Stressful situations are unavoidable. However, most of us assume that, therefore, stress is an inherent part of life. In reality, things are a little more complicated. While you can’t prevent unpleasant events from happening, you have control over the way you choose to react. Stress is not an event, but it is a response to this event.
There’s no denying that stress can get to you quickly. It is also a natural response that is part of human nature. Stress activates your survival instinct. When you think of our ancestors surviving in the wild, stress becomes a useful and meaningful response. But stress in our everyday life doesn’t help us survive. On the contrary, it affects health in damaging ways. Here’s how stress can have lasting consequences:
Every office is hectic
Stress is one of the most frequent complaints about the workplace. Tight deadlines, bossy managers, demanding clients, you name it, every office has one of those. But if you don’t learn to manage your response to these typical workplace situations, you’re going to struggle in the long term. Taking regular breaks to free up your mind and creating a soothing ritual before going to work can do wonders. When you let work stress get to you, you make yourself more vulnerable to burnout syndrome and depression.
Additionally, under high stress, your performance can suffer too, affecting your career in the long term, leading to loneliness, low self-esteem, and unhealthy coping habits. In other words, every job is stressful. But that doesn’t mean it should dictate your life.
Stress and alcohol, a vicious circle
We all know about coping mechanisms. Some people meditate and some have opted for herbal supplements like Kona Kratom. Others choose to exercise. Healthy coping strategies are everywhere. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make them any more popular. Under pressure, most of us seek comfort in unhealthy choices. Perhaps, it’s a cheeky donut to lift your mood. But when sugar becomes your go-to answer, it can have dramatic consequences on the body and the mind. The infamous sugar rush doesn’t eliminate stress; it aggravates it in the long term! You’re likely to have a similar experience if you replace your go-to donut with a go-to drink. Alcohol doesn’t alleviate stress. It adds more stress to your body. The many ways in which alcohol can damage your body are well documented. But what you may not realize is that it can also create additional problems, bringing more stress into your life. Vasek & Robbins Criminal Defense Attorneys have a long experience supporting clients going through the pressure of a DUI conviction. Many of their clients share a familiar pattern: They were already dealing with a lot of stress when the conviction happened.
You’re never too stressed to be with your loved ones
When you give in to stress, you tend to gravitate toward self-isolation and loneliness. Stress can come between you and your friends and family, causing unnecessary frictions that weigh you further down. It is the start of a vicious circle that can be tricky to break.
The days when stress could help you survive in a tough situation are long gone. Nowadays, our society is creating destructive stress, which goes against survival. You can’t stop bad things from happening. But you can choose how you respond to them. Stress is not an appropriate response anymore. Take a step back and reachout to a supportive friend before you let stress get to you.
