Stress taking its toll on your health?

In a city like Mumbai, stress is a given whether you're a student, office employee, housewife or senior citizen. While some are naturally able to handle stress or adopt measures to counter it, a large majority succumb to it, leading to lifestyle-related diseases like diabetes and hypertension.
The trouble is most people go wrong in correctly identifying stress. "We tend to overlook our own stress-inducing thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Meeting deadlines at work or home may be a source of worry but it is our procrastination, rather than actual job demands, that leads to deadline stress," says Dr Harish Shetty, one of the leading psychiatrists in the city.
To identify the real source of stress, you need to closely monitor your habits, attitudes and excuses. If possible, maintain a log on what stresses you out, how your body reacts to it and how you cope with the stress. Stress coping strategies like smoking, drinking too much, over-eating or under-eating, withdrawing from friends and family, using sleeping pills or drugs to relax or sleeping too much are temporary solutions and comes with long-term damage.
The healthiest way to cope with stress is to identify the stressor, then avoid, alter, adapt to or accept the stressor. "Stress can be either physical or psychological. Get a full body check-up done, especially of the thyroid. Yoga is extremely helpful and so is finding a sympathetic listener," says psychiatrist Dr Anjali Chhabria.

 

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