Controlling Stress - Do You Know How Much Stress You Have? The following article is one of a series of articles which focus on bringing you great content, tips and guidance on managing and coping with stress, physical or mental. We will ensure that the articles on managing stress are totally relevant to theme of this website and can truly help you to enhance your lifestyle. However, if you feel that we need to include more material and other articles on managing stress, mental or physical or you wish to submit an article yourself, Contact Us Here. I sincerely hope that you find the following information of value.

You may or may not feel the stress you have. There are different types of stress. Some stress is acute, that is, it is caused by a one-time situation and is over. There is also stress caused by situations that recur. There are many situations in life that commonly cause stress. Research has shown that there are a number of stress-producing events that can happen in our life. If you have experienced one of these events within the past year, you should take stress-reducing action now. If you have experienced more than one of these, you can be certain that stress is working within you, even if you are unaware of it. Act now to make some changes so the stress won't take its toll on you. Here are the top 10 stress producing life events: The death of a spouse or partner Divorce Separation Being jailed Death of a family member (parent, child, close relative) Major illness (diagnosis in past six months) Marriage Being fired from your job Reconciliation with estranged spouse or partner Retirement Here are some additional stress-producing events: Moving Bankruptcy Changing Jobs Changing schools Trouble with your boss Trouble with your marriage or relationship Taking out a loan As you can see, many of the items on these lists can happen to everyone at one time or another. All of life's major events, both good and bad, bring with them some stress. You can see why the first year of marriage is usually stressful for the couple. They have just been married and have moved into a home together, two of the top stress-producing life events. How can you determine how much stress you have? There are certain clues you can use to see how much stress you are dealing with. You can list all the things that you feel causes you stress by taking a stress inventory. Take a sheet of paper and list all the items that affect you. For example... Tiredness or fatigue Sleep Difficulties Heart palpitations, panic attacks Rashes, itching or hives Lowered sex drive Increased use of alcohol Irritability, moodiness, anger Use of medications Memory lapses, Loss of concentration Impatience Feeling depressed If you listed several of these, you are showing some signs of stress. You may have some of these symptoms and have dealt with them for so long that they seem like the everyday norm. Together, these symptoms may be masking a stress problem. Stress is cumulative. It builds up. Sometimes it builds up to the point that it only takes a small thing to put you "over the edge". That one small thing by itself could have made no impact at all. However, piled on top of many other stresses you can get the feeling that this is the last straw. We've heard the saying "that's the straw that broke the camel's back" but stop and realize that it's true. Thinking about it, each stalk piled onto a camel's back by itself is very, very light. But as they all add up, there will come a time when the combined weight is just too much for the camel to handle. The same is true with our stress. As stresses add up, they become larger than the individual stress itself. These little stresses are sometimes called annoyances. All of us get annoyed from time to time. Annoyances cause stress. Annoyances may seem minor but they can add up and cause stress. There are many things in our daily life that can add up to stress. You need to find out what is adding to your everyday stress. One great way to see how much stress you live with is to keep a stress diary. A stress diary will help you become aware of what is causing your stress so you can learn ways to eliminate them. Stress Diary Exercise For this exercise, you will need a small notebook or calendar. Make sure it is small enough to be easily carried because you will need to bring it with you for a week. A small notebook works well, using one page per day. If you would like more information on this exercise, click here to visit our Articles on Stress series and get the free ebook containing all the articles on stress. Please remember, if you feel that we need to include more material and other articles on managing, controlling or coping with stress related topics or you wish to submit an article yourself, Contact Us Here. Return From Controlling Stress to Articles On Stress