A guest blog from Dr Yakup Kilic this week around the important topic of stress and its effect on our mental health.
What?
Have you ever felt as if you’ve taken on too many things at once? You’re overwhelmed and countless thoughts buzz through your mind, ironically making it harder to be productive. We all know what stress is, but we don’t talk about it enough. Let’s discuss the elephant in the room – how much do we know about how stress affects us?
Stress affects everyone at one point or another, but it doesn’t affect everyone in the same way, and for some people it can impact their mental health.
Why?
Lots of things can cause stress, like relationships, work or health issues. When our body becomes overloaded with too much information, the fight or flight response is triggered and we produce stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones increase your heart rate and make you breathe faster so that more oxygen can reach your muscles.
Your body triggers this response in order to prepare for a possible threat. Sometimes low levels of stress can actually be beneficial, helping you to feel energised and act effectively in high-pressure situations. But dealing with stress long term can cause serious problems. When the stress response is activated repeatedly, your body is in a constant state of fight or flight and may struggle to return to its normal state. This can lead to feeling overwhelmed and unable to cope.
How (does it affect you)?
Too much stress can lead to long term mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. Research has shown that when stress occurs, neurotransmitters (chemicals which send signals between nerve cells) are released. Stress hormones are then released, affecting the areas of the brain that regulate emotions. Frequent repetition of this process impacts how well these systems can cope.
It is important to be aware of some of the signs of being too stressed:
- Feeling overwhelmed, irritable or easily angered
- Lacking self-esteem
- Feeling constantly worried or scared
- Finding it difficult to concentrate
- Avoiding certain people or situations.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, always reach out to someone you’re close to or a healthcare professional. If you ever feel suicidal, consider contacting Samaritans or 999/111 for further help and guidance.
Take a look at the myHSN guide to the first steps you should take if you’re worried about your mental health. You may also wish to look into psychological therapies, or counselling, if you have been advised to do so by a GP or mental health professional – there’s a myHSN guide for that too.
As always, best wishes from myHSN!
