The vicious cycle of stress/anxiety 2

The good news with stress and anxiety vicious cycle are that you can turn around this cycle to create a positive cycle that will help you overcome stress and anxiety. This will lead to increased comfort zone, improved sense of confidence and better quality of life.

Key point 1: the way you think.
There are too many types of negative thoughts: "I am not able to beat my anxiety and I will never will", " I must avoid this situation", even worst " I am going insane", or " I have a serious disease", "I am the only person on earth with this problem" or "I am going to die". Your fears, the way you feel now, leads to unbalanced, negative thoughts. So challenge these thoughts with more balanced ones, refocuse on positive and constructive thoughts. Relabel troubling symptoms as a surge of adrenaline. You won't get crazy and you won't die.

Key point 2: the way you act and react to triggers and situations.
It is very difficult to tackle your biggest fears first. A better approach is the graded exposure to triggers. Expose your self to uncomfortable situations gradually, then work your way up to more difficult and challenging ones. Increase your comfort zone, build your confidence.

Initially you will be more anxious-which is normal. Changing the way you think and the way you react, challenging your fears, adopting new habits: these are not easy tasks. There are relievers that will help with your increased anxiety: breathing exercises, relaxing music, massage, beautiful scenery, etc.. By doing all these changes in a structured and repeated way, soon you will experience a decrease in physical symptoms.

By now you have increased your comfort zone, you have built your confidence, you have experienced a decrease in physical symptoms. You are feeling better, your copying abilities are greater, you can face triggers and situation in a more positive way.

You are feeling less stressed and anxious.

The vicious cycle of stress/anxiety

Suffering from negative emotions caused by problems in your life, home or workplace, will lead to stress and anxiety. After a prolonged period of stress and worry in your life, your body starts to experience physical symptoms like headaches, shortness of breath, dizziness, other symptoms like short temper etc.

All these stress symptoms may have a significant impact on how you behave and go about your daily life. Attitudes and behaviours towards others becomes altered by these physical ailments, which were originally caused by stress. Or you may try to avoid feeling stressed/anxious and escape from distressing experiences by paying more attention to possible signs of potential threat. If you cannot avoid the situation, you may use other methods like an exit plan for potenially-anxious situations (standing close to a door to make a quick escape for example). You may also take tranquillisers to deal with distressing situations. Or you make sure you have someone else with you.

The realisation that your behaviour towards others has altered leads to further bouts of stress or anxiety. Or when you become more dependent on avoiding methods or safety behaviours, it can be more distressing if one day they are not available to you.

These further bouts of stress/anxiety result in negative reactions, which then appear as negative emotions, which by their turn lead to more stress and anxiety and so it continues, and this cycle can go on.

The question is how can you reverse that vicious cycle, to create a positive cycle that will help you overcome stress/anxiety?

Analyse your Stress Diary

So you have decided to keep a stress diary. You have taken the commitement to making daily entries into your diary over a period of time. Once you have kept a stress diary for a number of weeks, now is the time to analyse it.

By now you have a number of entries. All these entries will give you information about stressors, causes of stress, situations that have caused stress, your reactions to stress, your feelings, stress symptoms you have experienced, other valuable information about nutrition, lifestyle, habits, etc.

How will you handle all these entries? Well... list them all.

• List the types of stress that you have experienced by frequency, with the most frequent stresses at the top of the list.

• List the most unpleasant stressors you have experienced with the most unpleasant at the top and the least at the bottom.

• List the causes of your stress.

• List also the situations that cause you stress by frequency.

• List your reactions to stressfull events. How well have you managed them?

• List your feelings.

• List all the stress symptoms you have experienced.

• List any lifestyle changes, nutrition, habits that have reacted with your stress symptoms.

Now you have all the information you need to understand the causes of your stress.
Now you may recognize your stress patterns.
Now you can understand what circumstances make stresses particularly unpleasant.
Now you know the levels of stress at which you operate most effectively.
Now you know how you react to stress, whether your reactions are appropriate and useful, and whether your strategies for handling the stresses are effective or not.
Now you may determine how you can handle your stress and how to react to your stressors.

How can you keep a stress diary

Every time you make an entry, record the following information:

- Date

- Time

- How happy you feel now.
Define on a scale of 0 to 10 how happy do you feel now (0 no happy at all & 10 your happiest period of your life) about yourself, family, friends, job, lifestyle.

- How stressed you feel now.
Another subjective assessment, on a scale of 0 to 10 ( 0 no stressed at all & 10 the most stressed period) about yourself, family, friends, job, lifestyle.

- The most resent stressful events:
1. what, when, where and how happened.
2. What factors made the event stressful.

- The symptoms of the stress felt (lightheaded, stomach, breathlessness, headache, etc.)

- How did you handle the stressful situation.

- The fundamental cause of the stress.

- The events outside your control that causes your stress.

- Which stressors are self induced.

- Other factors that make your symptoms worsening. For example special foods, coffee, alcohol, drugs, sleeping habits,changes in your lifestyle, travels etc.

For a sample of a simpler and not so detailed stress diary, you can check this link:
http://istudy.psu.edu

Sources of stress/anxiety signs and symptoms

With all these stress symptoms ruining your life, you have probably tried many things: drugs, stress relievers, relaxing methods, but the problem is still present. Before you decide that there is nothing YOU can do about your situation, think about...

Have you considered that you haven't check your daily routine or your lifestyle? You feel lightheaded, you suffer from stress/anxiety related headaches or stomach problems or shortness of breath or tight throat etc. Which is the most important step towards a stress symptoms free life?

The most effective solution is to find and address the source of your stress or anxiety.

How can you find the source of your problem?

Ask yourself:
What do you worry about most?
How stressed out do you feel now?
Are there any constant thoughts, concerns, fears on your mind?
Does anything in particular make you sad?
Which are the different stresses you experience during the day or week?
How do you handle any stress situations?

If you have no answers to these questions, or the answers aren't crystal clear, then you should try keeping a diary of your daily activities, experiences, thoughts, events. Keeping a stress diary is a useful way of identifying those things that cause you stress, how much stress they actually cause you, how your body, mind, behavior react to stress. You can also discover a pattern of some kind in your life.

How can you keep a stress diary? Next time we'll discuss more about stress diaries.

Issues with stress signs and symptoms

Have you noticed something very interesting?

Talking about stress signs and symptoms, many people find that when they are not thinking about stress or their symptoms, they feel well.

My friend Paul has breathing problem for about three years. He yawns often and has to take these really big breaths to feel like he is getting enough air. His doctor told him that his problem was stress/anxiety.

Three months ago we were talking about stress. Paul told me that he found when he is not thinking about his breathing problem, he can breath fine. Paul also told me that during a working day or when he is distracted by various activities there is no problem or just minor breathing difficulty. Once he starts to think about it, the problem arises again, especially when he goes to bed.

After my conversation with Paul, a couple of my friends- suffering from stress/anxiety problems- assured me about his findings. We all concluded that this problem is like a vicious circle. When the symptoms begin to feed off each other, the situation is getting more difficult, you start to worry more and the symptoms are getting worse.

Behavioral Signs and Symptoms

Stress may be affecting your behavior, and you may not even realize it. But your family, friends, relatives and co workers may notice changes in your behavior. Here is a list of behavioral signs and symptoms:

• Eating more or less.

• Neglect of personal appearance.

• Nervous habits like twitching, nail beating, griding teeth, etc.

• Angry outbursts, being irritable or even antisocial acts.

• Isolation.

• Problems in communication.

• Excessive defensiveness or suspiciousness.

• Talking too fast or too loud.

• Blaming others.

• Reacting emotionally.

• Frequent use of over-the-counter drugs.

• Bad habits like increased smoking, alcohol or drug use, excessive gambling.

• Increased number of minor accidents.

• Sleeping too much or too little.

• Procrastinating or neglecting responsibilities.

• Unable to concentrate.

• Difficulty making decisions.

• Being forgetful.

• Making more mistakes.

• Reduced work efficiency or productivity.

Emotional and Cognitive Stress Symptoms

Besides physical symptoms, stress may cause other types of signs and symptoms: emotional, cognitive and behavioral.

Here is a list of emotional and cognitive symptoms:

• Feeling anxious.

• Feeling depressed.

• Feeling irritable or upset.

• Short temper.

• Worrying.

• Frastration.

• Feeling sad.

• Confused.

• Unable to concentrate.

• Feeling angry.

• Feeling insecure.

• Feeling restless.

• Forgeting things.

• Disatisfaction with life, job, friends, family, etc.

• Negative thinking.

• Poor judgment.

• Loss of objectivity.

• Mood swings.

• Burnout.

• Guilt.

• Inability to take decisions.

• Difficulty to think clearly.

• Feeling on edge.

• No sense of humor.

• Isolation

My experience with physical stress signs and symptoms

Here is my experience with physical stress signs and symptoms.

Last year during a period of 2 months I was experiencing major stress signs and symptoms. I was experiencing dizziness and a sense of fogginess. I had a constant fatigue, tired eyes, and tense neck and shoulders. It was not a vertigo or any other motion type dizziness. It was like an outer body experience. My blood pressure was low too. I was working, driving but my dizziness was a bad constant feeling. My low blood pressure was my main concern.

I was wondering about my stomach. Could it be gastrorrhagia? You know hemorrhage from the stomach that leads to dizziness and low blood pressure allthough I couldn't notice any blood loss (being vomited or passed by stool)?

I also noticed that my symptoms were worsening after stressful situations. I could describe my situation as a vicious circle: my dizziness was provoking stress and my stress more symptoms. My dizziness was worsening after coffee, sweets and chocolate consumption.

Finally after a deep assessment of my situation I realized that my dizzines, was definitely stress related. In fact my problem was posttraumatic stress after an earthquake event near my town.

My conclusion: stress may provoke physical symptoms. The symptoms may mimic symptoms of other problems. You may think that you suffer from a disease (I was concerning about my stomach), but the problem may be stress. Indeed, stress symptoms can affect your body, your thoughts, your feelings, and your behavior.

Physical Stress Symptoms

Stress may be affecting your health, and you may not even realize it. So here is a list of Physical Stress Symptoms:

• Headache
• Tooth grinding
• Pains in neck or shoulders
• Pains in chest
• Low back pain
• Shortness of breath
• Holding breath
• Muscle aches
• Muscle tension and stiffness
• Muscle spasms or nervous tics
• Pounding heart
• Rapid heartbeat
• High blood pressure
• Stomach upset
• 'Butterflies' in stomach
• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Nausea
• Dizziness
• Weight gain or loss
• Sex problems
• Tiredness
• Skin breakouts (hives, eczema)
• Unexplained rashes or skin irritations
• Increased sweating, sweaty palms even
• Sweating when not physically active
• Sleep problems (unable to sleep or excessive sleep)
• Frequent colds