While moderate stress aids your performance, chronic or extreme stress can be harmful. Unmanaged stress can affect relationships, performance, and your health.
Stress management work in counseling helps to first identify stressors, trauma, or distorted perceptions causing the stress. Using strategies like EMDR, DBT, or CBT, you and your therapist can resolve negative issues, identify helpful changes, and develop coping skills.
Changes you can make to manage stress before seeking counseling can include: prioritizing sleep, maintaining a balanced diet, exercising regularly, practicing mindfulness (e.g., journaling, deep breathing, gratitude), seeking healthy social support, minimizing stressors, and cultivating a supportive network.
Stress often leads to negative coping methods, mentally and physically. Signs of stress include:
Psychological symptoms include: irritability, anger, anxiety, depression, withdrawal, moodiness, frustration, indecision, memory losses, cognitive difficulties, and concentration issues.
Physiological symptoms include: headaches, racing heart, high blood pressure, body complaints, digestive issues, fatigue, restlessness, changes in sleep or appetite, panic attacks, worry, and substance misuse to cope.
If any of these resonate with you, counseling can greatly help.:
• Feeling stressed most of the day or noticed by others
• Difficulty stopping thoughts about an issue
• Consistently using negative coping skills to manage stress
• Avoiding social interactions due to stress
• Changes in eating or sleeping habits
• Decreased productivity at work or school
• Physical symptoms like high blood pressure or headaches
• Feeling constantly on edge or hypervigilant
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