Stress is a disorder that affects many people on a daily basis. We are often complaining of not having enough hours in the day. We struggle with feeling overwhelmed and overworked, yet we haven't accomplished enough. I am saying "we" because I am right there with you. I have stressed so much that I can't even tell you what all I have stressed about. I wrote this article to show you the top 5 ways that stress can ultimately ruin our lives.
1. Stress can affect your decision making.
When we stress, we immediately go into fight or flight mode. Most times, our long-term tasks and goals get pushed to the side and we begin to focus on all of the small tasks. These are those tasks that seem like they will never get done. This causes us to feel like we are falling behind, which in turn causes us to feel overwhelmed. All of this can negatively affect our performance at work, school, and even at home.
2. Stress can affect your mental and emotional health.
You know that overwhelmed feeling that we talked about in number one? Yeah, well that applies here as well. Stress can also cause depression, anxiety, anger, and aggression. Not only this, but stress can make it hard to control our emotions. One minute we can be just fine and then the next we are "in our head", overthinking, and our day is ruined. Stress makes it difficult for us to even be human beings.
3. Stress can affect your physical health.
Most people struggle with their eating habits when dealing with stress. This can either be binge eating or not eating at all. Stress can also cause your hair to fall out, or slow down the growing process. Not only this, but stress can cause high blood pressure. This can lead to many health complications.
4. Stress can ruin relationships.
When we are stressed, we can also become very irritable. This causes us to lash out at the people who are most likely trying to help us. Not only are we irritable, but our patience wears very thin. This affects our friends, family, coworkers, and any person we come in contact with. Stress can ultimately tear people apart.
5. Stress can cause you to participate in actions that could become addictive.
When we are stressed and overwhelmed, we can feel like we are drowning. This feeling can cause us to look for security in many things that can negatively affect our lives. This includes alcohol, drugs, gambling, etc. Once one finds the numbing feeling they receive when using drugs and alcohol and participating in gambling, it can become an addiction. Becoming addicted brings on an entire new problem to worry about, all because we were stressed.
My hope is that in reading this article, you saw yourself. You saw a time that you were stressed, and it ended negatively because you were one of these numbers. I want you to see yourself so that you see how we are losing our lives every day to stress. My next article will be titled "5 Ways To Cope With Stress". I am hoping that by making you aware and giving you coping mechanisms, we will work together to fight against stress. This will ultimately help us to live better, and happier, lives.
