If you’re stressed, there are many ways you can relieve your tension and anger. But a few approaches to dealing with stress are never helpful, especially if they involve being inconsiderate of others or mistreating your body. Unfortunately, these counterproductive actions can be hard to recognize.
Lashing out, overreacting, or venting. Maya’s problem wasn’t really with her sister. What she was doing was taking her anger out on someone else who actually had nothing to do with her stressors: her angry friend, her upcoming test, and her tight schedule. It’s unfair to lash out at people or other living things. And if your target strikes back, you could find yourself with an even more stressful situation.
Before you snap in anger at someone who has had nothing to do with your problems, try counting to ten. During this time, remind yourself that venting will do nothing to solve your difficulty. It most likely will only create additional problems. If you find that you can’t stop from lashing out at others, you may be having issues that would be helped by counseling.
Suppressing, avoiding, or ignoring. Suppressing or ignoring your stressor and hoping it will go away on its own may keep you from panicking. However, the longer you ignore a stressful situation, the more urgent it may become. By not dealing with your stress, you run the risk of having it negatively affect your health over the long term as chronic stress.
Eating too much—or too little. Many people drastically change how they eat when they’re stressed out. Some overeat, or binge, on “comfort foods” while others go hungry. Both overeating and undereating can do real harm to your health.
While eating cookies might improve your mood because of the short-term effect of additional sugar in your bloodstream, the “sugar rush” won’t last long. Be aware that eating in response to your emotions—rather than simply in response to the hunger drive—can lead to serious eating disorders. Overeating can also cause health problems such as being overweight or obese.
And don’t skip meals because you’re stressed out. Make sure you eat three balanced meals a day of nutritious foods. Even if you lose your appetite or feel queasy because you’re anxious, keep yourself healthy by eating properly—even if you can’t eat very much.
Using alcohol and illegal substances. In some cases, people try to escape from their problems by using alcohol, nicotine, and drugs, including illegal substances. Using artificial means to deal with stressful situations won’t help solve problems. They often tend to create new ones. Substance abuse is habit-forming, and it is easy to become addicted to alcohol and drugs.
You may have heard that people are more cheerful and playful while drinking, but appearing cheerful and actually being happy can be two different things. Alcohol is actually a depressant, which is a kind of drug that calms nerves and relaxes the muscles. However, in large amounts depressants can cause confusion, lack of coordination, slurred speech, and shaking. Mood swings are common with heavy drinkers, who are just as likely to feel gloomy or aggressive as a stressed out person who isn’t drinking. Because the use of alcohol is illegal for anyone under the age of twenty-one, getting caught using it can also lead to problems with the law. You definitely don’t want that kind of stress.
You’re also likely to have heard that smoking cigarettes calms the nerves. But the exact opposite is true: when a smoker lights up, adrenaline is released into his or her system. Even if nicotine really did have a calming effect, this benefit still wouldn’t be worth the risks. Not only is nicotine use addictive, but its long-term use has been linked to serious lung diseases such as emphysema and lung cancer.
Another unhealthy way of dealing with stress is using illegal substances such as marijuana. Its active ingredient, THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), induces relaxation when it reacts with substances in the brain. But marijuana is an illegal drug whose use has been linked to numerous adverse effects, including short-term memory loss.
There are many healthy ways to deal with stress. Using alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs to cope is not one of them.
Carbohydrates in foods such as sweets, potato chips, and bread cause a temporary increase in serotonin, a brain chemical that affects emotions, memory, and other things. Increased amounts of serotonin in the brain make people feel good, so they think they can better handle stress. Because of this, some people will respond to stressful situations by overeating foods that are rich in carbohydrates.
