What Is Stress? Understanding Symptoms, Causes, Types, and Strategies to Manage
Have you ever felt overwhelmed before a big test or interview?
Did you have trouble sleeping, concentrating, relaxing, or keeping up with your usual responsibilities during this period?
You may have also experienced physical symptoms, such as headaches, muscle tension, a racing heart, stomach problems, or fatigue.
If these experiences resonate with you, this experience is known as stress.
Everyone experiences stress at times, and it can motivate us to act. For example, if you have a big test or an interview coming up, stress could motivate you to prepare.
However, there may be times when this stress becomes persistent, keeps you paralyzed and unable to take action, or starts to interfere with your ability to participate in daily activities.
If you are experiencing ongoing stress, an Ontario, Canada-based therapist can support you in understanding what may be contributing to your stress and developing strategies to manage it.
In this edition of Bee Kind Counselling’s neurodiversity-affirming therapy blog, we will explore what stress is, the symptoms, what causes it, the different types of stress, and strategies that may help you move through life with greater ease.
What Is Stress?
Stress is a natural physical and psychological response that can happen to anyone.
It occurs when we experience situational pressure or conditions that are demanding, threatening, overwhelming, or difficult to manage. Our stress levels can also differ based on circumstances.
For example, someone may experience increased stress while starting a new job. But at other times, the same individual may experience little or no significant stress.
When you experience a stressor, such as starting a new job, your body releases higher levels of hormones connected to stress, including adrenaline and cortisol (the stress hormone).
These hormones cause your body to activate the alarm system, or fight-or-flight, which works to protect you and helps you respond to challenges. You may experience an increased heart rate, blood pressure, alertness, and energy so you can respond to the situation.
In some circumstances, this response can be helpful. For example, if you need to prepare for an important presentation, this stress response may encourage you to prepare. Experiencing stress when you are running late for the presentation may also prompt you to move quickly.
However, stress is not always a positive thing, and occasionally it can become problematic when it is intense, happens frequently, and continues for a long period of time.
When stress becomes chronic, it can affect your sleep, concentration, mood, physical health, and ability to manage your everyday responsibilities.
If stress is making it difficult to work, sleep, maintain relationships, complete everyday responsibilities, or participate in activities you normally enjoy, speaking with a mental health professional may be helpful.
What Is the Prevalence of Stress?
Stress is a common experience, and although anyone can experience stress from time to time, not everyone experiences significant or ongoing stress at the same time.
The prevalence of stress varies depending on how stress is defined, measured, and the timeframe being considered.
According to Gallup's global tracking, approximately 37 to 41% of adults worldwide report experiencing significant levels of stress on any given day. So while daily stress is common, a majority of adults did not report experiencing a lot of stress on any given day.
A recent systematic review examining the prevalence of stress reported an estimated global prevalence of 35.1%, with the prevalence being higher among females (36.1%) compared to males (33.6%).
These findings highlight that stress is widespread, but experiencing stress is not a universal or constant state. Some people may experience little stress during a particular period, while others may experience frequent or significant stress related to their circumstances.
What Does Stress Feel Like?
The experience of stress differs from person to person and depends on the situation an individual is in.
Some people who experience stress may report more emotional symptoms, whereas others may experience more physical symptoms. Common symptoms of stress can include:
Feeling overwhelmed
Irritability
Frustration
Feeling anxious or on edge
Difficulty relaxing
Racing thoughts
Difficulty concentrating
Forgetfulness
Fatigue
Headaches
Muscle tension
Increased heart rate
Sweating
Stomach discomfort
Changes in appetite
Difficulty falling or staying asleep
Restlessness
Difficulty making decisions
Feeling emotionally exhausted
Withdrawing from others
Avoiding responsibilities
Difficulty completing everyday tasks
The severity level and the combination of symptoms also vary depending on the individual.
For some people, stress may also affect the way you interact with others and form relationships.
You might become more irritable, withdraw from social activities, have less patience, or find it harder to communicate.
Stress can also interfere with your ability to manage responsibilities at work, school, or home.
Types of Stress
According to Cleveland Clinic, there are three main types of stress, known as acute stress, episodic acute stress, and chronic stress.
Acute Stress
Acute stress is short-term stress that appears quickly when experiencing an immediate threat, such as seeing a bear in the woods, giving a presentation, or experiencing a near-miss accident.
This type of stress activates your body’s fight-or-flight system so that you are able to make an immediate response to this challenge.
Once the stressful situation has passed, acute stress dissipates, and your body can gradually return to its usual state.
Episodic Acute Stress
Episodic acute stress involves experiencing regular and frequent episodes of acute stress.
This may occur if you are a first responder, such as a firefighter, who constantly has to battle fires. This form of stress is often seen in people with chaotic or overly busy lives who constantly feel rushed and prone to worry.
Chronic Stress
Chronic stress is a long-term form of stress that lasts for an extended period of time, sometimes years without relief. The source of chronic stress will differ depending on the person, but there are some common sources of this stress, including:
Ongoing financial difficulties
Working in a toxic workplace
Relationship conflict
Ongoing caregiving responsibilities
Long-term health concerns
Long-term academic pressure
Housing instability
Ongoing uncertainty
Persistent responsibilities with little opportunity for recovery
When stress continues for a long period of time, your body may continue to remain in a heightened state of alertness. You may constantly be looking around for a threat to appear.
When you experience chronic stress, this can contribute to burnout, which includes sleep difficulties, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, headaches, digestive concerns, and other physical and emotional symptoms.
What Causes Stress?
There is no single cause for stress or reason why it occurs in all people from time to time. However, there are some common sources for why stress may occur in different people, including:
Work or school responsibilities
Financial concerns
Relationship difficulties
Family conflict
Major life changes
Health concerns
Caregiving
Moving
Starting or losing a job
Academic expectations
Social pressures
Parenting responsibilities
Grief and loss
Lack of sleep
Uncertainty about the future
Difficult living environments
The cause of stress could be due to a single major event or the gradual buildup of multiple smaller responsibilities that accumulate and become overwhelming.
For example, an individual may be able to manage a busy week at work. However, if they are also experiencing relationship difficulties, financial concerns, poor sleep, and family responsibilities at the same time, their overall stress may become much harder to manage.
How Does Stress Differ from Anxiety Disorders?
Stress and anxiety disorders look like similar experiences because they both can occur due to a stressor, and they involve similar symptoms, including:
Racing thoughts
Difficulty concentrating
Muscle tension
Restlessness
Sleep difficulties
Irritability
Increased heart rate
Feelings of worry or uneasiness
These similarities can make it difficult to distinguish between the two. However, there are also differences between stress and anxiety disorders.
One of those differences has to do with the stressor.
Stress is generally connected to an identifiable external situation or stressor.
For example, you may feel stressed because you have an upcoming exam, a difficult conversation at work, or several deadlines approaching.
In these situations, your stress response is connected to something happening in your environment. Once the stressful situation is resolved, your stress may decrease. You may still feel some lingering effects afterwards, but the intensity of the stress often changes as the situation changes.
Anxiety disorders, on the other hand, can continue even when there is no immediate external stressor. You may continue to feel worried, tense, or on edge even when the situation that initially triggered those feelings has passed.
For example, you may worry that you will make a mistake at work even when you have no upcoming deadline or difficult task. You might repeatedly think about something that could go wrong, seek reassurance that everything is okay, or find it difficult to switch off from worrying even when things are going well.
Anxiety disorders can also involve anticipating possible future threats or problems. You may find yourself thinking about what could happen, rather than responding to something that is happening right now, which tends to be the case with stress.
Another difference can be the relationship between the intensity of the response, persistence, and how it interferes with daily life. Stress tends to be intense in the moment and may interfere with your ability to participate in daily responsibilities in the immediate future, but then the stress and its impact on your life tend to dissipate once the stressor goes away.
However, if you have an anxiety disorder, it can involve persistent and excessive fear or worry that interferes with daily functioning in the long term.
That said, stress and anxiety can occur together. An ongoing stressful situation can contribute to an anxiety disorder, and having an anxiety disorder can make it so stressful situations feel more difficult to manage.
Experiencing occasional anxiety in response to stress is also different from having an anxiety disorder.
If worry or anxiety is persistent, difficult to control, or begins to interfere with your sleep, work, relationships, daily responsibilities, or ability to enjoy activities, it may be worth speaking with a mental health professional virtually anywhere in Ontario.
What Are the Effects of Chronic Stress?
Chronic stress can impact your nervous system. It may make it so your body remains in a constant state of activation. This means that your fight-or-flight system doesn’t shut off, and you are constantly looking for threats. You may also have higher levels of baseline cortisol and other stress hormones when in a state of chronic stress.
If your body is consistently activated, it can contribute to physical symptoms that may continue for extended periods of time, including:
Headaches
Muscle tension
Fatigue
Sleep difficulties
Digestive problems
Changes in appetite
Increased heart rate
High blood pressure
The effects of chronic stress can also be mental. You may experience increased irritability, difficulty concentrating, persistent worry, emotional exhaustion, or changes in your mood.
Over time, ongoing stress can also make it more difficult to maintain relationships, complete responsibilities, and participate in activities that support your well-being. It can also contribute to burnout. Let’s explore this more next.
Stress and Burnout
Stress and burnout are related.
Stress occurs when the demands placed on you are more than what you can manage or exceed the resources you have available.
Stress can be short-term, such as when you are preparing for an exam or meeting a deadline, or ongoing, such as when you are managing a demanding workload, caregiving responsibilities, financial concerns, or ongoing relationship difficulties.
For some people, ongoing stress can contribute to burnout.
Burnout may develop due to prolonged exposure to stressful and demanding circumstances or as a result of chronic stress, particularly if you don't have much or any time to recover.
Burnout is often discussed in relation to work and is characterized by exhaustion, increased mental distance or cynicism toward one's work, and reduced professional efficacy.
The experience of burnout can also look different from everyday stress. When you are stressed, you may feel overwhelmed by everything you need to do and become highly activated or worried about getting things done. With burnout, you may instead feel depleted, disconnected, less motivated, or as though you no longer have the energy to engage with the things that normally require your attention.
If you are experiencing burnout, you may notice:
Emotional and physical exhaustion
Reduced motivation or energy
Difficulty concentrating or making decisions
Increased irritability or frustration
Feeling detached or emotionally distant
Reduced interest in activities you previously enjoyed
Difficulty completing everyday responsibilities
Feeling less effective or productive at work or school
Feeling overwhelmed by demands that previously felt more manageable
Needing more effort to complete tasks or get through the day
It is also possible to experience both stress and burnout at the same time. Ongoing stress may be one factor contributing to burnout, while burnout can make everyday demands feel even more difficult to manage.
If exhaustion, detachment, or reduced functioning persists and begins to affect your work, relationships, daily responsibilities, or well-being, speaking with a therapist may be helpful.
Ways to Cope with Stress
There is no single strategy that will work for everyone who is experiencing stress, and your coping strategies may need to change depending on the source of your stress, your available support, and your current circumstances.
Identify Your Stressors
When you are experiencing stress, there tends to be a stressor that caused this stress. You can start by identifying what is contributing to your stress. This could include asking yourself the following questions:
What situations tend to increase my stress?
Are there specific responsibilities that feel particularly overwhelming?
When do I notice my stress increasing?
Are there demands that could be reduced or changed?
What support might make these responsibilities easier to manage?
Identifying your stressors can help you determine whether there are practical changes that could reduce the pressure you are experiencing.
Create Time for Rest and Recovery
Since chronic stress without recovery can contribute to burnout, building rest and recovery into your day is important for managing stress.
This may involve taking breaks throughout the day, spending time outside, listening to music, engaging in hobbies, connecting with supportive people, or simply giving yourself time away from responsibilities.
Building periods of recovery into your routine may make it easier to manage ongoing demands.
Prioritize Sleep
Stress and sleep are intimately connected. Stress can make it difficult to sleep. Poor sleep can also make stress more difficult to manage.
You may find it helpful to establish a consistent sleep routine, reduce stimulating activities before bed, create a comfortable sleep environment, and give yourself enough time to wind down.
If ongoing stress is significantly affecting your sleep, consider speaking with an Ontario therapist.
When you move your body, your brain and body release and regulate chemicals and hormones involved in mood and stress responses. For example, physical activity can increase the release of endorphins that can contribute to feelings of well-being and help reduce the perception of pain.
Exercise can also influence cortisol, one of the hormones involved in the body's stress response, which can contribute to a calming effect.
Physical activity may also help reduce muscle tension, support sleep, and give you an opportunity to take a break from ongoing demands or worries.
Walking, weight lifting, stretching, swimming, dancing, yoga, or another activity you enjoy can provide opportunities to move your body and take a break from stressful responsibilities.
Connect with Other People
Consider reaching out to someone you trust, such as a friend, family member, partner, coworker, therapist, or another supportive person.
Connecting with others can also influence the body's response to stress. Positive social interactions are associated with the release of oxytocin, a hormone and neuropeptide involved in social bonding, trust, and connection. Oxytocin interacts with other systems involved in the stress response and may help regulate how the body responds to stressful situations.
Relaxation Strategies for Calming the Nervous System
Relaxation strategies can help reduce physical tension and support your body's ability to return to a calmer state. They can be particularly useful when you notice that stress is affecting your breathing, muscle tension, heart rate, thoughts, or ability to settle. Some strategies include:
Deep breathing: Slowing and deepening your breathing can help activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is involved in the body's rest-and-recovery response. Try taking a slow breath in and allowing your exhale to be slightly longer than your inhale.
Progressive muscle relaxation: This involves intentionally tensing and then relaxing different muscle groups throughout your body. It can help you notice and release physical tension.
Meditation: Meditation can involve focusing your attention on your breath, a sound, a phrase, or another point of focus. With practice, it can help you notice thoughts and feelings without automatically reacting to them.
Mindfulness: Mindfulness involves intentionally paying attention to what is happening in the present moment with openness and without judging the experience. You might notice your breathing, physical sensations, thoughts, emotions, or the environment around you. Mindfulness does not require you to empty your mind or stop having stressful thoughts. Instead, it can help you notice what is happening without becoming completely caught up in it.
5-4-3-2-1 grounding: Grounding can be helpful when you feel overwhelmed, anxious, or caught up in your thoughts. The 5-4-3-2-1 technique brings your attention back to your immediate surroundings by engaging your senses. Notice 5 things you can see, 4 things you can feel or touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste. If one of the senses is not accessible to you, you can adapt the exercise to focus on the senses that are available.
Guided imagery: Guided imagery involves using your imagination to picture a calming place, situation, or experience. You might imagine being somewhere familiar and peaceful while noticing details such as what you can see, hear, smell, or feel.
Gentle stretching: Slow, gentle stretches can help you become more aware of your body and may help release some of the muscle tension that can accompany stress.
Spending time in nature: Spending time outdoors or in natural environments can provide a change of surroundings and an opportunity to slow down and focus your attention on what is around you.
Listening to calming music: Music can influence your mood and provide something else for your attention to focus on when you are feeling overwhelmed.
Different techniques work for different people, so it may take some experimentation to find strategies that feel helpful.
Use Practical Supports
Sometimes stress can be reduced by making everyday responsibilities easier to manage. You may benefit from:
Using a calendar
Setting reminders
Breaking large tasks into smaller steps
Creating checklists
Planning meals
Using written instructions
Asking someone to help with responsibilities
Prioritizing the most important tasks
Delegating when possible
These strategies can reduce the amount of information you need to keep track of mentally.
A Stress Therapist
A therapist can support you in understanding the factors contributing to your stress and developing strategies that fit your individual needs.
Therapy may involve exploring your thoughts, emotions, behaviours, relationships, environment, and coping patterns.
Different therapeutic approaches may be used depending on your goals.
Cognitive behavioural therapy focuses on identifying patterns in thoughts and behaviours that may contribute to emotional distress.
A therapist can help you recognize unhelpful thought patterns and develop different ways of responding to stressful situations.
Dialectical behaviour therapy can provide skills for managing intense emotions and distress.
DBT includes skills related to mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.
These skills may be useful when stress leads to strong emotional reactions or difficulty managing relationships.
Mindfulness-Based Approaches
Mindfulness involves developing greater awareness of your thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and surroundings.
Mindfulness-based strategies may help you notice signs of stress earlier and develop skills for responding to distress.
Solution-Focused Therapy
Solution-focused therapy focuses on identifying practical changes and building on existing strengths and resources.
This approach may be useful when you want to identify manageable steps toward addressing a stressful situation.
Regardless of the therapy modality used, your therapist can work with you to better understand your individual experience of stress and develop strategies that align with your needs and goals.
EMDR is a structured therapy that can help people process distressing or traumatic experiences.
It involves focusing on aspects of an experience while using bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements, sounds, or tapping.
This approach may be helpful when past experiences continue to contribute to stress or strong emotional and physical responses in the present.
When Should You See a Therapist for Stress?
Some stress is a normal part of everyday life. However, it may be helpful to speak with a mental health professional if your stress is becoming difficult to manage. Consider seeking support if:
Your stress is interfering with work, school, or relationships.
You are consistently having trouble sleeping.
You are experiencing significant changes in your appetite.
You feel exhausted most of the time.
You are struggling to concentrate.
You are avoiding responsibilities because they feel overwhelming.
You have lost interest in activities you previously enjoyed.
You feel overwhelmed most of the time.
Your symptoms are persistent or becoming more severe.
Your usual coping strategies are no longer helping.
This is not an exhaustive list, and these are just some circumstances in which you can seek support. You can see a therapist at any time when you are experiencing stress. There is no right or wrong time to start.
You do not need to wait until your stress becomes unmanageable before reaching out for support.
A mental health professional can help you explore what is contributing to your stress early on and determine what type of support may be appropriate.
Crisis Support
If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or is in immediate danger, support is available.
In Canada, you can call or text 988 for the Suicide Crisis Helpline, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
If there is an immediate risk of harm, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency department.
Book a Free Consultation with Bee Kind Counselling
Are you experiencing ongoing stress that is affecting your daily life?
Do you find it difficult to manage your responsibilities because you feel overwhelmed?
Bee Kind Counselling provides inclusive mental health support to individuals experiencing stress, anxiety, burnout, and other mental health concerns.
Their team of therapists in Ontario, Canada, can work with you to better understand your experiences and develop coping strategies that fit your needs.
You can book a free 15-minute consultation with a Canadian therapist by emailing admin@beekindcounselling.com, calling 519-757-7842 ext. 1, or booking through the website below.
Sources
Cleveland Clinic. Stress
American Psychological Association. Stress Effects on the Body
American Psychological Association. Stress.
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). Stress
Comments