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Stress-Induced Insomnia – A Vicious Cycle

by Martin Neumann

Lack of sleep caused by stress is a combination that can literally kill you. Relaxation and sleep are two things that can truly make a difference in how your body and mind react to stress. Without those two elements, you run the risk of losing efficiency or entering into a collapse.

Stress-Induced Insomnia - A Vicious Cycle

It does not matter what you are fixing first – the stress or the insomnia, but unless at least one is fixed, they will both get worse. The effects of stress on your body and mind can slow your productivity and make your life much less enjoyable.

Stress can be fixed if you have a commitment to seeing it through. After the stress factors are reduced, sleep should come more easily.

Causes of Stress-Induced Insomnia

Too much stress in your life may cause insomnia and vice-versa. When you try to get through the day without getting enough sleep the night before, your efficiency will suffer and you will drag through the day, just increasing your stress again.

Sleep times vary from one person to another, but most adults should get 7 to 8 hours per night to keep up energy levels, keep up mental acuity to be able to get through the work day and maintain a good quality of life.

You may experience a short-term bout of acute insomnia that lasts for only a few days. A stressful event in your life might trigger this type of insomnia, but if you experience it for more than a month, you need to take immediate action.

Stress-induced insomnia may result in worrying or serious concerns about your health, finances, work or loved ones. You may also experience stress-induced insomnia if you’ve just gone through a divorce or lost a loved one.

Insomnia can be caused by various other motives as well, like medications, certain diseases, an irregular sleep schedule, a disruptive sleep environment, or a number of other lifestyle habits. It is always good to deal with the real cause in order to tackle the problem head on.

Symptoms of Stress-Induced Insomnia

Dealing with the symptoms of stress-induced insomnia can make you feel disconnected from most everyone and everything. You’re not as mentally alert and you might also be irritable and anxious.

Depression may set in and cause other problems such as fatigue and inability to focus on anything. You may never feel well-rested, even when you think you get a good night’s sleep.

Mood swings are also symptoms of stress-induced insomnia. Tension headaches and aches in the shoulders and neck are caused by stress and can keep you from getting a good night’s sleep without help from medications or relaxation techniques. If you’re finding it difficult to be around people, this may be another warning sign of insomnia taking its toll.

Tension headaches can be caused by stress-induced insomnia / Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

Stress-induced insomnia will increase your risk of developing chronic diseases. Heart disease, diabetes, premature aging and even an early death are just a few of the issues that could be caused by stress-induced insomnia. This type of insomnia can also cause people to eat more and gain weight, drink or take drugs and exercise less.

Those are all actions that cause negative consequences to our health. One of the most common risks of long-term, stress-induced insomnia is catching a common cold or any other virus coming around.

Weight gain can also be a health issue related to stress-induced insomnia. When stress hormones are released into the body, your preference for unhealthy foods containing sugar, fat and refined carbohydrates is increased.

If you haven’t had enough sleep, you get a double dose of stress hormones which can lead to binge eating. Seniors suffering from stress-induced insomnia may experience a slower healing process from medical procedures or surgeries.

If you don’t sleep well at night, you may be tense and feel back, shoulder and neck pain when you get up in the morning. Stress during the day at work or home may make the pain worse or cause inflammation that makes it more difficult to heal.

Treatments for Stress-Induced Insomnia

If there are worries that keep you awake at night, you need to start working on controlling your thoughts. Cognitive-behavioral therapy may have some interesting tools for you. One of these methods is thought challenging. If a negative thought comes to your mind, you simply challenge it. Is it really true? If not, just discard the thought that was coming to your mind.

Some people are getting all wrapped up about what may happen to them tomorrow. They tend to get worried about things that never may happen at all. Jesus gave some interesting counsel about that:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky: They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you more valuable than they are? And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life? … So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Today has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25-27 & 34

There are cases you need to make provision for something, and if it is for a good reason, go ahead and do what needs to be done. But to worry about something that probably never happens, or when it really happens you cannot change it, does not make any sense. If you believe in God, the best thing to do is to turn over your problems simply to Him, because He is able to take care of it all. And simply stop worrying, because it is probably not going to help you in any way.

You can find peace of mind by committing yourself to God in prayer. In order to do that, speak to God like a friend. Present him your worries, your struggles and your cares. Be honest. Tell whatever is on your heart. There is nothing too great for Him to carry, and nothing too small for Him to note. The more you are able to honestly express, the more you will be able to let things go.

Be confident! After having done your part, commit yourself into His hands, and accept whatever the outcome may be. We can conquer the stressors around us through the power that God is giving to us.

If you still have trouble falling asleep you can try a relaxing tea at night. Valerian and Passionflower are some herbs that can help you fall asleep easier.

A relaxing tea can help to fall asleep. Photo by Mareefe from Pexels

Sleep studies are done if nothing seems to help your insomnia or control your stress that’s keeping you awake at night. You’ll spend the night at a sleep center and during that time, your breathing, heart and brain waves and eye and body movement will be monitored.

If you’ve tried everything else but just can’t seem to get a good night’s sleep you may need to resort to meds for a short period, because the side effects of lacking a good night’s sleep are various. Just work on resolving quickly the underlying problems that caused your insomnia, so that you do not create a dependency on those medications.

Prevention Techniques for Stress-Induced Insomnia

After you get into the vicious cycle of stress-induced insomnia, you may have a long road to travel before you get back to a normal sleep pattern. The best thing you can do for yourself and your health is to prevent it from happening. But even if you are in the vicious cycle already, taking care of those basic measures will be fundamental to improve your quality of sleep.

One thing you can do if you suspect that the stress-related insomnia is caused by work is to set boundaries such as letting you spend time with family or relaxing in the evening without answering calls or emails.

Don’t get roped into so many requests that you can’t handle them all without acute stress. Just say no to the ones that aren’t that critical. Don’t check your email every few minutes. Designate a time during the day and let it go in the evening so your distractions are lessened.

Schedule the things you like to do in the evening hours. Other requests from friends or organizations should be secondary to what means the most to you and how you can unwind in the evening.

When you are at home and relaxing before bedtime, put your cellphone away. Take time to relax or converse without distractions – including the television. After you watch a program, turn off the television and avoid watching it just before bedtime or especially in the bedroom after you go to bed.

News is stressful to watch any time during the day, so limit what you watch that makes you stressful to 30 minutes or less per day. The same with your computer – don’t have it on and blinking at you when you’re trying to relax. Allow for no screen time for an hour before going to bed, be it computer, cell phone or TV.

During the daytime hours it’s important to stay active. Exercise helps to reduce stress so it doesn’t bother you at bedtime and promotes a great night’s sleep. You’ll also want to plan the bedtime hours to be consistent from one day to the next – even on weekends when possible.

Limit caffeine or alcohol and kick the smoking habit, if necessary. These substances can make your nerves jittery at bedtime and keep you from getting the required amount of sleep.

A bedtime ritual can help over time to relax your body and mind and ready it for a good night’s sleep. A warm bath, soft music or a few minutes of reading can go a long way to calm nerves and make you sleepy. Deep breathing exercises and progressive muscle relaxation may help you to relax. Make it a habit to commit yourself to God in prayer.

A relaxing bath can help wind down after a busy day. Photo by Craig Adderley from Pexels

When insomnia makes it difficult for you to function during the daytime hours, it’s best to see your doctor. A sleep disorder of any time may need special treatment other than the type you purchase over the counter.

You should be as committed to getting the full amount of restful sleep you need as much as you are to a healthy diet and exercise to keep your body in shape. You could suffer a poor quality of life for an extended period of time unless you get the stress – and the sleep problems under control. It is true especially with stress control: A healthy sleep is the best preparation to face the problems of tomorrow.

Do you want to understand how to cope with Stress in an all inclusive approach? Learn how to combat stress, mentally, physically, emotionally and strategically in your life. Download the Ten Minute Guide to Stress Control and start today to develop proper coping skills for your stress.

Do you need a guide to help you understand how to cope with Stress in an all inclusive approach? Learn how to combat stress, mentally, physically, emotionally and strategically in your life.

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Understanding Your Stress Hormones

by Martin Neumann

Did you ever face a doberman and you were not sure whether he is going to eat you? You felt your heart pounding? Or were you ever trapped in a traffic jam on the way to the airport, and no way to get there in time? I guess you felt the effects of stress hormones in your life. What are these hormones, and what are they doing in your life?

Understanding Your Stress Hormones

Biologically, stress is a healthy and normal response to any ‘stressor’. The purpose of stress is to prime our body for action in the face of a physical threat. This is called the “fight or flight” response. If you sit in your living room and a tiger walks in the door, how do you react? Well, your brain and your body needs to work overtime, to figure out an escape route for flight, or get prepared for a fight, and either way you definitely will need some extra energy for that. At this moment, the body releases a number of hormones such as adrenaline, norepinephrine, dopamine and cortisol. These chemicals in turn trigger our bodies to reduce our routine functions (such as our immunity and digestive system) and direct the blood to our brains and muscles. Meanwhile, the neurotransmitters will increase focus, awareness and bring on feelings of anxiety and perception of danger. Our heart rates also increase and ultimately, we end up far more on-edge and ‘wired’. Even our feeling of pain is reduced and our blood thickens to encourage clotting in case of injury. All this is involved in what we know as the ‘fight or flight’ response.

Adrenaline, along with norepinephrine are the hormones which are largely responsible for the immediate reactions we feel when stressed. Imagine you’re trying to change lanes in your car. Suddenly, from your blind spot, comes a car racing at high speed. You return to your original lane and your heart is pounding. Your muscles are tense, you’re breathing faster, you may start sweating. That’s adrenaline.

Cortisol and Chronic Stress

Cortisol on the other hand takes a few minutes to kick in, and helps to maintain a healthy balance while you are resolving your stress mission. One major function is providing energy by stimulating several catabolic reactions, that are transforming protein and fat into energy. It controls the release or action of a number of other hormones, and this way helps to maintain fluid balance and blood pressure, while regulating some body functions that aren’t crucial in the moment, like reproductive drive, immunity, digestion and growth. Some effects of cortisol can last even a couple of days.

Today’s stressors are normally not the tiger walking in the door, but an argument with a friend or bills that need to be paid will still trigger that same stress response. And anything that our mind perceives as a threat will be a stressor, like angry bosses, empty bank accounts, upset partners, deadlines at work, and public speaking appointments.

And this is where the problem comes in. The body´s stress response is very adequate for an acute physical stressor, because it allows us to run faster, to spot danger, and to fight when needed. Once the danger goes away, our parasympathetic nervous system would kick in putting us back into the ‘rest and digest’ state, and our body would recover.

But when your stressor is something chronic and abstract, like the conflicts in your team, or the debt that doesn’t just go away, it means you’re constantly in an alert state, with a constantly elevated level of cortisol. Too much cortisol can suppress the immune system, increase blood pressure and sugar, decrease libido, produce acne, cause learning difficulties, lapse of memory, loss of muscle mass, increased obesity and much more.

When we reach a point of continuous chronic stress, the glands producing all those secondary hormones are now going on strike, leading to a condition called glucocorticoid resistance. That means cortisol remains to be elevated, but our cortisol receptors and hormone glands become overwhelmed and resistant to its effects. As a result, the stress recuperation is not taking place anymore.

Cortisol and Immunity

One major problem of cortisol resistance is the depression of the immune system.A particular research study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences((Sheldon Cohen et.al. Chronic stress, glucocorticoid receptor resistance, inflammation, and disease risk. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Apr 17;109(16):5995-9.)) had two objectives.

The first one was to determine whether stress can cause cortisol resistance while the second objective was to determine whether cortisol resistance increases a person’s risk of acquiring an infection such as a common cold. 

The study had 276 healthy volunteers whose levels of stress, BMI, race, age, sex and glucocorticoid resistance were thoroughly assessed at the start of the research.

The volunteers were exposed to rhinovirus (i.e. the kind of virus that causes common colds), quarantined and observed for five days.

At the end of the study, researchers found that those volunteers who had recent exposure to an event that contributes to long-term stress developed glucocorticoid resistance which also put them at higher risk of developing a common cold.

Another study was conducted which was aimed at determining whether cortisol resistance could cause increased levels of inflammation. This time 79 volunteers had virus exposure and were monitored for five days. The results showed that those volunteers who were found to have glucocorticoid resistance had more proinflammatory cytokines, which promote systemic inflammation. Chronic stress definitely puts your immune system at risk.

Controlling Cortisol Levels

We see that reducing cortisol level will be an important goal in stress control. Now we can take a two-pronged approach to reducing cortisol levels:

  • Firstly – by reducing the stress that is the root cause of the problem, either by eliminating the stressors, or by improving the ability to cope with them. A reduced emotional response to any stressor will mean a reduced chemical reaction and less cortisol release.
  • Secondly – there are known lifestyle and dietary ‘hacks’ that assist the mind and body to reduce the release of cortisol into the system. Exercise, sleep, a light nutrition with lots of vitamin C and Omega 3 are some of the factors that can help reduce cortisol. Some bad habits can though increase cortisol production, like the consumption of caffeine, alcohol or an excessive amount of sugar.

Key is to learn how to deal effectively with chronic stress, which is responsible for high cortisol levels. If you want some more practical tips on how to effectively deal with stressors, and which lifestyle factors can help you reduce cortisol, get The 10 Minute Guide to Stress Management.

Is Stress Wrecking Your Life?

by Martin Neumann

Stress ruins your quality of life. It can steal your physical health, rob you of mental well-being, ruin your relationships and cause problems at work. But it doesn’t have to be in control of your world every day.

You have to first be willing to have awareness as to the level of impairment stress is causing you. Once you’re honest about that, you can pinpoint strategies that give you back the reins of your personal satisfaction.

Is Stress Wrecking Your Life?

Do You Constantly Feel Like You Just Want to Get Away?

Stress can make you feel an assortment of emotions. It can hammer at you until you feel like you just can’t take it anymore. At first, the desire to get away might ebb and flow, but eventually, it feels like there’s always this craving to escape.

This can happen when you have situations at work that are draining your energy. You’re tired of the whiny colleagues and the demanding boss. You can’t take another second of trying to balance a never-ending workload in a place where you’re overworked and underpaid.

To add insult to injury, you know what you do isn’t appreciated. You feel like you’re just a cog in the machinery. Even worse, things at home aren’t much better. There’s always a bill to pay – always something going on so you can’t relax.

Your to-do list seems like it grows by the second and you just can’t catch a break. No one is listening to you, so you’ve been keeping everything inside and now you want to isolate yourself from everyone and everything causing chaos in your life.

Sometimes, you feel like you can’t even stand to be alone. You’re not happy with yourself and you want to run away from your job, your home life and from who you are as a person.

Stress can cause people to experience an intense feeling of being at their breaking point. It can come on slowly or it can build over time. That’s because you’re only built to handle so much stress.

Just like a pot that’s cooking on the stove burner, too much heat is going to cause you to eventually boil over. When you reach that point, it’s because the stress hormones have been cooking within you and causing mental and physical reactions.

This is your body’s normal response and it’s not designed to harm you. Feeling like you just want to get away is your body’s way of saying, “Pay attention. Something is going on here and it’s wrong. Get away from the danger.”

You get that signal and it can be confusing if you don’t realize that this signal is a stress-based way of trying to help save your mental and physical well-being. The more stress that you’re under or have been under for awhile, the greater the desire will be to just run away as far and fast as you can.

When you feel like this, consider it to be a wake up call. Your body wants you to know that if you don’t take action, you’re going to eventually break. The stress load that you’ve been carrying is too heavy for you to bear and your body wants you to figure out a way to give it relief.

Are You Taking It Out on Others?

Stress can wreck your life when it spills out on those around you. When you feel that internal pressure building up and your coworker comes to you with the same problem you’ve already tried to help them with and they didn’t listen, you might find that your response is to snap at them.

If they reach out to you by email, you might end up answering them tersely, clearly letting them know that you’re irate. Instead of going out with your coworkers like you used to, you avoid them after hours.

You’re angry or sad and instead of understanding that what you feel has nothing to do with the other person, you lash out at them. This stress spillover can cause you to snap at your spouse.

You’ll find that their actions bother you and stress can cause you to take it personally. Stress can also blind you to what’s actually going on. You might find dozens of ways that your spouse is suddenly at fault and blame what you’re feeling and going through on the one that you love.

You might yell, argue or give your spouse the cold shoulder. You shut yourself off from them and keep your distance. The tension in the relationship just makes the stress you feel get worse.

If you have kids, you might take your stress out on them. Instead of playing a game with the kids or being present in their lives when you get home, you just want them to go play on their own and be quiet so you can unwind.

Where before, you thought their antics were cute and funny, now you find them irritating. You might go into a room alone and turn on the TV and ignore your kids altogether, pushing the care of them off onto your spouse.

Wanting to watch TV alone can be a sign that stress is affecting your social life.

If the stress that you’re dealing with is related to your finances or your health, this can exacerbate the tension between adults in the house. Other family members can also be a target of stress.

You might be trying to juggle too many responsibilities. There’s so much to do that you feel like you’re not even making a dent and the next thing you know, your parents want you to do something or a sibling asks you for help.

Maybe one of them drops by just to chat when spending time with someone is the last thing you want to face. You might say something that you regret because you take your frustration out on them.

The stress that you’re under has sent you beyond the limit of what you’re capable of holding in and you act in a way that later you feel guilty about. This causes even more stress and when you’re around them at all, you can tell they were hurt by what you said or did. As a result, this stress might make you start avoiding your family altogether.

Are You So Frazzled You Can’t See a Way Out?

When stress frazzles you, it can make you think there’s no way out. That’s because it’s overwhelming you. The stress that you’re under feels as if you’re stuck in the middle of the ocean and you keep swimming and swimming, but the safety of land isn’t anywhere on the horizon.

A lot of people give up because being under too much stress can incapacitate you to the point that you don’t even know what to do, much less have the ability to take any action.

You do your best to juggle everything in your life. Trying to keep up with work and home responsibilities and take care of everyone in your life is draining. When the stress frazzles you, it can start to feel like everything is just hopeless.

Maybe you don’t try to change anything because you think, “What’s the use?” You believe that the change won’t last, that everything will go back to the way that it was anyway.

Stress frazzle is when you get to the place in your life where you’re mentally and physically exhausted. Things start to slide at this point. You lose your concentration at work.

You get behind. You snap at your coworkers or tell off your boss. At home, you argue with your spouse and withdraw from your kids. You avoid your responsibilities because you can’t drum up the energy to do anything.

You’ve basically decided to stop because everything looks like it’s a dead end. There’s no use trying to decide how you can change things. When you reach this stage, it’s easy to believe that whatever has caused you stress is unfixable.

This is when feelings of anger or anxiety can turn into depression. But keep in mind that just because things look and feel hopeless doesn’t meant that they actually are. It only means that what you’ve been doing, how you’ve been living and letting the stress accumulate just isn’t working for you any longer.

There are solutions available and you can stop the stress from wrecking your life. You don’t have to put up with feeling like everything is hopeless. Some of the solutions that you can find can offer you relief right now without you having to wait weeks or months to feel better.

But you have to take that first step and realize that you can’t keep going on the way things are. You need help to stop stress from causing any additional damage and you need to heal from the damage that it’s already caused.

Are You Starting to See Physical Symptoms?

Stress is something that can be pretty sneaky. It’s not like it announces its presence with one glaring symptom. Instead, stress spreads the symptoms around. So you could have a variety of symptoms, all seemingly unrelated when they actually all point back to stress. 

Headaches are a common occurrence in some people and they’re also one of the most often overlooked signs of stress. A headache every now and then is normal. Recurring headaches are not.

Headaches can be caused by stress

These are tension headaches and the stress can reach a point so that they’re so bad, they wake you from a sound sleep. Some people develop migraines with stress. These are usually targeted areas of pain in the head and you may also get nauseous at the same time.

You can experience both light and noise sensitivity as well. Experiencing aches and pains throughout the body is a sign that stress is starting to manifest in physical symptoms.

You can feel muscle or joint pain. When you get stressed, your body tenses. This is a normal response and with healthy stress, the tension dissipates. But constant stress causes long lasting tension in the muscles.

This leads to painful shoulders, neckaches, backaches and more. Digestive issues can be stress related. You can have stomach cramps and feel like you’re going to be sick to your stomach.

You can also develop trouble going to the bathroom or have bouts of diarrhea. You might have a loss of appetite or a raging hunger. Stress is known to cause insomnia. The anxiety and worry keeps you from being able to sleep and when you don’t sleep well, that can acerbate other stress related physical symptoms like muscle aches and headaches.

Stress can also cause chest pain and tachycardia. Your heart might beat so hard that you’re sure something is wrong. Some people have gone to the emergency room certain that they were having a heart attack, but it turned out their symptoms were caused by stress.

The thing about stress manifesting in physical problems is that by the time your stress reaches this point, it’s serious and you need to do something about it to protect your health.

Has Stress Become Your Norm?

Stress is different for everyone. What’s stressful to you might not bother someone else and vice versa. The reason stress doesn’t create a one-size-fits-all reaction in everyone is because the stressor isn’t the real problem.

Many people have trouble at work or home. There are bills and responsibilities all around and issues that create emotional and mental havoc. So it’s not what creates the stress that affects you – it’s the lack of coping skills.

When a person is unable to deal with the stressor or the results of the stressor, then they push it aside and don’t do anything with it. It doesn’t go anywhere, but they learn to live with the stress the situation causes them.

This happens because sometimes trying to fix the stress is uncomfortable. It might involve digging into things that you don’t want to face. But not facing stress is like having a huge stain in the middle of your living room floor.

This stain has been there in your home for a long time. You don’t know exactly when the stain first occurred and maybe you don’t even know what caused it, but it’s there and it’s not going anywhere. It used to bother you to see the stain, but over time, you’ve learned to turn a blind eye toward it. You’ve gotten used to and it’s now your normal. You’ve learned how to accept it.

The same can happen with stress. You might not even realize that you’ve made stress a normal part of your life that you simply accept. When stress has become your norm, it means that you’ve learned how to adapt. You’ve altered some things about your life in order to make it as comfortable as possible to live with that stress.

Below the surface, this situation could be destroying your health. Stress wrecks your immune system. Plus, people who are stressed are two times more likely to have a heart attack than people who created coping skills for their stress.

Planning your day can help get stress under control

Your physical and mental health cannot live with stress, no matter how well you think you’re surviving in spite of it. There are many options that you can choose so that this chaos you’ve been living with ends and you get your serene life back. There is hope that you can find peace and freedom from stress – you just have to be willing to seek it out.

If you need some tips how you can get stress under control, download the Ten Minute Guide to Stress Control and start today to develop proper coping skills for your stress.

Does the Pandemic Stress You Out?

by Martin Neumann

Almost half of the Americans report that the pandemic is affecting their mental health.((Coronavirus is harming the mental health of tens of millions of people in U.S., new poll finds. Washington Post, April 2, 2020)) A federal disaster distress hotline ha seen a more than 10x spike in incoming text messages during the pandemic.((The Health 202: Texts to federal government mental health hotline up roughly 1,000 percent. Washington Post, May 4, 2020)) In the UK a study ascertained the anxiety level of the population on a scale of 1 to 10. They found out that the average anxiety level jumped from 3 before the pandemic to 5.2 right after the lockdown.((Coronavirus and anxiety, Great Britain: 3 April 2020 to 10 May 2020. Office of National Statistics)) Especially couples and elderly people have seen a drastic rise in anxiety level.

Does the Pandemic Stress You Out?

The reasons for the steep increase of anxiety and stress are manifold. One of the more obvious ones is fear of getting infected when leaving home. News from relatives or friends who succumbed to the disease will just increase the fear of being the next victim. Although some simple protective measures are healthy, the more anxious ones are getting neurotic in their hygiene attempts. When studies were published that the virus can stay airborne for about 3 hours, this heightened the ill effects of coronaphobia in a large number of people. It is important to put the risk into a healthy perspective, and I wrote an article about the naked truth of the coronavirus that can help in that matter.

Quarantine is another source of stress. Especially those who reported being lonely have felt a greater rise in anxiety levels. As about one-third of the world’s population is put under quarantine, a number of mental health issues like low mood, irritability, stress, insomnia, anxiety, depression and others are on the rise.((Lockdown is the world’s biggest psychological experiment – and we will pay the price. World Economic Forum, April 9, 2020)) Social isolation is a big factor in that, together with feeling trapped at home and interruptions of the usual daily routines.

For families with children, the stress of schooling their children and entertaining them at home puts an extra burden on the parents that they are often not used to handle (We have some tips in the article: 15 Creative & Fun Family Activities You Can Do at Home). In some cases, a dysfunctional relationship is aggravated by the fact that the family is forced to stay together in quarantine, and having no place to escape. Domestic violence is increasing drastically during the lockdown.

Others are even more stressed with the thought of getting back to normal. After returning to work, will there be a risk for a second outbreak? What is my risk of getting infected being in touch with people again? Some risks are for real, but after doing some healthy precautions, put your worries away. And it is alright to take your time and return gradually into social life once the lockdowns are lifted.

Another source of stress is news overload. Some are trying to catch up with all the latest news, and chasing the newest studies to try to understand a disease that even experts have a hard time to understand. Coupled with that are a number of conspiracy theories that are gaining much popularity. One example is a video of Judy Micovits who went viral, claiming that the virus was released from a Chinese lab, and that most information published is just a big scam. Fact-checking revealed that her video was the bigger scam, and most of her statements were simply made up.((Fact-checking Judy Mikovits, the controversial virologist attacking Anthony Fauci in a viral conspiracy video. Science Magazine website, May 8, 2020))

Finding a scapegoat for the pandemic seems to be attractive for many, but it may be just a way of avoiding to take their own responsibility of needing to respond to the crisis. Some others have an urgent desire to find out the truth. Yes, it is very likely that China has underreported their COVID-19 death rates since they do not correlate to the Wuhan crematory activities.((Cremation numbers reveal possible suppression of true COVID-19 data in China. News Medical, June 8, 2020)) On the other hand in the western hemisphere the death rates are more likely to be a bit overreported since financial benefits are associated with the treatment of COVID-19 patients. But finding some proof that the virus was man-made in any way would be a pretty hard task, even in the hypothetical case that it would be the truth. And at the end of the day, what difference will it make for your life?

A much more tangible stressor is the economic impact that the pandemic is causing worldwide. With a large number of people losing their job, financial difficulties are a reality in many homes. There are plenty of families out there just struggling to put food on the table, and that can be stressful.

Health profesionals who are on the frontline of the battlefield are especially vulnerable of suffering from stress during the pandemic. Those who are exposed to patients dying around them every day can suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

How to Stay Sane During the Pandemic

Have a Plan

Being prepared can do a lot to minimize the stress you face during this crisis. Preparation will include provisions for maintaining your food supply (stocking some food, maybe considering an own garden to help out), implementing safety precautions, things to do during the pandemic, how to protect your financial interests and more.

Manage your finances

Get some savings available

Mishandling your finances is quite easy when you are dealing with economic turmoil all around us. Hence, you need to start managing your finances wisely to avoid having regrets when the problem has passed. When you are on a tight budget, you need to be doing proper financial planning, recording all the expenses and analyzing where you can save. Then you should avoid debt wherever you can. Buy things when you can afford them, paying the full price in cash. Any dept will add extra stress during uncertain times like we are passing now.

Filter Information

Avoid bad news whenever you can. Spending time reading alarming tales of the horrors of COVID-19 will probably increase anxiety, not reduce it. Do not focus on the kind of information that will not help rectify the situation. Pay attention to material that gives advice on how you can overcome or guard against being affected by the worsening of the pandemic. Filtering information can also mean changing the subject when bad news are brought up countless times.

Keep Exercising

As you know, exercising is a great way of staying positive, staying healthy, and improving your overall physical and mental well-being. You may be tempted to cancel your workout routine while the gym is closed or severely restricted. But you can do an exercise routine right at your home, or go out for a walk with all the needed safety precautions. Exercise does a lot to eliminate stress or anxiety from your mind, and keeps your thoughts clear and focused. Therefore, keep exercising and enjoy the process.

Stay Connected with People

Calling friends

While you are not able to meet up with friends and family the way you would like, you need to make an effort to reach out to them. Schedule some regular time to check in with those you care about. It will do a lot to keep your mind sane in a time you are restricted in what you can do. Be especially mindful about the needs of your parents, grandparents or other elderly people around you.

Find some Meaningful Activities

We all have a need to belong and to have a purpose in our life. While you are at home, find some activities that can be meaningful to you and to others. Sometimes caring for someone else is all it takes to take off the focus from yourself and see the needs of somebody else. You may be doing some remote work, so even you are not going to the office you are keeping up with your regular activities. If your job does not allow for remote work, use your chance to educate yourself and be better prepared once the pandemic is over.

Dwell on the Positive

When things are falling apart all around us, it is easy to get caught in a worry round of fears and negative thinking. Are you afraid of getting infected? Remind yourself of all the protective measures you have implemented, and dwell on all the cases that recovered already. You are weary about the restrictions? Think about what you want to do when the lockdown is over. You are worried about the future? What does it help you to get all wrapped up with your worries?

Jesus expressed it right in the Sermon of the Mount: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky: They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you more valuable than they are? And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life?… So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” Matthew 6:25-34

It is correct to properly protect yourself. You should do the part that you are able to do. But after having done your part, what does it help you to keep worrying?

Find a Save Haven of Rest

When troubles abound all around you, there seems to be plenty of reason to get worried. But stress will take hold of you if you are feeling that there is a threat to your life that you are not able to control. What you need in this moment is a fortress for your mind to find safety.

A Christian will find this save haven in a meaningful relationship with his Creator. If God was creating you, i He not able to take care of your health? And if he feeds the birds in the sky, is he not going to take care of you? Knowing that we have a Heavenly Father that takes care of us, will provide a fortress to our mind that will resist any storm that may go on around us.

The Bible is giving us lots of examples how our Heavenly Father was taking care of His children in the past. But you need to rest assured that He will do the same thing in your life, if you commit yourself into His care. In order to have this assurance, you need to have a living relationship with Him. You need to take a step of faith and experience for yourself that you can trust your Heavenly Father to take care of you.

Would you like to have this experience? Would you like to discover the promises that your Heavenly Father has given you that He will take care of you? Do you want to discover the purpose that He has for your life? Do you want to know what more your Heavenly Father has prepared just for you? If that is your desire, you should take a guided study of the Bible to discover what your Heavenly Father has to tell you today. Use the chance and get your study guide for free.

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What Symptoms does Stress Cause in Your Life?

by Martin Neumann

You know how life goes. There’s always something that interrupts your plans and it happens on the day when you can least afford to encounter a stressor. You might be on your way to work because you have to go over a project with your boss before the client gets there for a scheduled appointment. But the next thing you know, you’re trapped in a traffic jam. There’s no way around it and you can’t turn back. You’re just stuck. When this happens, your body reacts and floods your system with stress hormones. And the symptoms your body will manifest can be manifold.

What Symptoms does Stress Cause in Your Life?

The reaction from your body is based on the fight or flight response and it’s meant to be a help to you. However, when the situation isn’t life or death, this response isn’t needed.

When this is an occasional circumstance where you get a flood or stress hormones, it’s not a big deal. But when you don’t know the right coping techniques for stress, your body is constantly getting this flood of hormones, and this constant cycle of having a stress response within the body wreaks havoc on your physical health.

Over time, the overuse of your stress hormone starts to take a toll on your immune system. A part of the immunity army is known as natural killer cells. These are designed to battle against serious conditions such as cancer, but these cells are also designed to fight things like bacterial or viral illnesses.

They work to protect your body. Stress weakens the ability of these cells to work the way that they’re supposed to, leaving you with little protection so you’re constantly catching whatever is going around.

It’s not just illnesses that you’ll face more often when you fail to break your stress addiction. You’ll be at a higher risk for developing conditions that are related to stress such as diabetes. When you get stressed, it raises your glucose level – even if you don’t have the disease.

Stress can make you more likely to have a heart attack because when you’re stressed, your blood pressure goes up. The flood of stress hormones that you get are supposed to temporarily narrow your blood vessels. But when you’re dealing with chronic stress, these blood vessels can be constantly narrowed, which restricts blood flow and oxygen to the heart. In addition to that, the stress response increases the clotting factor, facilitating the formation of arteriosclerotic plaques. This can result in a heart attack or stroke.

When you’re stressed, it can also affect your digestive health. You can develop nausea, stomach cramps and suffer from diarrhea or constipation. You can also suffer from heartburn.

People who are addicted to stress can develop reproductive problems. Women might skip a monthly cycle or they might notice that their periods last longer, while men can experience lower levels of testosterone, which is linked with impotence. 

Mental Concerns

But it’s not just your physical health that will show the signs of stress. You can also struggle with mental health. For many people, prolonged exposure to stress can cause depression.

This happens because the stress hormones linger, and you don’t get that break from them that you’re normally supposed to get. It’s common for stress to have an impact on your emotions and when you constantly get that flood of stress hormones, it brings out negative feelings such as grief, which can lead to depression.

Anxiety is another consequence of not dealing with a chronic stress. You don’t have to have an anxiety disorder to develop anxiety. This is something that happens as a result of whatever stress you have in your life.

When you have anxiety, it can show up as both physical and emotional symptoms. When it has to do with your mental health, the anxiety that you experience usually reveals itself through a feeling of dread.

You might feel nervous at random times or consistently. Sometimes anxiety can show up as feeling like something is just off. You feel wary. This mental reaction can happen whenever you’re about to face a certain situation or when you think about that situation.

It can also happen because you fear the results of a situation. When stress is what’s behind your anxiety, then what you’re experiencing lingers and doesn’t just go away. Not dealing with stress can also lead to panic attacks.

A panic attack is what happens when you get a feeling of overwhelming fear or you experience a deep anxiety. Many people who have stress and develop panic attacks have these because of something in the past that they haven’t dealt with, or something that they’re afraid of that might occur in the future.

A panic attack is a sense of impending doom, even if nothing bad is going on at the moment or they’re not in any danger. When a panic attack disrupts your daily routine and you have difficulty being able to carry on, this is a severe episode and may need professional treatment.

Stress can manifest itself in many different ways. If you experience one of those symptoms of stress in your life, it is time to act and develop better coping skills to get your stress under control. Because uncontrolled chronic stress can cause havoc in your life in so many different ways.

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