If you’re experiencing stress in life, you may think it’s just normal. And, dealing with stress is normal to a certain extent because no one is going to make it all through life without ever having stress. However, if you’re having a difficult time dealing with stress, psychologists can help you.
What Are The Symptoms Of Stress?
The first step in dealing with stress effectively is learning how to identify it in your life. Some of the symptoms can also be related to other health issues so they can be easy to overlook as being caused by stress.
The American Institute of Stress lists over 50 different symptoms and signs of stress on their website. You don’t have to have all of them for it to be signs that you are dealing with high levels of stress. Here are some of the more common symptoms that you could be dealing with.
Digestive Issues
Dealing with stress can cause all kinds of digestive issues. When your body realizes that you are in stress, it works to put all the energy into the body functions that it believes are the most important for your survival. Unfortunately, digestion is not one of the priorities that your body has during times of stress. That means you could end up with problems like diarrhea, constipation, stomach cramps, and nauseousness because your body is trying to help you by sending the energy to your brain and skeletal muscles instead.
Low Energy
During stressful situations in your life, you may feel that you have low amounts of energy. It can be hard to get through the daily tasks that you need. This can be because your body is sending your energy to the functions that it thinks are most important, or it could be because you aren’t getting the rest that you need at night. And, when your mind is constantly ruminating trying to figure out a solution to your stressful situation, it can just cause you to feel exhausted.
Anxiety
It doesn’t take much for stress to move into anxiety. When you’re in a stressful situation, it’s easy to be consumed with that situation. Your mind is constantly trying to figure out what’s going to happen, which can cause you to feel very anxious. You may be nervous about the results of the situation or all of the “what ifs” that could happen. If you leave anxiety untreated long enough, it can go into depression.
Irritability And Anger
When you’re stressed, your mind is usually consumed with thoughts of the situation that you’re dealing with. This can cause you to have low patience for anything else in life. That means you might be more irritable and get angry over things that wouldn’t typically make you mad. You may find yourself having angry outbursts that seem to come out of nowhere.
Change In Appetite
Along with experiencing a change in your digestion, you could experience a change in appetite as well. Some people lose their appetite when they’re dealing with stress. They’re so concerned about the thing that they are stressed about that they don’t think to eat. They may not even feel hungry. Then other people are emotional eaters. The more stressed they are, the more that they eat to comfort themselves.
Both of these symptoms are bad. If you undereat, you’re not giving your body the nourishment that it needs. And, if you overeat, it could lead to other health conditions as well.
Difficulty Concentrating
When you are stressed, it can be difficult to concentrate. This makes it very difficult to learn new things or to take on new tasks. You may find that you can’t keep your thoughts focused on one area and that you are starting to be more forgetful. You may also find yourself getting confused more often. This can also lead you to to make bad decisions.
There Are Many Others
These are just a few of the common symptoms that people experience when they are dealing with stress. There are many different ways that stress impacts your physical body, your mood, and your behavior.
If you are experiencing stress, it can be very helpful to talk with a psychologist about your situation.
What Is A Psychologist?
According to the American Psychological Association, “Practicing psychologists have professional training and clinical skills to help people learn to cope more effectively with life issues and mental health problems.” You may have heard psychologists referred to as counselors or therapists before. They work with people to help them with mental health challenges and even regular life situations like relationship struggles, anxiety, and stress.
However, many people call themselves “therapists.” Some of these individuals don’t have the training that a psychologist does. So, when you’re looking for a psychologist to meet with, you want to look at their credentials.
Are There Stress Psychologists?
There is no such thing as a stress psychologist. However, psychology is the study of human behavior and the mind. Stress impacts both your mind and the way that you behave. Therefore, while there might not be someone out there that has the title of a “stress psychologist,” there are plenty of people out there that are educated in helping you with your stress. In fact, psychologists study behavioral Neuroscience which directly looks at the impact of stress on the brain, among other things.
Difference Between Psychologist And Psychiatrist
When you’re looking for a psychologist to meet with, you may come across someone that has the credentials as a psychiatrist. Many people think that the psychologist and psychiatrist titles can be interchanged. This is not true.
Psychiatrist and psychologist do two different professionals. While it is possible that they’re both trained on some similar things such as providing certain forms of therapy, it’s much more uncommon for a psychiatrist to focus on client therapy.
A psychiatrist is a medical doctor and they can write prescriptions for medication. This is often the area that psychiatrist focus on when it comes to mental health. Psychologist, on the other hand, is unable to write prescriptions. They work on helping their patients through forms of therapy.
Many people find that it is a benefit to work with both a psychiatrist and a psychologist. They find that a combination of treatment is more effective in helping them to deal with the mental challenges that they are facing, such as stress and anxiety. If you feel that a medication is necessary for the problems that you’re dealing with, you should talk to a psychiatrist or a doctor about it. If you’re already talking with a therapist, they can recommend you to a psychiatrist and vice versa.
How Can A Psychologist Help With Stress?
Learn Proper Coping Skills
There are many unhealthy ways that people try to cope with stress. These include things like emotional eating, drinking, drugs, shopping, sex, watching tv, and gambling. Many times, people are looking for things that allow them to feel that they are escaping from their stressful reality. While it might seem like this is helping at first because it makes you feel less stressed, it is usually only compounding your stress even more.
A psychologist can help you learn what escape behaviors you are using and help you learn healthy strategies to cope with your stress instead. This can not only help you deal with the challenges that you’re already facing but help you avoid adding to them as well.
Problem-Solving Skills
A psychologist can also help you develop important problem-solving skills and decision-making skills. Too often, our stress is a result of our own doing. We are poor managers of time, money, and other resources. This leaves us in situations where we feel stressed and stuck even though we put ourselves there in the first place.
A psychologist can help you recognize these areas and learn what you need to do to start living differently.
Strategies To Overcome Stress
Sometimes you are going to have stress in your life. A psychologist can teach you skills to help you deal with stress at the moment. This includes learning things like mindfulness and deep breathing.
Some situations are out of your control. These are the times when you need to know how to keep yourself calm at the moment, so you don’t add to your problems. Forms of therapy, like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), are effective at helping patients learn how to cope.
Finding A Psychologist
If you are ready to overcome your stress, psychologists can help you. Finding the right one will be crucial to your progress. You can look for a local psychologist in your area, or you can do online therapy. This allows you to have access to a psychologist when you need it instead of having to make an appointment and wait for several weeks or months to be seen. But, whether you do therapy online or in person, just make sure you find someone that you enjoy working with, so you can get the most out of your sessions.
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