Chronic Stress: How It Affects Performance In Everyday Life

One day in the office when your senior asks about the submission of a project file, you may feel nervous, demotivated, confused and anxious, because you would not be able to meet the deadline.

This is your body’s response to the situation. Yes, this is quite normal, but what if you feel this frequently for some time? Now, that may be a sign of chronic stress.

Let me help you to understand what stress is and how it will affect your daily life.

What is stress?

Stress is a natural human reaction that everyone experiences. The human body is designed to experience and respond to stress. When you face changes or challenges, your body reacts physically and mentally. That’s called stress.

Positive stress, assume if you have an exam coming up, a positive stress response might help your mind and body to work harder and stay awake for late-night studies. But this stress becomes a problem when you start stressing about every situation in a negative way.

What is chronic stress?

Chronic Stress is when the physical effects of stress last for a long period of time.

For example, a person has lost their job. They start stressing about finances, family, and all aspects of life where money matters. This constant thinking about what will now happen with me can make him extremely stressed about the condition.

Instead of finding a new job or applying for a new job profile, he overthinks the situation and gets overstressed. This will affect his mood and overall physical condition and mental health. It may also affect the environment of his house, because he may stay sad at home and not talk with family members.

Stress and its effects on your body

Your body has an autonomic nervous system (ANS), a system that controls your brain neurons, heart rate, breathing, and more. It is a built-in stress response system of the body. “The fight or flight” response helps your body face stressful conditions.

You need to train your mind overtime how to react positively to stress.

Common signs of stress

Stress affects your body and daily life in many different ways. Your thoughts, behavior, and feelings are all affected by stress.

Undiagnosed stress may indirectly cause disease conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.

Stress may affect three things:

1. Your body

Headaches, chest pain, fatigue, stomach upset, panic attacks, indigestion, nausea, muscle tension, pain in the shoulders, change in sex drive, shaking and shivering, and sleep problems are common effects of stress on the body.

2. Your mood

Anxiety, restlessness, feeling overwhelmed, irritability or anger, extreme sadness or depression, lack of motivation for work, restlessness, constant fear of losing a loved one, or sometimes suicidal thoughts are the effects of stress on your mood.

3. Your behavior

People with chronic stress make some mistakes while managing their stress. They try to manage it with unhealthy behaviors like overeating or undereating, loss of interest in activities, constant being on social media and shopping, anger outbursts, gambling, drug or alcohol misuse, tobacco use, social withdrawal, and lack of motivation for exercise.

How to diagnose stress

Stress is subjective. It cannot be measured via a test or medical tool. Only the person who is experiencing stress can determine the presence and severity of sadness and stress.

A doctor or therapist may use a questionnaire to understand the condition of the patient and how it affects his or her life.

Understanding the stress response

Understand what happens in the body when it experiences stressful conditions. Assume you have seen a snake in your house area.

Your hypothalamus sets the alarm in your body. This may prompt the adrenal gland at the top of your kidney to release cortisol and adrenaline hormones.

Adrenaline instantly increases your heart rate, increasing your blood pressure. Cortisol is the primary stress hormone, that increases glucose in the blood, enhances your brain’s ability to utilize this glucose, and works accordingly. Cortisol is not essential for fight-or-flight situations. It alters immune system responses and makes them suppressed and communicates with the brain to control mood, motivation, and fear.

When the natural stress control system goes wild you may get at risk of many health problems, like:

• Weight gain
• Heart attack, stroke
• Depression
• Digestive problems
• Anxiety attacks

So, it’s important to learn healthy ways to cope with your life stress.

How does stress affect your performance in daily life

Effect of stress on daily routine

Stress leads to over thinking which might lead to poor sleep which can manifest itself the next morning in the form of bad mood.

You cannot pay attention to your family members and you might feel lost. Sometimes people forget that they put something on the stove, or some important task to do. Stress may affect your cognition and memory.

Effect of stress on physical health

While under stress, some people have a habit of overeating, and some do not eat at all. Both these conditions can affect your physical health.

By overeating, you may gain lots of unwanted weight and that may cause obesity. By undereating, people may go underweight and that causes many health issues. Stress is one of the major causes of obesity.

Effect of stress on work-life

Stress may affect your working ability. You might feel lost while working, or in meetings. You may not feel motivated while working, you cannot meet your deadlines; that in turn can disappoint your boss.

These are all symptoms of people suffering from stress or chronic stress.

Effect of stress on personal life

People with stress may feel so lost in their thoughts that they may feel isolated. Constant thinking may cause a loss in any activity, and prevent any new thoughts or ideas.

They feel negative and drowning in sadness. This may obstruct your personal growth and disturb your personality.

Effect of stress on relations with family and friends

If you feel sadness and stress and you do not talk with your family and friends, this can cause many problems; you may get irritated and angry with your loved ones.

In turn, your family members may stress about you.

Learn to react to stressful conditions

Stressful events are facts of life. You cannot change the occurrence of situations. But you can take a good step to manage your mental health during these events.

You need to identify stress-causing events and make a strategy for how to react to that situation by maintaining good physical and emotional health.

Stress management strategies

• Eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly like dancing, Zumba and getting enough sleep
• Yoga, deep breathing, massage, or meditation are all examples of relaxation techniques
• Keeping a journal and writing down your thoughts or things you’re thankful for in your life
• Hobbies such as reading, listening to music, or watching your favorite show or movie should be prioritized
• Developing healthy friendships and communicating with friends and family
• Having a sense of humor and looking for ways to incorporate humor and laughter into your life, such as watching funny movies or visiting joke websites
• Participating in community service
• Organizing and prioritizing what you need to do at home and work, as well as eliminating unnecessary tasks
• Seeking professional counseling can assist you in developing specific coping strategies

Conclusion

Stress is a response mechanism of your body, but prolonged stress is a disease condition which affects your body, mood, and behavior.

Your doctor may ask you some relevant questions to diagnose your condition. Stress may affect your daily routine, work performance, physical health, personal life, and family.

Practice yoga, meditation, and breathing exercise regularly to counter effects of stress relief. So, now whenever you feel something along the same lines, do not hesitate to talk, or go to your doctor.