Title: Reflection on stress management

Date: 3/Oct/2022

Introduction

The aim of this essay is a reflection on stress management. Potential stress triggers include academic, social, financial, medical, and environmental challenges. The level of stress tolerance varies depending on individual personality and life experience. Although stress cannot be avoided, understanding the causes, and poses of danger, helps better coping and manage stress more systemically and constructively.

Understanding stress and its cause

“Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, increases sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances your brain’s use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues. Cortisol also curbs functions that would be nonessential or harmful in a fight-or-flight situation” (Mayo Clinic, 2018). Generally speaking, the disrupted natural changes in our built-in autoimmune system cause stress and protect us from threats or danger. In contrast, this flight-flight-freeze (FFF) response also benefits us to be more focused and helps us learn more effectively. Improve our performance until we reach our optimal level. It also protects our well-being physically and mentally.

Unmanaged stress and its dangers

Unable to cope and manage stress causes physically and mentally harm to us. Physical harm, e.g., anxieties, keep you awake during sleep and disrupt the quality of rest, affecting your skin and causing skin problems like acne, psoriasis, alopecia, eczema etc. Research studies also provided evidence-based proof that patients with chronic stress get sick more frequently and require a longer time for wound healing. Stress also activates our autoimmune system, which affects our brain to send out signals which causes increased secretion of adrenaline into the bloodstream and cause an increase in heart rate and blood pressure, posing damage to the heart. Additionally, it also simulates and affects hormone responses that cause gastrointestinal problems, e.g., heartburn, indigestion, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea.

Coping and managing stress

Based on the fact that stress cannot be avoided, and evidence-based harm caused related to accumulated and chronic stress developed, systemic and constructive coping and managing skills are essential for stress management. Doctors and health care professionals advised that consuming a regular healthy diet, e.g., fruits and vegetables, regularly exercising, and achieving at least seven and half hours of sleep daily, help reduce stress levels. Mentally prepare yourself, e.g., get well-organized your task based on your energy level, better time planning and managing tasks ahead, take a regular break between tasks, set a manageable goal, take things slowly and reward yourself with achievement, and avoid procrastination, which can also minimise stress. Develop hobbies and interests, e.g., listening to music, drawing, dancing, etc., and maintain a healthy social network, talk to someone, e.g., friends, family members, social workers, specialists, or GP, when feeling overwhelmed or stressed out of control. Lastly, acknowledge and accept that no one is perfect, forget yourself, face fear confidently, and try to attempt. Take these opportunities as a challenge to develop better coping and managing stress.

Summary

In conclusion, stress is not avoidable, but it is also not fearful if we understand that it is a natural cause of our autoimmune and hormone responses when we face uncertainty and things get overwhelming. Acknowledging the importance of keeping a work-life balance, regular exercise, acquiring quality sleep, and sharing feelings with others helps reduce anxiety and stress systemically and constructively.

Reference

Mayo Clinic, Healthy Lifestyle Stress Manage (2018). Available at: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037#:~:text=Cortisol%2C%20the%20primary%20stress%20hormone,fight%2Dor%2Dflight%20situation(Accessed on 2^nd Oct 2022)