When we hear the word “stress” many of us think of overwhelm, anxiety, agitation, irritation, anger, frustration, and different emotions along those lines. Stress is not always about something that may feel negative. Stress can be good and encouraging, but for the sake of this article, I will focus on distress. It will be good to become more aware of the kind of stress that you experience and have resources for what you can do to help alleviate it if it’s not serving you.

We may experience distress when we experience life changes. This might be giving birth, losing employment, being diagnosed with a chronic illness, getting a divorce, having someone pass away or living with mental health problems. If distress is left unaddressed, the consequences can be health problems like heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. This can affect our mood states, sex drive, relationships with others, sleeping patterns, and weight gain.

Distress can lead to hormonal problems where the body has more cortisol which can lead to having more fat stored in the body. We might recognize stress when we feel heart palpitations, tightness in our muscles, feeling headaches or having skin rashes. We may find that we are more emotional, nervous or have difficulty focusing on what we’re doing. I tend to think of distress as the body signaling to us that something is wrong and believe that it’s our job to find ways to recreate balance in our lives.

This certainly is not a comprehensive list of the things that we may experience when we are in states of distress. It’s important to recognize that these are some signs of distress and to look to some coping mechanisms to help us during these crucial times. It may be that you go to church and seek religious council or go to a yoga class or sit for an extended time in meditation or talk to a friend or not talk to anyone because it could be that that’s adding distress to your life. Think of things that you can do to minimize distress now so that if and when you’re in situations when you’re feeling distressful, you already know what you can do to help you cope effectively.