Explainer | Stress: how to know if you are suffering from it and ways to relieve the stress if you are
- As much as 90 per cent of illness and disease is stress-related; it affects every single organ and is the ‘silent pandemic’ of the Covid-19 era, an expert says
- Stress shows itself in a variety of ways, such as eating and drinking more and snapping at people. Mindfulness, meditation and digital time outs can help
If a colleague asks whether you are stressed, many of us will snap back: “No, I’m not.” We respond swiftly, as though being stressed were a sign of weakness or failure rather than a natural response to challenging circumstances.
Not all stress is bad. There is good stress, the sort that alerts us to a challenge in front of us and helps ensure we do something about it; short-term stress, that fires us up to react to an immediate situation; and then there is toxic stress, which is the sort we get when we don’t have control over a threatening situation.
Dr Quratulain Zaidi, a registered clinical psychologist in Hong Kong, calls toxic stress the “silent pandemic” of the Covid-19 era.
“A lot of people are stressed because things are so uncertain, the world and the landscape around us are constantly changing. It is prolonged uncertainty, a prolonged sense of loss,” says Zaidi.
You don’t need to leave your home to see this online counselling team
This prolonged uncertainty creates heightened anxiety; our survival brain is constantly monitoring our environment and making judgments about what is and isn’t safe.
“We are hard-wired to overestimate threats and underestimate your ability to handle them – all in the name of survival. When certainty is questioned, your stress response is in overdrive, instantly going into fight-or-flight reaction, to take action and get you to safety,” says Zaidi.
The courageous thing to do is not to push on like a brave little soldier, but to pay attention to the warning signs our body is giving us before the problem manifests into something far more serious.
“If you look at the biochemistry and biology of stress, it affects every single organ, it is cumulative,” says Zaidi, which is why medical research estimates as much as 90 per cent of illness and disease is stress-related.
“A lot of my patients might not be anxious, they are not actively worried about something, but that doesn’t mean they are not stressed. They are working long hours, looking after kids, not eating well. A lot of the time working mums have no time for themselves, they are in chronic stress,” says Perch.
The problem with accumulated stress is that it builds up so slowly that we tend not to notice it; we keep trying to shrug it off and maintain business as usual. Perch says to look out for overreacting to situations.
If we are all a little nicer to each other and understand where other people are coming from, it will help everyone feel better
“People are burned out. Their resilience is out. A lot of people are not taking leave because they think, ‘What’s the point? May as well keep going to work’,” says Perch.
So, if you recognise yourself in any of this, what can you do? First up, re-evaluate your boundaries. Instant connectivity and a 24/7 culture were cutting away at our work-life balance before the pandemic, and with many of us having spent at least some time working from home, those boundaries have become even more blurred.
“It’s OK to put your phone away and not answer emails. We have forgotten how to differentiate between levels of responsibility and importance. Create healthy boundaries with the people who you interact with, with social media, with the media you consume,” says Zaidi.
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She says reducing our consumption of constant information will improve our mental health. By doing just one thing at a time and being mindful in the moment, we will reduce stress.
Perch also recommends learning to become more mindful or taking up meditation – for just 10 to 20 minutes a day – which can help to calm and reset the nervous system.
“We’re all in our sympathetic nervous system overdrive; meditation can help us get to our parasympathetic nervous system, which is rest,” says Perch.
If you are new to meditation and the idea of sitting in stillness seems too big a first step, try progressive muscle relaxation, squeezing and releasing your muscles progressively from your head to your toes. It can be done in five minutes.
Perch says she has a well-honed well-being regime to help her juggle the demands of her professional life managing a naturopathic clinic with looking after her two young children. She enjoys a walking meditation on the beach by herself once a week and has a weekly foot, head and neck massage.
Want to be happier and boost brain health? Then talk to people
“Everyone at this point [in the pandemic] needs help – there are very few people who can cope with no extra support. Reach out to a professional, a doctor or counsellor, or reach out to your support network. On the flipside, reach out to someone who may need your support,” says Perch.
“Everyone is in this place together, so remember kindness and compassion. If we are all a little nicer to each other and understand where other people are coming from, it will help everyone feel better.”
