Stress is a normal physical and psychological response to life demands. A certain amount of stress can actually be motivating and support performance. However if the amount of stressful factors, such as meeting work deadlines, moving, work trips, maintaining relationships, divorce, loss, paying bills continues to mount up, you may experience a sense of ‘input overload’ and feel yourself pushed beyond your ability to cope. In order to cope the brain and body remain ‘turned on’, ‘vigilant’ and ‘escalated’ ready for action. It may even come to a stage that you don’t allow your ‘alarm system’ any down time. But even working at overdrive does not seem to be enough. The demands on you appear to grow and you feel that your resources and abilities are shrinking. As a consequence, your health, relationships, work and quality of life may be at risk.
People deal with stress differently and symptoms vary greatly but you may find yourself struggling with some if not all of the following:
- Tiredness and low energy
- Increase in irritability and moodiness
- Low self esteem
- Withdrawal
- Worrying and Anxiety
- Tinnitus
- Headaches and muscle tension
- Weakened immune system
- Disturbance in eating and sleeping
- Changes in weight
- Procrastination, lack of focus and control, and disorganization
- Increase in the use of alcohol, cigarettes or drugs
In combating stress, it is necessary to rediscover or develop alternative ways to deal with stress. As stress means different things to different people, an individual solution to stress management is called for. In therapy, I will work with you to uncover the sources of stress in your life by examining your thoughts, feelings and behaviours vis-a-vis your stress. Additionally we will examine your relational dynamics and their role in your experienced stress. As your understanding and self-awareness grow, we will work together at developing an individual plan of the appropriate coping strategies and stress management techniques which will provide you with the supporting scaffolding in which to deal with your life challenges now and in the future.