Signs that you don’t know how to deal with stress

Stress is an integral part of our lives. Whether you want it or not, stressful situations will often arise. Although you cannot control external circumstances, you can work with yourself: your perception, emotions, reactions to events, etc. If you learn to recognize the first signs that stress is getting the better of you, you will be able to develop effective strategies for dealing with such situations. Here are some key signs that you should pay attention to.

8 signs that you don’t know how to deal with stress

1. You can’t focus on the problem

When stress hits you, adaptive perception is the first to suffer. If you find that constant anxiety makes it difficult to focus on solving a particular problem, then stress has gotten the better of you. At such moments, your thoughts are constantly confused and jump from one to the other, trying to solve the situation that is bothering you.

You can’t think about anything else, but your problems and this state can unsettle you so much that the problems will start to multiply due to your absent-mindedness. As a result, instead of purposefully moving towards a solution, you can remain stuck for a long time, watching your situation worsen.

2. You’re constantly deviating from the plan

Planning is a powerful tool for ensuring stability in life. However, under stress, our brain often loses the ability to adhere to the planned course. You may find that your thoughts and actions are chaotic despite your plan of action. This can manifest itself in ignoring daily routines, as well as in the inability to adhere to long-term goals. Visit. A F R I N I K . C O M . For the full article. If you can’t act based on a plan, you make mistakes, overlook important details, and complicate your work process. You need to learn how to deal with your feelings to ensure a serious approach to business.

3. You do feel depressed or lost for a long time

Feeling depressed or feeling like you’re lost and don’t know what to do is a clear sign of severe and prolonged stress. If you’re living at the limit of your abilities, experiencing intense anxiety every day, then you probably don’t know how to deal with the situation that’s bothering you. Besides, you don’t understand how to regulate your emotions, which makes your situation even more difficult.

Where another person would be able to calm down and take several necessary solutions to fix the problem, you cannot disconnect from disturbing thoughts. If you notice that this condition has become habitual, perhaps it’s time to realize that stress has become your constant companion. It’s no longer a temporary discomfort but a lifestyle; you do nothing to change it.

4. You often react to problems emotionally rather than rationally

This is an alarming signal if your emotions become the main driving force during stress. As soon as something insignificant happens, you’re already seething with anger or sinking into deep sadness. Even if logic tells you the problem is temporary and solvable, your feelings still get the better of you, and you give up on it.

This condition makes you a hostage to your own emotions, making it impossible to look at the situation sensibly and objectively assess your strengths. Constant emotional outbursts only contribute to the fact that you are in a vicious circle without a clear understanding of how to continue moving forward.

5. You avoid difficult situations instead of solving them

You don’t know how to deal with stress if you’re trying to avoid difficult situations. No matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to avoid all the difficulties. Even if it seems to you that this tactic is advantageous, and you feel temporary relief by avoiding another problem, it won’t last long. First of all, you will still face difficulties. But with unaccustomed habits, as well as with severe stress, you risk coping with them much worse.

Secondly, the easy and safe way is almost always cheating. You either deliberately make the wrong choices, convincing yourself that it’s better this way, or you hope to achieve what you want in other ways, postponing this process for later. In either case, you simply minimize your chances of success while anxiety and stress remain with you.

6. You are experiencing physical symptoms of stress

Stress affects not only your emotional state but also your physical one. You may feel constant tension in your muscles, especially in the shoulders and neck, suffer from headaches that occur for no apparent reason, and experience disruptions in your stomach and intestines due to anxiety. All these symptoms are signals from your body that your mental and emotional stress has reached a critical level.

It may seem to you that the specifics of your job or certain life difficulties should cause such a reaction and that this is entirely normal. But it’s not like that: normally, you should be able to cope with stress, not survive on your last legs. If the physical symptoms listed above occur frequently and persist for a long time, then this requires your immediate intervention. Ignoring this condition will only worsen the situation, which can greatly affect the deterioration of your health.

7. You can’t relax even in your free time

Even if you have a demanding job with frequent stress, you will have time to relax. If you can’t afford it even during breaks, after the end of the working day, or on weekends, you should reconsider your attitude to problems. They have always been and will always be, but at the same time, your thoughts cannot always be occupied with work issues or difficulties you may encounter soon.

Coping with stress is the ability to disconnect from thinking about upcoming tasks or unfinished business. You have to take care of yourself and your body and give your body a well-deserved rest. Therefore, try to find time for activities that satisfy you and allow you to fully immerse yourself in the process, forgetting about external stress factors.

8. You’re delaying important tasks for later, exacerbating stress

Another sign that you get lost in stressful situations is procrastination. Suppose you regularly postpone important tasks to avoid the unpleasant sensations associated with their completion. In that case, you are not only not moving forward but also significantly aggravating your condition. The problem you left for tomorrow will not go away or be solved. Things will accumulate and eventually start to put pressure on you, demotivating you even more and making you anxious.

When you postpone tasks for later, you drive yourself into a vicious circle that becomes more difficult to break every day. In addition, procrastination creates feelings of guilt, which adversely affects your well-being. Instead of constantly dragging your feet on completing tasks, you should learn to set priorities correctly and break down large goals into smaller ones.