When you have an abnormal amount of stress it can lead to physical and emotional effects, but it varies from person to person.
You may experience common problems like fatigue, anxiety, sleep disturbance, poor concentration, restlessness, irritability and tiredness.
Stress-related illnesses may also include things like depression, drug abuse, over drinking, irritable digestive system, headache, mouth ulcers, impotence, peptic ulcers, irritable bladder, dermatitis, heart disease, breast pain and cancer.
Some important causes:
A lot of us feel stressed with modern living. The most stressful circumstances leading to ill health have been shown to be death of a loved one, divorce, personal injury, imprisonment, personal illness, marriage, retirement, sex difficulties, pregnancy, guilt over a wrongdoing, and other similar traumas.
Some things to help cope:
• Undertake some healthy hobbies
• Talk it over with someone – have regular chats
• Look for solutions
• Try meditation
• Do things that you enjoy on a regular basis
• Have a healthy diet
• Exercise for 30 mins 4-5 times a week
• Avoid smoking and other drugs and limit alcohol
• Appreciate listening to music
• Get a pet
Talking it over:
“Getting it off your chest” is more important than you realise. Talk to someone you admire and trust. Going to a minister of religion or your doctor can be powerful, especially if you can feel forgiven and if any guilt is relieved.
Relaxation:
Practising relaxation is excellent for the uptight person; you can take classes or do it yourself. Make a commitment to yourself to spend some time every day doing some sort of meditation. As little as 20 minutes a day makes a big difference.
Sit in a quiet place with your eyes closed, but remain alert and awake. Focus your mind on the different muscle groups in your body, starting at the forehead and slowly going down to the toes. Relax the muscles as much as you can.
Listen to the sound of your breathing for the next few minutes. Take breaths in and out slowly and deeply, then begin to repeat the word “relax” silently in your mind at your pace. Just let go - this is quiet time for yourself, in which the stresses in your body and mind are balanced and hopefully reduced. Try this when your stomach is empty, before breakfast and evening meal.
Where possible during the day do a check-list on yourself. Look for things like tension. Take a few long, deep breaths and breathe away the tension. Also think positive thoughts. If at any time you feel you are going to think negative thoughts start thinking about something else, something that you may be looking forward to or maybe a good past experience; take your mind on a different path of thought. This can result in a new association with yourself so that when you start thinking negative thoughts you will automatically switch off and go to a new path of thought, a good past experience, or something in the future you are looking forward to.
Health and Nutrition:
With a positive well balanced diet you will feel better, look and feel healthier. Increase the amount of complex carbohydrates and fibre (vegetables, fruit, whole-wheat products, brown rice, fish, cereals etc). Drink plenty of water, decrease salt, total fats (butter, cream, meat fats, cheese, peanut butter etc), refined carbohydrates (sugar, sweets, cordials, ice-cream, cakes etc), caffeine (coffee, tea, and cola drinks).
Exercise:
If you can exercise every day for about 30 minutes this would be ideal as you will find it will benefit you in body and mind too.
My personal experience:
A lot of the time I think we are faced with situations that put us at risk of becoming stressed, and sometimes don’t even realise the effect it is having.
Over the weekend my son celebrated his birthday. We had the usual family members to visit, and our neighbours who came over for the first time.
During the celebrations I found myself in an awkward situation - I caught a relative in the act of stealing personal makeup products from my bathroom. I have been suspicious of this in the past but until then I was not certain.
I could have confronted her as I walked in and caught her out, or I could have kept between us what I had seen her put in her shirt pocket. As I followed her she quietly walked out and back into the kitchen to join the party. I could have put my hand in her pocket and pulled out what she had stolen but I felt I could not do that in front of visitors. How embarrassing it would have been for all of them, and what would our new neighbours think of my family.
By not confronting the situation I found myself feeling very sad and hurt by what she has done to me, and I was unable to sleep over the weekend. Even after talking about it with my husband I decided it is no point now in bringing it out but I have resolved that if it ever happens again, I will expose her there and then.
In going over and over in my mind what took place I came to the conclusion that she is an adult, and there is no excuse for her actions. She might have saved herself a few dollars but she has thrown away something money can never buy.
I have found that talking about it to my husband and boys, even a colleague at work, and writing this, has helped me tremendously in enabling me to get it off my chest and feeling better about what happened.
To conclude, I know that we cannot be responsible for other people’s inappropriate actions, even when they make an impact on our well-being; but I also believe we are all in control of how we deal and confront the situation we find ourselves in!!!
I hope my experience has been some help but if you have any concerns about stress-related illnesses please contact your GP or dietitian in the first instance. | 
