Check stress symptoms: which ones need urgent treatment, know the prevention guidelines and the correct treatment methods, and how to take care of yourself if symptoms occur. Here are the answers.
Check stress symptoms and know prevention guidelines before your health deteriorates
Nowadays, most people live under pressure, causing accumulated stress without realizing it. This can lead to psychiatric illnesses or other mental health problems such as depression and anxiety disorders. To prevent and reduce the risk of accumulated stress, let’s check whether we have signs indicating accumulated stress from this article.
Check 7 signs of unnoticed stress
Stress can happen to anyone and is normal because every day everyone lives under pressure. However, when pressure and tension cannot be managed, it becomes accumulated stress that occurs without awareness, affecting physical and mental health.
If you have the following symptoms, suspect that you may have accumulated stress occurring without realizing it.
- Changes in sleep patterns from usual, such as insomnia, not feeling rested, light sleep, waking up too early, or waking up in the middle of the night and difficulty falling back asleep.
- Mood changes, such as being silent, not talking, feeling bored with life, feeling anxious or easily irritated, including decreased sexual desire.
- Physical abnormalities, such as easy fatigue, difficulty breathing, rapid breathing, fast heartbeat, excessive sweating, headaches, body aches, digestive and excretory system disturbances without identifiable causes.
- Social withdrawal, not wanting to meet others, or feeling very uncomfortable when having to meet more people than usual.
- Reduced decision-making ability and work performance, lack of concentration, slow work.
- Recurring thoughts of wanting to end one’s life, to the point of fearing loss of control.
- For those who already drink alcohol and smoke, you may find yourself drinking and smoking more.
Did you know: Data from the Department of Mental Health reveals that the suicide rate in 2020 increased to a level that requires monitoring, with one major cause being accumulated stress related to livelihood and economic conditions.
One in three of those lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic died by suicide because of stress from economic toxicity.
How to take care of yourself when feeling “stressed”?
- Find activities that help you relax, discover what you like and feel comfortable with, such as watching movies, listening to music, painting, exercising, or inhaling essential oils. Take yourself away from stressful matters for a while.
- Adjust your thinking by trying to look at the positive side, not dwelling too much on any one issue. Analyze the cause of the problem and solve the root cause.
- Change your environment as much as possible, such as rearranging your home or workspace, and going to relaxing places.
- Balance your daily life (work-life balance) by allocating time for work and personal life appropriately for what is valuable to you. This will help you feel more relaxed.
If these 4 methods do not help you manage stress, and stress begins to affect your physical and mental health, daily life, work, and people around you, consulting a psychiatrist to find appropriate ways to manage your stress may be a good and suitable option.
Treatment methods for accumulated stress and unnoticed stress
Sometimes stress cannot be completely cured if the psychological factors promoting stress are not treated, such as thought processes, other coexisting psychiatric disorders, and personal personality traits. Treating and modifying these factors through various methods can help improve stress.
- Medication treatment: such as using drugs to reduce anxiety and depression, medications that help with sleep and rest, including symptomatic treatments for conditions the patient is facing, such as gastrointestinal medications, muscle relaxants, etc.
- Non-medication treatment: such as talking, counseling, or psychotherapy, including more complex treatments like electroconvulsive therapy.
Accumulated stress and unnoticed stress can affect the body, mind, and behavior. If you find that you may have accumulated stress that you cannot manage, you should consult a psychiatrist for evaluation and appropriate care tailored to the cause and individual problems.
References
