COULD YOU BE ADDICTED TO STRESS?
None of us are strangers to stress. The tight deadlines at school and work, having a full schedule, waking up early to workout, too busy to eat, running from a packed day at work to shuttling the kids around to evening activities…it’s never ending. Most of us are aware of the health implications of chronic stress, yet we can’t stop. We are told to slow down, to do less, to be more present and practice mindfulness, yet it’s so uncomfortable to implement. We feel guilty like we should be doing something. We feel bored so we pick up our phone. We don’t know how to do this “doing less thing”.
Why does this happen? Our stress hormones, such as cortisol, epinephrine and adrenaline in the short term can give us a boost of energy and can make us feel darn good for a while. These stress hormones also release dopamine. Dopamine is a “feel good” chemical in our brain. It activates the reward centers in the brain encouraging us to repeat behaviors. Overtime, we can learn to depend on this boost of hormones and neurotransmitters and it becomes our new baseline.
When those stress hormones are low, ie: we aren’t working on a tight deadline or we don’t have a packed full schedule or there isn’t anything “exciting” going on in our lives, we might feel bored, anxious and antsy. For some people who have grown up in a stressful household, this feeling is a feeling of safety and comfort. It then becomes something they start to seek out by overcommitting to obligations, working long hours, filling their schedule to the brim or even having a hard time saying “no” and implementing healthy boundaries.
What are some signs you might be low key addicted to stress? Keep on reading…
SOME SIGNS YOU MAY BE ADDICTED TO STRESS & WHAT YOU CAN START TO DO:
Do you struggle to slow down? You might avoid rest and stillness because it feels uncomfortable. You are always thinking about the next thing you have to get done.
Do you feel guilty when you relax? Do you always feel like there is something you “should” be doing instead? Or that you haven’t done enough to earn some rest?
Do you crave intensity? This could be in your workouts or even your relationships.
Do you forget to eat? Do you often skip meals or forget to eat and realize at the end of the day, you’ve been too busy to get enough food?
Does disconnecting from your computer or phone make you feel stressed or anxious?
Do you struggle to turn your brain off? When you go on vacation, it’s hard for you to relax or when you lay down to sleep at night, you can’t shut your brain off?
Are you frequently overbooking yourself? You thrive off of a busy schedule and the grind. You might feel like something is missing if your life isn’t jam packed or you get bored if life slows down and you aren’t bogged down with activities and deadlines.
Do any of those scenarios sound familiar? If so, it’s ok! Likely we have all been there at some point in our lives. However, if you have goals of improving your overall health, it might be a good idea to create some awareness around this and take steps to move out of the constant state of stress you’ve been living in.
Getting out of this stress addiction cycle can happen with time and practice. Start with small things to help your brain get used to less stimulation. You will find this challenging and uncomfortable at first, but it’s like a muscle you need to strengthen, over time, it becomes easier until it becomes your new baseline.
Some simple practices to help you get started could be, spending more time outside without headphones or your phone. Focus on your senses while walking. What can you see, hear, feel, smell, taste? If you catch your mind wandering, that’s ok…just bring it back to your senses again.
Practice doing a body scan throughout your day. How are you feeling in your body? Where are you holding onto stress? Unfurrow your brow. Unclench your jaw, relax your shoulders and arms. Take a minute to implement some box breathing. Take a big deep breath into your belly for a count of 4, hold for a count of 4 and release for a count of 4. Doing this a few times throughout the day can be a simple and fast way to create awareness in your body.
Add in a journaling practice. This can be especially helpful for those who have trouble shutting their brain off. Write down all those recurring thoughts on paper.
Start pausing before saying yes to things asked of you. If you are so used to saying yes, have a line on hand you can use. “Let me check my schedule and see if that will work for me. I’ll get back to you.” This can give you time to think if saying yes is something that would benefit you or if it’s something that could continue to create stress in your life.
Fill the “void” with something else. Yes, that might sound counterintuitive but filling the void you might feel when stress is no longer present with something more relaxing can be a great way to learn about yourself and also ease yourself off of the high of those stress hormones. Yoga, meditation or finding a new hobby can be a great way to do this. Create time and space for things that bring you joy and help you take care of yourself.
Stress is unavoidable and at certain times can be a benefit to us and help us become stronger and more resilient. We don’t have to fear stress. However, chronic stress isn’t great for our health or healing and sometimes we aren’t even aware of how much stress we are operating under. We can’t expect our body to heal if we are only focusing on nutrition and working out all the while ignoring the stress our body may be chronically under.
UNTIL NEXT TIME - COACH COURTNEY