The Impact of Stress on Your Health and How to Manage It

Did you recently have a challenging work-related deadline, or a tough time paying the home loan EMI due to high interest rates, or a fight with a loved one? The common effect of all these is stress! If it's a one-off, you will soon overcome it and continue your daily routine. However, if it's recurring, watch out, as it can impact your health in the long run.

What is stress?

Stress is being in a constant state of worry or mental tension, which is the result of a challenging situation or phase. Everyone experiences some stress in life at some or the other stage. Infact, some stress can be good as it will help you deal better with the challenging situation and come out of it quickly. However, recurring or daily stress that continues for a prolonged period is bad.

Different people react differently in a stressful situation. Some people express it by letting out their emotions in the form of anger, worry, crying, sadness, being violent, etc. On the other hand, some people suppress their emotions, which is not good in the long run.

Causes of stress

Some of the common causes of stress include the following:

1) Finances

If your finances are in poor shape, it can be a constant source of stress. Some people have too much debt, resulting in most or all of their monthly income getting spent on paying EMIs and regular expenses. Very little money is left for savings and investments.

You can overcome this situation by following a budgeting method like the 50:30:20 budgeting. As per this budgeting method, you can distribute your monthly income as follows:

a) 50% for needs (essential non-negotiable spends),

b) 30% for wants (discretionary spends, lifestyle, and enjoying life),

c) 20% for savings and investments

The 50:30:20 budgeting method helps you maintain a balance between spending money towards enjoying life in the present and investing for future financial goals.

2) Work

Work is a cause of constant stress for some people. Long working hours, stringent deadlines, difficult to handle supervisors and colleagues, toxic work culture, etc., can all lead to stress at the workplace.

To overcome work-related stress, maintain a work-life balance by limiting working hours. Maintain a to-do list and prioritise your tasks. Talk to your supervisor about your workload or to HR if your supervisor is not cooperating. Stay away from negative people.

3) Relationships

If your relationship with family member(s) has strained, it can be a source of constant stress. A quarrelling spouse, dominating parent(s), or child constantly throwing tantrums, etc., can lead to a lot of stress.

You can overcome the stress by having an open dialogue in a transparent manner with the family member. Tell them how their behaviour is stressing you. If it is still not working, you may going for a couple’s therapy that will help you understand each other better.

4) Family member’s illness

If a family member is ill for a long time and dependent on you for everything, it can lead to stress and burnout. To overcome the stress, you can hire a caregiver.

Impact of stress

Stress can impact your health physically as well as mentally. Some of the effects of stress include the following:

1) Losing focus

When your mind is preoccupied with stress and worry, you tend to lose focus. You cannot concentrate on your work and other tasks. You even tend to become forgetful about various tasks.

2) Lack of sleep

Prolonged stress and a constant state of worry can impact your sleep. It can lead to taking time to fall asleep, fewer sleep hours, interruption between sleep, etc. Lack of sleep over the previous night will affect your mood and work the next day.

3) Emotional changes

Constant stress can bring about emotional changes in a person's personality. A person can become aggressive, i.e., irritable, violent, or the opposite, i.e., worried, quiet, sad, etc.

4) Mental illness 

In the case of many people, constant stress may eventually lead to a mental illness like anxiety, depression, etc.

5) Physical changes and illness

Stress is not just restricted to causing mental illness. It can also lead to physical condition. Stress can impact your appetite. In the case of some people, their appetite is lost, and they eat less. On the other hand, during stressful times, some people binge on unhealthy foods like chocolates, ice-creams, pizzas, soft drinks, etc. As a result, they gain weight.

During times of stress, some people pickup bad habits like smoking or alcohol. If the person already smokes or consumes alcohol, during times of stress the intake increases.

Thus, stress can lead to various physical illnesses, such as obesity, weight loss, digestive issues, high blood pressure, etc. With continuous stress and these physical illnesses, an individual may eventually develop a critical illness, such as cancer, heart disease, etc.

Managing stress

The earlier section discussed the impact of stress on our physical and mental well-being. Let us now look at some of the ways of managing stress.

1) Follow a routine

Make a routine where you allocate time to all important activities like exercise, work, family, self-development, sleep, health, enjoyment, etc. When you allocate a decent amount of time to all important activities, you will be in control of things. If you cannot give time to a particular activity, make adjustments to other activities and take the required action. That way, you will be able to manage stress better.

2) Healthy eating habits

Healthy eating is an essential part of stress management. Include fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet that are healthy and nutritious. Avoid junk foods, sugary foods, etc., especially during stress, as these tend to be the go-to foods during stress. You can consult a nutritionist to make a healthy diet plan that you can follow regularly.

3) Proper sleep routine

A proper sleep routine should include sleeping and waking up at the same time and completing at least 7-8 hours of sleep every day. Avoid alcohol and caffeine a few hours before bedtime. Switch off the television, gadgets, and mobile a couple of hours before sleep. Make sure the bedroom is dark and cosy. During sleep, the body repairs and rejuvenates so that you can make a fresh start the next day. Regularly following a good sleep routine can go a long way in managing stress.

4) Exercise

Engage yourself in some form of exercise regularly. It can include weight training, cardio, functional training, yoga, walking, jogging, dance, or any combination. Exercise is a big stress buster. You should exercise at least 4-5 days a week.

5) Meditation

Meditation is one of the best ways of combating stress. It helps relax your mind and body. Develop a regular meditation routine by dedicating time to it every day. Meditating first thing in the morning when you get up is ideal. However, if that is not possible, you may meditate anytime during the day.

Along with meditation, you can follow other techniques like journaling, positive affirmation, emotional freedom technique (EFT), etc. to manage stress.

6) Work-life balance

At times, work can get demanding and take away some family time. However, you shouldn’t allow it to become a regular thing. You should have a proper work-life balance and follow it. Spend time regularly with family, relatives, friends, etc. Spend some leisure time on weekends. Take up a hobby and nurture it. Once or twice a year, take a family vacation.

Health insurance is essential

All the activities discussed in the above section will help you manage stress. However, if stress becomes too overwhelming and manifests as a mental or physical illness, you must consult a doctor. If hospitalisation is required, a health insurance plan can help you pay for hospitalisation costs.

From 31st October 2022, IRDAI has mandated that health insurance policies provide coverage for mental illness along with physical illnesses. All ManipalCigna Health Insurance policies cover mental illness.

Recognise the stress and deal with it

Stress is more common than most people think. However, having stress once in a while is okay. But it becomes problematic when it becomes recurring or daily. The first step is to recognise it and manage it. The article has outlined the causes and impact of stress and ways to manage it. While you should take all possible steps to manage stress, you should always have a health insurance policy . Prolonged stress can manifest into physical or mental illness. The best way to manage stress is to identify the triggers and deal with them.