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Symptoms of Stress

How Does Stress Affect Health?

On this page: Symptoms of Stress on Mind, Emotions, Lifestyle and Body.
How does stress affect your overall health? Links to stress reducer tips.

There are plenty of symptoms of stress. It is no wonder that stress headaches are too common an occurrence, and prolonged stress and depression are frequently linked.

In a nutshell, stress wreaks havoc on your body's equilibrium.

Listed below are few of the main stress symptoms, categorized based on effect it has on mind, body and lifestyle.

"Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency." -Natalie Goldberg

Self Improvement Advice.org
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Anxiety Stress Symptoms on: Mind and Emotions | Lifestyle | Body

How to recognize the symptoms of stress?

Effects of Stress on Your Mind and Emotions

one of symptoms of stress is being constantly frustrated

Keep an eye on the below non-physical symptoms of stress:

Do you find yourself frequently frustrated? Overwhelmed?
Are these feelings causing you to be a lot more irritable and angry than you used to be?

Are you experiencing a lot of unfocused anxiety?
Has this led to a decrease in your ability to concentrate or think clearly, in recent times?

Does it seem that your memory has decreased, and there are no known physical conditions that could have caused this decrease?
Yes, stress is one of the most overlooked, but nevertheless, serious causes of memory loss.

How is your sense of humor? Are you able to laugh like you used to, or don't you find things as funny as they used to be?

How about negativity? Are you becoming aware of viewing everything and everyone, including yourself, in a negative light? Negativity is a sign that anxiety is taking its toll on your self esteem.

"Sometimes when people are under stress, they hate to think, and it's the time when they most need to think." -Bill Clinton

If you are suffering from recurring anxiety, here is a short presentation that talks about an effective natural technique to end anxiety quickly.

Effects of Stress on Your Lifestyle

Symptoms of stress include a change in lifestyle habits as well. Watch out for any changes as those listed below:

Do you continue to enjoy work like you used to?

picking up new addictions like smoking are stress symptoms

Have you noticed a change in your socializing habits? Do you find yourself a bit more withdrawn than you used to be?

Is there a change in your eating practices? Eating more or eating less than earlier?

Are there any addictive, new habits that you seemed to have picked up of late? Like alcohol, tobacco.

"Stress is when you wake up screaming and you realize you haven't fallen asleep yet." -Unknown

Effects of Stress on Your Body

And last but not the least, symptoms of stress are felt on virtually every part of your body as well. Take a notice of these stress symptoms below:

Headaches: Constant, recurring tension headaches.

Change in bowel habits: Irritable bowel syndrome. Irritable stomach. Constipation.

Muscle aches: Constant back aches, neck aches, shoulder aches. Muscular tension.

Cold and flu: Frequent occurrences of cold, flu or asthma. Constant anxiety can kill your immunity.

Weight: Unexplainable weight gain (especially around the stomach area), or sudden weight loss.

Sleep:Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. Insomnia.

Hair loss: Losing hair at an unnatural pace.

Chest tightening: Chest tightening and pains when you know there is no history or indications of heart disease. If unsure, it is always advisable to get chest pains checked with doctor ASAP.
More on Stress and Chest Pain

Fatigue: Constant, unexplained tiresomeness and fatigue.

Other physical: Rapid heart rate. Dizziness. Stomach knots. Butterflies in stomach. Sweaty palms. Stomach ulcers.
Can Stress Cause Hives?

"If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, anxiety and tension. And if you didn't ask me, I'd still have to say it." -George F. Burns

How does stress affect you? How does your mind or body let you know when you are stressed? And what do you do to ease off? Share your experiences here.

Most of above could easily be mistaken for other non-stress related symptoms. Unless we are aware of a stressor that is potentially causing these symptoms, we may not relate to these as stress symptoms.

Look out for the following cues or pattern among the symptoms of stress:

effects of stress could show up due to financial problems

Are they multiple, disjointed symptoms, that otherwise do not seem to have any relation to each other?

Have they started to appear all of a sudden, for no apparent reason?

Are the symptoms recurring? Meaning, are these a one or two time occurrences, or is there a repeat pattern that is starting to worry you?

Are there emotional follow ups (like frustration, feeling of being over-whelmed) to the physical symptoms of stress, that typically do not occur otherwise?

Are you always anxious? Are you aware of a situation or event that is possibly worrying you?

If few of the above points ring true, chances are you are experiencing symptoms of stress. If unsure, getting medical attention is the best possible alternative.