HIGH STRESS SYMPTOMS

HIGH STRESS SYMPTOMS

 

Recognise your stress and stressors when all seems calm.

 

      Most people recognise stress and the signs of stress. Being quickly irritated, short tempered, and unhappy with situations that never seem to change or improve. Feeling left out, unwanted, unappreciated, constantly experiencing low moral, regular headaches and associated notions of being stuck in situations you would rather not be in the middle of but see no way out of.

     Those things are bad enough. And they should be taken greater notice of instead of being aggressive with someone who is probably innocent and just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yes, that poor unsuspecting person who by chance is unlucky enough to have walked into your company and your stress mood.

     OK, that’s enough of that I’m not here to beat you up, rather to open your awareness to something really important when it comes to managing massive stress.

    What I am talking about here is those powerful also sometimes subtle stress signs that are actually hammering on your pain centres to say STOP!

     What do most of us do? That’s right, we go to the doctor, osteopath, chiropractor, or dive into the pharmacy for some pain killers. What else do we do? Yes, we ignore the message to stop. We do the worst thing possible by putting all our energy into doing what is necessary to keep on going. Keep on doing what we have been doing. Keep on doing all those things that maintain and add to our existing stress load.

     Mostly stress sufferers are aware of most stressors and keep promising themselves they will do something about them before hiding them into the deeper recesses of their mind. But what about the other signs of massive stress that seem to have no connection to the stress level. One symptom that frequently strikes men is crippling back pain in the lower back. These attacks seem to suddenly arrive for no apparent reason when the person is possibly walking, getting up from a chair, or doing something neither emotionally challenging nor physically demanding.

     Certainly there is one physical movement that will put you on your back for ten days that arrives the day you leave for that long awaited or long dreaded summer holiday.

     How to put yourself out of action for 10 days! Pack your holiday suitcase to the limit while getting really stressed and hating the very idea of the journey to the aeroport. Then the flight followed by the hassle of finding your hotel, booking in and finally unpacking. Once your suitcase is packed and you have managed to close the zip fasteners, pull it to the edge of the bed. Now stand up, face the exit door, without moving your feet rotate your upper body, grab the suitcase and head for the door jerking the suitcase off the bed. If that does not have you on your back on the floor in 3 seconds in absolute agony be assured it will at some later moment when you are least suspecting it.

     My personal experience plus those of clients and friends who have experienced or frequently experience such back pains reveals an interesting pattern.

     I have noted many clients and friends who live high stress lives mostly due to their jobs or their personal lives. The times that they have collapsed with severe back pain on the first day of their summer holiday is significant. Despite treatment by an osteopath, chiropractor or masseur such therapies invariably have little beneficial  effect until the last day or two of the holiday.

     I have realised a scenario that may sound strange even bizarre yet in my study of the neuro science of inner intelligence and thinking patterns it comes to make a great deal of sense. It goes something like this. The first day of your holiday you know you can relax because you do not have to wind yourself up into that stress performance for Monday morning and the rest of the week. Imagine that your seventh sense inner intelligence suddenly wakes up to the fact that you are ready to relax. It knows that very quickly you will be hit by all sorts of other stressors before too long so now is the time to act. Your inner intelligence first gets you to be careless about moving that heavy suitcase or some other heavy item. Your 7^th sense knows that within 3 seconds to 24 hrs. you will be in such agony there is no chance of doing anything other than lay down, take things easy and just relax for 10 days because it is simply too painful to move. The interesting common occurrence is that the holiday back syndrome does not strike until you arrive in the hotel. There is an interesting logic to this. If the back pain occurs immediately there is a chance you will cancel the holiday, which is not necessarily a good thing. When the back pain strikes in the hotel you have few options but to lie down and let go. The next interesting observation is that all the pain always seems to disappear by the time the unfortunate person is ready to resume their work. There is an interesting neuro feedback strategy that responds to escaping a family stressor back to the office. I’ll explore this in another article.

     The above scenario is just one stress symptom. There are untold others out there somewhere. Your job is to find and recognise the signs or symptoms of massive stress that frequently slow you down. Then you should be looking for the connected stressor or stressors. If you cannot do this yourself go out and find a qualified a coach who can give you a hand.

      Now, forget about meditation, guided relaxation, having fun, workouts at the fitness club or whatever else you have been trying to do to lower your stress. If you do not take notice of your 7^th sense messages and do something about recognising your stressors your anti-stress strategies are a waste of time and effort. The only solution is in taking action to break those vicious circles. Why? Because your 7^th sense or inner intelligence will not give up until you do change your life.

     What is the alternative? Well, it’s not difficult to predict because it is so common these days. Your 7^th sense and inner intelligence simply stops you in your tracks. Yes, BURNOUT. I really do not care what burnout means to you. Whatever level of burnout it’s all bad news.

     I know the decisions are difficult, let’s face it you have been creating your own trap for years. Therefore, the way out is rarely if ever simple or easy. Yes we all have to think about our job, finances and all those other things that are essential. The most valuable awareness is that there are options even though we may not see them.

     What are the consequences of not taking action? Well the list is fairly short so it is easy to follow.

1. FOLLOWING BURNOUT THERE IS:
2. LOOSING YOUR JOB OR BUSINESS.
3. LOOSING YOUR HOME because you cannot afford the mortgage payments or your wife takes it in the divorce settlement.
4. LOOSING YOUR WIFE AND CHILDREN.
5. LOOSING YOUR CAR, BOAT, LIGHT AEROPLANE, GOLF CLUB MEMBERSHIP, ETC.
6. LOOSING YOUR FRIENDS.

 

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE MOST SERIOUS AND THE MOST DIFFICULT TO RECOVER!!!

1. LOOSING YOUR SELF CONFIDENCE.
2. LOOSING YOUR VISION FOR THE FUTURE.
3. LOOSING THE CAPABILITY TO MAKE THINGS HAPPEN.
4. LOOSING YOUR SOUL IN DESPERATION AND DESPAIR.

There are two more that are really extraordinarrily serious that deserves their own place.

• LOOSING ALL SENSE OF YOUR REASON TO BE.
• LOOSING YOUR SENSE OF IDENTITY.

 

     The above is a stark warning. The trouble is that hundreds of thousands of people are doing all the wrong things and hitting the 10 list above every day.

     Do you really want to join the list? The sad fact is that if you are reading this article you are most probably already in deep trouble. If so it is only you who can make the decision to change your life. Why not start right now before things really get serious or are you there already?

 

Robert Denton   personal anti-stress coach, sports/mind and performance coach, neuro science coach

info@asr-key.ch