What can stress do to you?
We can break the effects of stress into four parts:
What you feel
Stress can affect your feelings:
- You may feel uptight
- You may feel flat
- You may feel easily upset
- You may feel guilt keenly
- You may feel easily embarrassed
- You may feel low a lot of the time
- You may feel panicky
- You may feel full of anger
- You may get jealous easily
- You may feel discomfort easily
- You may feel insecure
- You may have lost your sense of humour
- You may feel without hope
- You may feel tearful
- You may feel that stress brings out the worst in you
- You become more small-minded, petty and resentful
What you think
Stress can affect your thoughts:
- You may worry or brood about things you know you should not worry or brood about
- You may lose self-confidence
- You may feel your memory is poor
- You may feel very self-conscious
- You feel cut-off from others
- You may feel you are at the end of your tether
- You may find it hard to concentrate
- You may find it hard to relax your mind
- You may feel that you can't control your world
- You may have lost interest in a lot of things
- You may be easily startled
- You may not like yourself
- You may be waiting for the worst to happen
- You may feel easily confused
- You may feel you have no get up and go
What you do
Stress can affect your actions:
- You may avoid doing things or going places as you fear you will not be able to cope with them
- You may be more quick tempered or angry
- You may be withdrawing from life
- You may be unable to sit at peace
- You may be making more mistakes
- You may try to 'play safe' more than usual
- You may try to avoid responsibility
- You may be drinking more than you should
- You may be smoking more
- You may be eating a lot more or a lot less
- You may be more tearful
- You may let other walk over you more
How your body reacts
Stress can affect your body:
- You may have a lot of aches and pains due to tense muscles
- You may be more prone to colds and flu
- You may feel drained of energy
- You may never feel 100%
- You may lose or gain weight
- You may get a lot of headaches
- You may feel your breathing changes when tense
- You may feel you have to push yourself through the day
- Your body may feel uptight much of the day
- You may find that your body reacts very easily to stress
- You may find to hard to get over to sleep or to stay asleep
