What happens when the load gets too heavy to carry with regards to normal, everyday stressors in our lives?
Stress is a natural part of our modern lives. Bills come every month, kids might keep us busy and work never seems to slow down. A little bit of stress is inevitable and motivates us to meet our daily challenges and motivates us to reach our goals. We might also feel a bit of stress when we feel excited, and our pulse might quicken and our hormones surge- despite there being no threat or fear. This is often described as good stress or healthy stress.
But then there is the bad stress; the persistent ongoing stress when pressures and problems mount and we do not have ways to deal with it. When we repeatedly face these stressors it can take a heavy toll on our body and cause headaches, insomnia, weight gain, high blood pressure and numerous other health issues. Common chronic stressors can include things like relationship stress, money, work, and unmanaged mental health problems.
We start feeling our body being tense a lot; our thoughts racing and feeling on edge a lot of the time. We might even start experiencing the fight of flight reaction often.
And this is here we might start putting ourselves at risk of developing an anxiety disorder, unless we have good strategies to manage these feeling and ways to “offload” the stress.
The risk here is that if we do not mange persistent ongoing stress, it is likely to turn into feeling anxious a lot and increases our risk of both depression and anxiety.
There are some very effective strategies people can learn to use to manage the physical effects of stress, including breathing and grounding strategies, relaxation exercises and mindfulness. We know eating health and staying fit is very helpful.
But we also know getting support and expressing how you feel and not bottling things up; thus “sharing the load” can be very helpful.
Seeking help early on can prevent ongoing health issues, whether it be physical or mental health; and this is where counselling and helplines can come in. There are a variety of helplines that offer that listening ear; provide advice and support and some even offer some counselling sessions.
We encourage you to call sooner rather than later to get better outcomes with regards to your mental health and wellbeing. Our website has a range of information about a number of other services available, locally and digitally.
You can also follow the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/denimhag to stay up to date with all the information.
This information is from Deniliquin Mental Health Awareness Group's current digital and poster campaign that is raising awareness of confidential and free helplines.
This campaign is being funded by NSW Government, with funding from the COVID-19 Community Connection Wellbeing Program ( Pathway 1)
