We are all getting increasingly stressed and stress puts anyone under psychological pressure making it more difficult to have your mind perform to its optimum ability, and also making it more of a challenge to handle, process and regulate the intense emotions that being in a stressed state can activate.
According to the (Mental Health Foundation) during 2017, a UK-wide stress survey found that almost three quarters of adults (74%) have at some point over that past year felt so stressed they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope.
When we look at males in particular, the survey showed:
- 67% of males had felt so stressed at some point over the last year they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope.
- 29% of males said they had experienced suicidal feelings as a result of stress.
- 13% of males said they had self-harmed as a result of stress.
Being highly stressed can become a ‘triple threat’ to our wellbeing in terms of:
- The impact stress itself has on our body, mind and moods.
- The ‘impairment’ to optimum mental and emotional functioning that stress can contribute to.
- The risk of turning to ‘unhelpful’ means to try to self-regulate or mitigate our stress levels (such as alcohol or drug use).
A certain level of stress over a short period of time can be useful for us and expected (say if you are about to go into an exam or are up for a promotion at work), but if your levels of stress remain high over a long period of time this can start to cause you damage.
If you know the stressful period will end soon (e.g. once the exam is taken), or you have found a constructive routine to discharge stress (such as exercising etc.), this will be of some help. However, if you anticipate the stress will continue for a long period of time, or you are unsure how to handle it, it might be time to think about a plan of action to manage and reduce stress levels in your life.
In the first instance, the Get Self Help website has some free information and downloadable resources to help you understand stress and its impact and has suggestions on how to help manage things.
Visit the Get Self Help website to access that information.
If you think you need more proactive support to restructure your life and develop a ‘toolkit’ of coping mechanisms, get in touch with MANN uP.