Stress is an unavoidable part of all our lives, and chances are, you know when you're feeling the pressure. You know the signs, the ones that start right before a big presentation at work or in the moments before you're going to be getting news that's either incredibly good or incredibly bad. But what happens when that stress builds and builds, until we don't get to step away? What happens when we find ourselves caught in a vicious cycle, with stress becoming such a part of everyday life that it starts to get almost unbearable?
There are a number of signs that your stress levels are just going out of control, and some of them are things that you might not even connect to stress.
1.- Grinding your teeth
It's called bruxism, and most people who do it, do it in their sleep. According to a study financed by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH and the National Institute on Aging, the likelihood of someone grinding their teeth is directly related to things like emotional stability and stress. Surprisingly, it's not just a human correlation, either, and the same findings have been confirmed in rats.
In the study, 470 women completed both a dental history survey (with 385 of them going through a full dental exam), along with a personality assessment. They found that those volunteers who scored high on scales for either objectivity, sociability, or emotional stability were much, much less likely to also grind their teeth. According to the Mayo Clinic, bruxism isn't exactly understood, but they also link it to things like emotional stress, anxiety, anger, frustration, or a highly competitive nature. They also say that for some, it's a coping strategy that helps focus attention into an outlet that, in the end, can be damaging not only to your teeth, but to your jaw.
If you're not sure whether or not you're grinding your teeth at night, the NHS says that some people might develop complications they notice when they're awake. That includes things like persistent headaches and earaches, along with jaw pain. Those that are prone to grinding their teeth at night might also find themselves clenching their teeth regularly throughout the day, although it's more rare to actually grind your teeth during the day. (Only about 20 percent of reported cases do.) They also say as much as 70 percent of cases are directly related to stress.
2.- You're developing auditory and verbal hallucinations
Exploding head syndrome sounds terrifying, and in the moment it happens, it can be. It's the technical term for hearing a deafening sound — usually compared to a gunshot or clap of thunder — when you're just drifting off to sleep. While there's no physical pain associated with it, it can cause all kinds of problems that even include increased anxiety around the time you're supposed to be falling asleep. It happens to women more than men, and it's more common among people over 50 years old. It's also been linked to high stress levels, although we're not entirely sure just why it happens to some people.
In a study done by researchers from the University of Vienna and the University of Dunham, the presence of verbal hallucinations was also linked to high levels of stress and anxiety. It's defined as hearing "alien" voices that say any number of things, most often related to a person's biggest stressors. According to surveys completed by volunteers, verbal hallucinations increased during times of increased stress and anxiety, and many reported that emotional distress existed before the hallucinations and wasn't caused by them. Many reported heightened levels of stress and anxiety immediately before and during the hallucinations, and for some, they add to feelings of stress, social anxiety, and depression.
3.- Your allergy attacks are more severe.
If you suffer from allergies, chances are good you know not only the warning signs, but what you're in for. According to a study by The Ohio State University, if you're experiencing an allergy attack that's more severe than you're used to, part of that might be due to your stress levels.
Researchers found that not only were initial allergic reactions worse in people experiencing high levels of stress, but they also found those reactions tended to last longer and remain much worse. The study looked at volunteers who had a medical history of various allergies, and then compared the body's response to allergens at times of low stress and high stress. People who underwent the tests (which involved not only exposure to allergens, but high-stress activities like reading aloud and giving a 10-minute speech) and were more stressed about their situation had reactions that were twice as bad as those people who weren't stressed. The high-stress group also continued to have an allergic reaction for several days, while the non-stress group recovered faster.
In a presentation to the American Psychological Association, the study's authors said they linked the body's increased reactions to the production of a stress hormone called catecholamines, along with increased levels of a protein called interleukin-6. The protein is related to one of the body's common responses to allergies: inflammation. The longer the stressor is in place, the more the body reacts and the longer — and more powerful — an allergic reaction will be.
4.- Overeating and weight gain.
Stress has a strange relationship with our eating habits. According to the Harvard Medical School, short-term stress shuts down our desire to eat due to the release of a hormone called corticotropin. That, along with the release of epinephrine, kick-starts our fight-or-flight response and pushes aside anything that's going to get in the way of that, including our desire to eat.
Usually, our stress responses disappear when the stressor disappears. But if that stressor doesn't go away, our body reacts in a different way with the release of cortisol. Instead of suppressing every urge that's not considered vital to our immediate survival, cortisol increases our motivation. That, unfortunately, increases our motivation to eat, too, and the higher our cortisol levels get, the more motivated we are.
Even as cortisol is pushing us toward food, it's been found that we (that is, moreso women than men) tend to turn to certain types of food. We call them comfort foods, and they're the ones that are usually high in fat and sugar content. Biologically, comfort food is exactly that. Harvard suggests foods high in fat and sugar actually act on the brain to counteract some of the worst feelings of stress, providing a relief that's only temporary. In 2007, a British study also found that our tendency to eat and gain weight when we're stressed varies by the individual, too, as people who produce more cortisol are more likely to stress eat. Ultimately, prolonged stress grooms us to seek out food-related relief, and that compounds into weight gain — especially when combined with other effects of stress, like a lack of interest in exercise, insomnia, and a tendency to drink more alcohol when we do partake.
5.- You're developing any number of skin issues.
There's a lot that's not understood about how our skin reflects what's going on inside us, and there's actually an entire field of study dedicated to it. It's called psychodermatology, and according to Harvard Medical School and experts from Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, many skin problems and complaints have a psychological component. There's a technical term for skin problems that are made worse by stress (and other emotions), too: psychophysiological.
According to Mark Mummert of the University of North Texas Health Science Center, the hormones and substances released by a body in a state of stress can impact the skin in a huge number of ways. If you're in a state of high stress, physical wounds and damage to your skin will heal more slowly than they normally would. Highly stressed people are likely to find their skin is more sensitive to painful stimuli like hot and cold, and stress might also make conditions like psoriasis, acne, rashes, rosacea, and eczema worse. Hair loss and the skin condition alopecia has also been linked to high-stress periods in life, particularly those that have to deal with an upheaval in family relationships. You might also find yourself suffering from chronic dry skin, too, as stress hormones have been found to negatively impact the skin's natural moisture balance.
You might also find that you're feeling abnormally itchy, and that can be a sign of high stress levels, too. According to a 2013 study in Experimental Dermatology, some of the chemicals released by the limbic system when it's under stress can impact the brain's ability and perception to detect itching. It's thought that chronic stress interferes with receptors in the brain, making us susceptible to chronic itch.
6.- You have more bad dreams than good.
The idea that bad dreams and persistent nightmares are a sign of stress in your waking life might sound a bit cliche, but it's absolutely true. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, only between two and eight percent of adults have nightmares, and it's been found that most of these nightmares are, in one way or another, an extension of the thoughts that occupy your waking hours.
At one time, it was thought that experiencing traumatic events in nightmares served as something of an emotional release for your brain. According to studies cited by Scientific American, that might not be the case at all. They found that people who experienced regular nightmares were more likely to suffer from anxiety while they were awake, and when researchers tried to use exposure to disturbing images to encourage study volunteers to have nightmares, they found those who had bad dreams were more impacted by things like stress and anxiety in their waking moments.
According to clinical psychologist Dr. Michael Nadorff, anxious and stressed people are more likely to wake up in the middle of a bad dream, cementing it in memory, while other people might not wake and might simply forget their stress dreams. It's also not unheard of for people to experience bad dreams so often that it starts to interfere with their daily life, and there's a name for that: Nightmare Disorder. It used to be called Dream Anxiety Disorder, and it's more common in girls and women. While nightmares typically get less and less common as we get older, frequent nightmares have been linked to a high, chronic state of stress.
Sometimes the stress is normal, if you're suffering from these symptoms it may indicate the stress in your life is becoming a problem that's interfering with your ability to function. If that's the case, what do you do?
The American Psychological Association says that some things that can help include setting limits on what demands you're placing on yourself, sharing your feelings with close friends or family members, and reminding yourself to try to keep a positive outlook wherever possible. They also suggest making a commitment to a single activity that will improve your overall health, like taking a short walk on your lunch break or cutting out that second cup of coffee in the morning. They also suggest trying some relaxation techniques to help you get a better night's sleep, and also say that if stress is interfering with your daily life, psychologists can give you any number of techniques to help it all become more manageable.
Dont worry, just let it go things and you'll see the difference. Hakuna Matata :D and you'll be free.