of identifying thought patterns that might be contributing to a harmful stress response.
As always, it is important to be open to different treatment plans when working with a counselor you trust. It can be discouraging when something doesn’t work right away, but you have to remember that your chronic stress didn’t develop overnight, and neither will the solutions.