Stress is something that is very common nowadays and everyone is facing it. Stress is not an illness but it can become an illness when it increases and starts affecting our mental health. Those mental health conditions include depression, anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, short-term memory loss, and much more. Life comes with a lot of obstacles, difficulties, hassles, deadlines, and frustrations. Stress is a physical brain response that happens when you feel threatened and upset. Whenever you feel that you are in danger, under pressure because of deadlines, or tired, your brain responds in form of stress. Many times stress helps you to stay more focused and energetic but too much stress makes you ill. Stress can heavily affect your mind, body, and behavior which affects your relationships with others like your parents, partner, or
anyone whom you love the most. 

SYMPTOMS OF STRESS

Stress has many symptoms that most often come in front of you in form of mood changes or behavioral changes. Some of the most common symptoms are 

1. Headache. 

2. Muscular pain, chest pain, and fatigue. 

3. Anxiety, restlessness, and lack of motivation or focus. 

4. Overeating, overthinking, undereating, and drug addiction. 

5. Depression, sad thoughts, and unhappiness. 

6. Blood pressure rises easily. 

7. Digestive system slows down. 

8. Immune activity decreases. 

9. Insomnia. 

10. Every time under pressure and worried. 

11. Nail-biting and irritability. 

12. Frequent crying. 

13. Heart pain or diseases. 

CAUSES OF STRESS

For some people, almost any event can cause stress. Just thinking about the triggers and pressures can cause stressful thoughts. There is no definite reason for stress, but if it increases to an extent, it makes you seriously ill. Some of the major causes are: 

PERSONAL ISSUES

1. Illness that keeps you behind in all the activities you perform. 

2. Experiencing abuse either socially or from family. 

3. Insecurities. 

4. Everyday boring tasks such as university or house chores. 

5. Already thinking of future problems while living in present. 

6. Infertility and problems having children. 

7. Breakups or fights that eventually lead to stressful thoughts
that your partner will leave you. 

8. Getting a divorce. 

9. Getting married. 

EMPLOYMENT AND STUDY ISSUES

1. Losing your job. 

2. Having a stressful job. 

3. Retirement. 

4. Failures and deadlines. 

5. Stressful job or colleagues at work. 

6. Starting a new job. 

FINANCIAL ISSUES

1. Worries about less money and benefits. 

2. Scared of living in poverty. 

3. Managing debt. 

4. Lack of focus because of less money. 

5. Concerned about family problems how will the family be fed
without money? 

SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Having poor access to facilities and services like health,
medication, transport, or maintenance. 

2. Living through a pandemic like covid-19. 

3. Experiencing racism, and insecurities. 

4. Abuse on social accounts that makes you the most stressed. 

HOW TO MANAGE STRESS? 

People may find it very difficult to manage stress and to find the actual reason for stress. Stress can only be treated in a proper way if you seek a doctor as soon as possible and follow the following steps, otherwise, it can cause many difficulties. 

EXERCISE

Exercise helps in the repairing of the mind and makes you physically active. It also diverts your mind from the all-day difficulties and the main causes of stress. It reduces stress by motivating you that you can do anything. 

REDUCING DRUG ADDICTION

The drugs like alcohol, cigarettes, hookah, E-cigarettes, and caffeine will never help prevent stress and will always make it worse. These substances only give satisfaction and pleasure for a very short period of time. 

BALANCED DIET

A healthy and balanced diet containing plenty of healthy fruits and vegetables can help maintain your immune system and make it strong. This reduces stress and a poor diet can lead to additional stress. 

ORGANIZING TASKS

It will be very beneficial for you if you organize your to-do list daily and focus on urgent and time-consuming tasks. You will then be able to focus on what you have completed and what is left to accomplish in the day. Procrastination will always cause stress and eventually, you will get mentally tired. 

TAKE OUT TIME FOR YOURSELF

You should set aside some time for yourself to organize schedules, relax, sleep, and pursue your own interests. 

BREATHING AND RELAXATION

Meditation, massage, yoga, and relaxation techniques are the major ways in order to prevent stress from your life. Breathing slows down the heart rate and promotes relaxation. Deep breathing is also a central part of mindfulness meditation. 

TALKING AND SHARING

Sharing your feelings and concerns with your family members, partners and friends can be very beneficial as it unburdens your mind and makes you a bit relaxed. Other people may be able to suggest unexpected, workable solutions that you will obviously
like and will be able to implement in order to come out of difficulties. 

Noticing signs and symptoms is the first step to taking action. People who experience work stress due to long hours may need to “take a step back.” It may be time for you to review your working practices or talk to a supervisor about finding ways to reduce the load. Instead of sitting and creating a bundle of negative thoughts in your mind, you should focus on removing the difficulties from your life with the techniques mentioned
above. 

HOW TO AVOID STRESS? 

Everyone aims to live a stress-free life and to aim that, these are some of the steps you can follow: 

1. Learn to manage your time instead of procrastinating and saying “I’ll do it tomorrow”. Make a list of the things that are important first and accomplish those tasks first. 

2. Take good care of yourself. Get plenty of rest. Eat well. Don’t smoke. Limit how much alcohol you drink. 

3. Learn to say NO when you think that you have a lot of workload and it starts to scare you out. 

4. Ask for help from friends and family to manage stress. 

5. Stop overthinking.

6. Speak up. Not being able to talk about your needs and concerns creates stress and can make negative feelings worse. 

CONCLUSION

It is difficult to deal with stress but it is not impossible to cope with it and get rid of it. Everyone feels and responds to stress differently. Tracking your stress may help. Get a notebook, and write down when something makes you feel stressed. Then
write how you reacted and what you did to deal with the stress. Tracking your stress can help you find out what is causing your stress and how much stress you feel. Then you can take steps to reduce the stress or handle it better. If you don’t deal with your
stress on time, you may suffer as well as your friends and family will suffer.