Stress is part of life and this world. To be feeling stressed at times is a normal response to situations that are challenging or demanding, some people would argue that a level of pressure and stress is helpful to them at times and even motivating.

However, prolonged heightened levels of stress in the body can lead to health issues some of which can be serious. Stress can cause lots of symptoms, these can by physical, mental and behavioural.

They may include these physical symptoms; headaches, muscle pain and tension, stomach problems, chest pain and increased heart rate or low libido. If you’re experiencing stress you may have some of these mental symptoms; forgetfulness, feeling overwhelmed, poor concentration, finding decision making harder than usual as well as worrying about lots of things some of which you may not of worried about previously.

Your behaviours may also be altered by stress, you could; be more snappy or irritable, sleeping more or less, eating more or less, had an increase in drinking, smoking or other drug use. If you think stress is impacting your daily life and you want to improve your stress management skills counselling may be helpful to you. Please get in touch if this is something you may want to explore.