Signs and Symptoms of too much stress, and 5 Things to do about it
Over the last month, I have noticed that more and more of my patients are coming in with unexplainable symptoms. Some of these symptoms are simple, like minor aches and pains or low energy, but some are more serious like chest pain, chronic insomnia, or vertigo.
The other thing I have noticed is that stress is on the rise. The increased numbers of COVID cases, financial problems caused by the pandemic, being stuck at home and feeling cut off from our social lives – all these things have been taking a toll on our stress levels.
This is why I want to talk this week about what stress is, how it can affect our bodies, and what we can do about it. As we leave the craziness of 2020 behind and welcome a new year, I hope that we all can be more equipped to understand for ourselves how stress can manifest in our bodies and how we can get rid of these symptoms for good.
First off, what is stress? Well, stress is our body’s natural physical, mental, and emotional response to change requiring adaptation. Stress was really important for our species during hunter-gatherer times. If we saw a tiger in the far distance, our bodies became physically stronger, our minds became mentally more alert, and we could feel the emotion of fear – just enough to get ourselves away from that tiger before it got us.
We still need stress in certain situations today. If we are driving and we see someone driving directly towards us, it is our stress response that would help you turn the wheel and get out of the way. Or if there is an earthquake, it is our stress response that gets us to run to safety. Stress is what allows us to adapt to change in our environment and our daily lives.
The issues come when our body is chronically stressed. If we are in a stress response most of the time, our nervous system becomes fatigued and we start experiencing symptoms.
3 stages of stress
1. Alarm Stage
2. Resistance Stage
3. Exhaustion Stage
Here are the 3 stages of stress:
Alarm stage: initial reaction activates our “fight-or-flight” response.
I see the tiger. Do I want to fight the tiger or run away from it? Cortisol and epinephrine hormones flood into my blood. My heart rate increases, pupils dilate, I am motivated, alert, and ready to do anything needed to survive!
2. Resistance stage: Continuous hormone release (eg. cortisol and epinephrine) to continue engaging the body.
Oh no! I forgot about my big exam tomorrow! I am going to stay up all night and study.
3. Exhaustion stage: Body unable to maintain increased “fight-or-flight” activity over time.
I have too much work to do, and not enough time to do it. I am exhausted, frustrated, irritable, and tense. I have weird aches and pains, feel dizzy, and have been sick twice in the last couple months!
Now, here is a key point. It is important for us to really understand the symptoms of chronic stress. It is easy for us to think of the emotional symptoms of stress like irritability, mood swings, feeling unable to cope. However, our symptoms of chronic stress don’t always show up this way. Sometimes the symptoms show up more physiologically – like a chronic headache, nausea, increased spasms, dizziness, imbalance, fatigue, fogginess, or memory loss. This happens because our neurological “fight-or-flight” response is unable to keep up with what we are asking our bodies to achieve. We start experiencing a lack of ability to adapt.
What isn’t talked about enough is that stress is not just a psychological response. If you are going to the gym three times a day, seven days a week, you are putting stress on your body. If you are already suffering from an illness or injury, your body is already under stress. Let's go back to that medical definition of stress:
Stress - our body’s natural physical, mental, and emotional response to change requiring adaptation.
If you are adapting to a new workout regime, that’s stress. If you are adapting to a new injury, that’s stress. Even a women’s menstrual cycle causes a level of stress on the body. Adapting to a new stimulus, like a tiger in the distance, is not the only type of stress.
**Please note: I am not saying that you should stop working out your body. Remember what I said before that not all stress has a negative effect. The negative effect comes when you are trying to adapt too much (ie. the exhaustion stage) and our body’s are not able to catch up.
Why is this important to understand? Well, studies have shown that short-term stress boosts our immune system, vitality, and even longevity. However, chronic stress has a significant effect on the immune system that ultimately manifests into illness or injury.
Stress
I like to think of it like a bucket of water that we don’t want to overflow.
I like to think of it like a bucket of water that we don’t want to overflow. Maybe you had to wake up early this week because of a work project, that’s a bit of water in the bucket. Then you decide to start a new workout regime 3-days a week starting today, that’s a bit more water in the bucket. Then your kid forgets his science project, so you need to drive home at your lunch break to bring it for him – a little bit more water in the bucket. You get a horrible visa bill, a bit more. Then you get sneezed on and your immune system is fighting to make it so you don’t get sick, a little bit more in the bucket… ok, now we are almost full. So, you go home that night and your partner asks you to take out the garbage… something that would seem so easy on any other day, but now you have had enough and you explode at them, leaving you feeling guilty… a bit more water in the bucket… just enough to tip the water over the edge.
Now this happens day in and day out and you are reaching an exhaustion phase. (Ie. your water has been overflowing for a while). You are starting to experience headaches, old injuries are starting to creep back into your life, you seem to never remember where you put your keys, and you think – oh no, something is wrong – I need to go see Britte and get checked out!
I’ll let you in on a little secret… I have dealt with my fair share of exhaustion. When I was in university, I used to look at all the blogs, videos, books, you name it, on how to live optimally, and I admittedly expected too much of myself. My first iPod Shuffle had the term “outrun mediocrity” engraved on the back of it. I would fill it with motivational talks that would say on repeat that I was a coward if I gave up. That way I would never miss a day. For me, I ended up with a huge case of adrenal fatigue.
You know what that required of me? A life of headaches, fatigue, and irritability. I would find myself a bit happy when I got injured or sick because I would have a legitimate excuse to take a break. One of my close friends later told me that they thought they had lost me because I was not acting like the happy, always-positive self I once was. Sure, I succeeded in completing many tasks, but at what cost? Was I even enjoying my life?
When I finally crashed, I could easily sleep 15 hours a day and still wake up feeling exhausted. I felt like even the smallest amount of work would leave me in a numb state for the next few days. I had to learn how to support a lifestyle that requires a lot of me if I wanted to keep up at that pace. It took a lot of learning about myself, my body, and my limits. Eventually I learnt how to manage my stress. I am not perfect by any means, but I feel like I do pretty well to notice the signs when I am tipping over into too much stress and I definitely know how to fix it.
As my present to you all for the holidays, I thought I would give you some at home strategies to help decrease your stress. These might not seem like the same strategies that you see in other blogs, but there is a good reason for that.
So, besides the common management techniques, like making sure I get enough sleep, eat healthy, exercise, take baths, and make room for me time, and always take at least a day off a week, there is more that you can do too. Here are my top 5 stress-management techniques that I always go to when I am starting to feel any symptoms of burnout.
Stop trying to control the outcome.
You can put all the procedures in place to limit your stress levels, however, there will always be things that show up in your day that can throw you off your game. The exam can be unreasonably hard, the meeting could go not as planned, and you can forget your lunch in the fridge. Whenever I get to the point that I feel like I have too much to do and not enough time to do it, I like to start managing my anxiety by reminding myself to stop trying to control the outcome. Things are going to happen the way they are going to happen. It is impossible to control the outcome. In fact, if I try to, all I am going to do is increase my stress levels and perform worse. I’ll ask myself what is the worst that could happen? Fail a test – ok, that just means I needed a bit more time to study and retake it. A meeting doesn’t go well – ok, we can have another one. Forgot my lunch – great, I now have dinner prepped.
If I try to control an outcome, I am not leaving room for my body to adapt. Stress will then manifest into emotional, physiological, biological, or behavioural symptoms.
I read this amazing quote in The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama, and I think it perfectly illustrates what emotion I am getting at when I decide to relinquish control of an outcome:
Dalai Lama…
“If you can do something about a situation, why worry? And if you can’t do something about a situation, why worry?”
2. Always letting myself off the hook
Getting mad at yourself for something you said or did is a recipe for stress. One of the other mantras I like to think about is always letting myself off the hook. Guilt is a powerful emotion that can lead to lots of unnecessary stress.
For instance, if I had 10 projects that I promised to get done by a certain date, and I am getting close to the deadline and I have maybe completed 2, I am not going to get mad at myself, start to feel guilty about the situation, go and call everyone involved and try to make them hear my side… I am simply going to wake up tomorrow and keep working on them. “Don’t stress, just do your best”
Or, if I made a wrong decision for something, I am not going to wallow in pity or punish myself. I am going to let myself off the hook and say “I did the best I could at the time, with the information I had, and the circumstances.” I simply learn from my mistakes and move on.
Now, let me clarify. Just because I am letting myself off the hook for anything and everything that I have done, said, or thought of in the past, this doesn’t mean I simply don’t care about the outcome of things. I still learn from my mistakes and work hard to change them in the future, but I do NOT get mad at myself or punish myself. This is a recipe for unwarranted stress.
3. Energy medicine
Energy Medicine is my lifesaver when I am under a lot of stress. If I have a big exam coming up and a full load of patients I need to see over the next few days leading up to it, I am always stressed. In this case, my mental work isn’t going to cut it. Sure, I can stop trying to control the outcome by realizing that I don’t have to ace every exam I take, and sure I can let myself off the hook for scheduling myself too thin in the first place, but it doesn’t change the fact that this week is going to be tough and I am going to need to persevere through. This is when I turn to energy medicine.
First thing I do is wake up an extra hour early (sometimes even more) on stressful days to meditate and do all my energy medicine exercises. Yes, you read that correctly – less sleep for me = more success. Why is that? Well, Abraham Lincoln once said “give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” If I wake up and make sure I am grounded, centered, and online, I am way better with my patients and I am much more effective at studying. It is like setting a reset button before I start my day.
First thing I do is wake up an extra hour early (sometimes even more) on stressful days to meditate…
The other thing I do is I always pre-book my Energy Medicine appointments the day before my exams, even if I feel like I need the time to study. Why? Well one time I didn’t have much time to study for an exam… ok, I had no time to study for an exam. I was so stressed out about it – thinking, “I have never failed an exam before! This is going to be awful!” Seeing that I was all stressed out, Becca offered to do a session on me the night before the exam. The morning of the exam was the first time EVER that I didn’t feel like waking up at 4am to prepare for it. I was weirdly confident that everything was going to work out for me. I remember thinking that possibly someone will ask me a question right before the test, which will be the answer I need. I felt so connected, that I was sure the answers were somewhere in my brain, and that if I simply didn’t stress out about the exam they will show up for me.
And that is exactly what happened. I walked out of that exam not knowing if I passed or failed, but I really didn’t care. (I didn’t even read the true and false questions to be really honest, I just circled the answer that I felt was lighter than the other – we talk more about that in our Remote Viewing and Lasting Change courses if you are interested in knowing more). Two weeks later when I got my results I was flabbergasted that I received a 98% on that exam! An exam that I didn’t even have time to study for! I also found out later that half the class failed… meaning it wasn’t even an easy exam.
Stress has an amazing way of making our brains not function correctly. I was right, the answers were in my brain somewhere. I just needed to get my anxiety out the way enough for me to find them. Thank you Energy Medicine!
Every body has specific needs…
4. Vitamin supplements
Ok, this is a big one. When I am exhausted or feel like I am running on empty, Becca always says “did you remember to take your vitamins?” I don’t know why I forget sometimes, but if you are in charge of running a 3 ring circus – which is most of us in the 21st century – you better be on top of eating enough nutrients to fuel you. If you have the luxury of going out, prepping, and cooking a variety of high-vibrational foods full of nutrients and value all the time, then good for you! I am not as lucky unfortunately. Yes, I eat healthy and exercise like any health-conscious person would be like, but I am also realistic. It would take some serious planning, organizing, prepping, and cooking to always be able to get all the nutrients I need from my food.
This is why I also take vitamin supplements, and I can tell you that if you have a good quality vitamin supplement regime full of vitamins that support your individual needs, you will feel so much better.
My vitamin regime is made for someone who gets tired from stress. Every vitamin I take serves a specific purpose. I do not recommend just blindly following my list, as from my experience, every body has specific needs and therefore you will get the most benefit from your own personalized list, but if you don’t have a nutritionist working with you then here is a good place to start:
Vitamin D3 – Based on Norman Shealy M.D, PhD’s research on vitamin D, I take approximately 5000 IUs to 10,000 IUs a day (that’s 70,000 IUs a week.) Yes, that is high. But recent studies have shown that most of the population is deficient in vitamin D, and it is the vitamin that allows you to absorb all your other vitamins. Without it, your immune system is at risk because you will not be able to absorb most of your other nutrients, even from food sources. So, if you do not live in a sunny climate year round and work outside, you are most likely not getting the dose you need on a daily basis.
B12 – I take a 1000 mcg tablet of a high absorbable vitamin B12 daily. This is your happy vitamin. It is also highly depleted in our current food sources so most people are also deficient in B12.
Adrenal support – This vitamin has the biggest effect on me. Herbs like ashwagandha root and ginseng have an amazing effect on our energy levels. If I am tired and take my adrenal support vitamin, I ALWAYS feel 1000% times better the next day. My favourite brand is the Adreno-Mend by Douglas Laboratories, but there are many decent adrenal support vitamins on the market.
Vitamin C – 1000mg of Ester-C daily. If I am starting to feel sick however, I jump to 1000mg of Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C twice a day (so 2000mg total daily). This is to keep my immune system high during times of stress especially.
If you want to find out which vitamin supplements would work best or you, you can book an appointment with our nutritionist Krista by clicking here.
5. Focus on the positives.
I know, this one is a bit taboo, but a psychologist once told me that this is the best way to train your brain out of a funk. My example is a little personal, but I wanted to tell it so that you can understand how this has helped me.
One of the biggest stressors for me is feeling like Core Potentials isn’t growing fast enough. About a year ago I found myself lying on the floor with my hand over my head wondering whether I will ever have enough time or money to make something bigger out of this company. I have big dreams, Becca too, but we always find ourselves struggling with maintaining our basic administrative duties, not to mention all the other projects. Is this ever going to change or should I just give up and go work at a clinic?
This was about my 100th time wondering the same thing. As I lied there on the floor, I thought “I must get out of this mind loop. I can’t live with this much financial and career stress. Something has got to change about the way I am thinking about this. I am tired of always finding myself in this same position, thinking about running away.”
This is when I remembered what the psychologist told me. Train your brain to think about the positives. I wouldn’t be continually going into work if I wasn’t gaining anything from working at Core Potentials. Figure out what those things are and focus on them when you are feeling like running away.
“Ok,” I thought “So what do I gain by working a Core Potentials?” Well, I love anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, biology, and the human body all together. I love figuring out people's physical problems and I love fixing them. I love chatting with my patients, hearing their life stories, and absolutely love helping them figure out how to live a healthier, happier life. I love teaching too, and love getting to be a part of creating and hosting top of the line courses in health and wellness. I love that I get to pick my own hours, and love leading my amazing team. I am so fortunate to get to own my own company and get to watch it mold into the cool business that it has become and is still becoming. I love that I use all my degrees and diplomas every day at work…
I could go on, but that is not the point. Our brains are hardwired to look at the negative about any situation. As soon as I started listing the positives my anxiety went down. Who cares if we are building it slow! Who cares whether I am running around like you would in any start-up company. I get to learn so much and I am so grateful for that.
So that’s it. My 5 top techniques to manage my stress, and I think I do a pretty good job at it. Yes, I still have those days or weeks that are a bit more stressful than others, but I am much more balanced than I used to be – and that is a huge improvement.
I think there is a bit of a taboo when it comes to admitting that we are stressed out. People don’t like being seen as vulnerable or unable to cope. I hope this article helps you understand that not all stress is under our control. We are adapting, growing beings that need to change in order to grow and live a purposeful life and our bodies are made to do that! We are meant to have a bit of stress in our lives, and stress is unavoidable. However, if you are dealing with some health issues, or are feeling burnt out, I hope you don’t get hard on yourself if you need to take a step back and recalibrate. By doing so, you might save yourself from much worse.
Warm hugs,
Britte