What is stress and how can it affect you?

The stress beast rears its ugly head in many areas of our lives, including health, career, relationships and finances. Health concerns can be a source of stress, as can family life, a break-up or tension with your spouse. You might feel stressed at work due to strained relationships with your colleagues or superiors, or feeling underappreciated or overwhelmed by the workload you are required to handle.

You might feel stressed right now because you fear the future, as you have no financial stability in your life. Stress can feel like it is everywhere and coming at you from all directions.

The word stress has become part of our everyday vocabulary, but most people are unsure as to how we come to experience stress. What is stress? Where does it come from?

Hans Selye's work in the 1930s helped establish the modern scientific understanding of stress as a response to demands placed on the body. Well, that was a mouthful, wasn’t it? So, let me try again. Stress can involve both psychological and physical responses when we perceive that the demands we're facing may exceed the resources we have available to cope with them.

When you are faced with a perceived threat, which is usually (hopefully) not a lion charging at you but everyday threats such as ‘I won’t meet my deadline’, ‘I don’t know how and when I will be able to get a job’, ‘I can’t pay my bills’, ‘I can’t deal with this feeling of loneliness’, ‘I can’t face talking to my boss ’, and so on, the body's stress response may be activated – often described as the fight-or-flight response.

This can lead to changes throughout the body, including an increased heart rate, greater alertness and the release of stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. Some short-term stress can help us respond to challenges or demands, but prolonged or overwhelming stress can affect our wellbeing.

Stress can be associated with physical symptoms such as headaches, muscle tension, stomach problems or changes in sleep. If you're experiencing persistent or concerning physical symptoms, it's important not to assume stress is the cause and to seek appropriate medical advice.

Stress can also influence your psychological wellbeing. You may notice changes in your mood, feel restless or anxious, or find yourself becoming more irritable. You may also notice changes in your eating habits, eating more or less than you would normally eat. Stress may also be accompanied by changes in behaviour, such as procrastinating or keeping yourself constantly busy.

Stress can affect your body, your mind, and your behaviour. So, ‘How do you stop this disruptive cycle?’

There isn't one way to manage stress. Depending on what's contributing to it, it may help to look at both the pressures you're facing and how you're responding to them.

If stress is connected with areas such as workload, boundaries, priorities or lifestyle changes, coaching may provide space to explore practical changes and how you respond to pressure. If stress is severe, persistent or significantly affecting your mental health or daily life, speak to your GP or an appropriately qualified mental health professional.