Tips for stress and anxiety

Stress is our body’s natural reaction to a demand or threat.It triggers your body’s fight, freeze or flight response, which causes a surge of hormones that would have helped our ancestors to run away from the stressor or fight it. It is supposed to be a short, sharp response to danger. But if you feel stressed a lot of the time, you put a lot of pressure on your health.



Some stress is helpful as it can motivate you to meet a deadline or get things done. But long-term stress can increase the risk of many serious health conditions, such as high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes, heart disease, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), headaches and muscle pain.

Common symptoms caused by long-term stress include:

• headaches, muscle tension, neck or back pain
• dry mouth
• feeling anxious or jittery
• being more irritable or angry than normal
• overeating or loss of appetite and not eating well
• upset stomach
• chest pains, rapid heartbeat
• not sleeping
• feeling tired, flat, down or worn out
• finding it hard to concentrate or focus
• needing coffee, energy drinks or sugar to keep going
• increased skin infections, mouth ulcers, colds, rashes or asthma.

Tips for stress relief

It helps to learn how to recognise stress and find ways to cope with it before your body's stress response fully kicks in.

Include things you find relaxing in your everyday life, such as listening to music, mindfulness meditation, connecting with friends and regular exercise.

Take care of yourself by being physically active every day, eating a healthy diet, having good sleep habits

Make time to do fun things and spend time with the people who are important to you

https://www.healthnavigator.org.nz/health-a-z/a/anxiety/