3 key coping mechanisms for stress

What is stress?

We encounter many situations in life where we feel under pressure or under threat. Those situations can be as varied as having a lot of work to do and working under tight deadlines, experiencing relational distress such as when there’s conflict in your family, going through a divorce or separation, experiencing a serious illness, being bullied, going through job loss or financial difficulty, or the loss of a loved one.

Sometimes, even what we would typically consider positive life changes and events, such as going for a vacation, finding and moving into a bigger house, getting married, or getting a promotion at work can be significant sources of stress. When we experience these and many other things, we can become stressed.

One way to understand stress is to see it as how we react when are under pressure or feeling threatened in a situation that seems beyond our ability to manage or control. When you feel stressed, your body produces stress hormones that trigger the ‘fight or flight’ response and activate your immune system to enable you to respond quickly to dangerous or threatening situations.

This ‘fight or flight’ response causes respiratory, cardiovascular, and nervous system changes, such as giving you a temporary burst of energy, making you breathe rapidly, making your heart beat faster, or making you sweat and your muscles tense up. The problem emerges when this stress response is triggered frequently and without relief. When that happens, stress can harm your mental health.

One important aspect of stress is that we all deal with it in different ways. In fact, what we consider stressful will vary between individuals, as does the ability to cope with stress. The things that stress one individual may not be experienced as stressful by someone else. This can be helpful to know not only in being empathetic toward others who feel stressed by things you don’t find stressful, but it can also help you to be compassionate toward yourself when you’re feeling stressed but think you’re ‘overreacting’.

A person’s ability to cope with stress will depend on factors such as their genetics, early life experiences, personality, as well as their social and economic circumstances. Knowing this will also help you to recognize what stresses you and what you can cope with, which can empower you to take active steps to deal with stress even when others don’t think you should be experiencing stress.

You know that you’re experiencing stress when you experience:

Behavioral symptoms such as withdrawing from loved ones, having poor self-care and reduced inclination to exercise, relying on drugs, smoking, and alcohol to cope (and using them more than usual), or having issues falling and staying asleep.

Psychological symptoms such as having difficulty concentrating, being indecisive, feeling worried or anxious, and having issues with your memory.

Physical symptoms such as headaches, indigestion, other gastrointestinal issues, nausea, high blood pressure, heart palpitations, aches and pains, changes in your weight, suffering from frequent colds or infections, and changes in your menstrual cycle and sex drive.

Emotional symptoms such as being sad, angry, irritable, depressed, or frustrated.

Can stress be bad for you?

Stress isn’t always bad. There is a kind of stress that feels exciting and energizing. This type of stress, known as eustress, can help you push through fatigue to meet a deadline or help you with some extra energy when you’re playing sports or delivering a speech. The stress will typically subside after the event, and it doesn’t leave any lingering side effects.

The issue with stress, and why it can be bad for you, is when you experience too much stress, and you don’t find ways to relieve that stress. Being in a permanent or even semi-permanent state of stress, with the ‘fight or flight’ response that accompanies it, can be both overwhelming and deleterious for one’s physical, emotional, and mental health.

You may experience acute stress, which is a short-term experience of stress that can either be positive or distressing. For many people, this is the type of stress they encounter most often in daily life, and because it is short-term, it may not have long-lasting effects unless it is repeated frequently.

When acute stress becomes just how you do life, and you move from one situation of acute stress into another, that is called episodic acute stress, and it can lead to ongoing distress as one episode of stress piles up on top of and next to another.

What can cause the most issues is chronic stress, which is stress that is ongoing and doesn’t necessarily have an endpoint. One can experience this kind of stress when in situations of ongoing relational conflict, by being at a demanding job, or by experiencing trauma.

Coping mechanisms for stress

Stress will come to us in life, but we can find healthy ways to cope with it so that it doesn’t affect our lives. Depending on the source of stress, it may be addressed by deepening your capacity and resources at your disposal to deal with it, or it may be resolved by changing your circumstances. It is good to ask the Lord for wisdom to know what the best strategy is to apply in your circumstances because at times simply changing situations isn’t the best option.
Below are three coping mechanisms to help you deal with stress in your life.

Find a healthy outlet – to curb stress and have a way for your body to recover from the effects of stress, you can engage in an activity such as playing a sport or some other form of exercise. A short walk of about 15- to 20 minutes three times a week not only helps to break up your day but can also help you reduce the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in your system while elevating your mood.

Also, have a life beyond the area that’s causing your stress. If your work is the primary source of stress, then try to cultivate a healthy and robust family life. Remind yourself that there’s more to life than work or your stressful situation.

Additionally, finding a healthy outlet also means not coping with stress by using recreational drugs, alcohol, food, or risky activities such as unprotected sex with strangers. These have unwanted negative consequences later. Alcohol, drugs, and tobacco may be known to help you relax, but they can make you more anxious and carry many negative side effects.

The basic rule of thumb is that if you might regret it later, don’t get into it now. Be careful what seeds you sow because you may not like the harvest you’ll reap. Eating a well-balanced diet can help to keep your body healthy and make you better able to handle stress. Foods that are rich in vitamin C such as oranges and grapefruit may lower stress hormones.

Take a break – despite what your boss or most ardent supporters may say, you are not a machine. You may be strong, efficient and all that other good stuff, but you’re still a human being at the end of the day. Humans need their rest; it’s part of how God designed us.

Resting reminds us that not everything is in our hands – the galaxy carries on without you while you’re sleeping, and that should induce humility (not despair!) and enjoyment of our rest. That is what is at the heart of the idea of Sabbath rest; the reminder that God is God and that we are not slaves and beholden to our work or our reputations.

Taking a break can have various expressions, including being serious about getting a good night’s sleep. To achieve this, you may need to cut down on your caffeine intake during the day and reduce your screen time at night, especially about 2 hours before bed. You can use relaxation techniques or meditate on scripture to quiet your mind. In each day, be sure to carve out some me time to allow yourself room to decompress.

Plan things out – Often, we can get stressed because we are overwhelmed by the tasks we need to perform and the limited time and resources available to us to accomplish those tasks and meet those goals. One way to address stress is to avoid procrastination as that merely delays the inevitable and piles up stress down the line.

Don’t take on more than you can handle – recognize your limits and be ruthless about doing what you can. Making good use of the word ‘No’ can help you immensely in this endeavor. Even with the best-laid plans, we can still get overwhelmed, but when things get overwhelming, you can also cut down on your stress levels by giving yourself a break and being more forgiving of yourself when you don’t or can’t get to everything you need to do.

When you recognize what causes you stress, whether at home or work, you can decide to find ways to deal with those things or even steer clear of them where possible. When you prioritize your goals, it allows you to not take on too much.

Beyond these steps to help you cope with stress, you may find that therapy and medication can be helpful interventions to help you deal with stress. At times, medication may be prescribed to address specific symptoms related to stress such as anxiety, gastrointestinal distress, depression, or struggles with sleep. Medications that may be prescribed include anti-anxiety medication, sleep aids, antacids, and antidepressants.

Regarding therapy, some forms of therapy that may be particularly helpful in addressing the symptoms of stress include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). MBSR makes use of meditation and mindfulness techniques to help reduce one’s stress levels, while CBT focuses on helping people identify and change negative thinking patterns that can induce stress.

Would you like to be matched with a therapist who can help you manage the stress in your life? Contact our offices today to get started.