Coping with Stress
What is stress?
All of us have things happen that we feel as stressful. One way to
define stress is any event that causes strain in a person. Feeling any
event as a challenge or a threat could also be a stress. Stress can
come from good and bad events.
Our body will respond to stress by making certain hormones. These
hormones will cause the heart to race, harder breathing and higher blood
pressure. This will cause extra energy but may result in feeling tired,
tense or head aching.
Stress and these hormones might make blood sugar go up or down. Stress
can make it harder to keep your blood sugar steady.
How do I define what is stressful for me?
Some stress seems to be a good thing. It can keep us stimulated and
help add purpose to our every day life. Things we think might harm us or
cause too much change can be too stressful. Too much stress can cause us
to feel overloaded.
Some people with diabetes find they do not handle other stress as well as
they used to. They spend so much energy on their diabetes they don't they
are able to cope with other problems. Also things that are stressful one
day may not be at a different time.
Each person will define what is stressful for themselves. It starts by
recognizing that you feel stress and then looking at what might have set it off.
What are the signs of stress?
Some signs of stress can be headaches, tight feeling in the neck or
shoulders, change in sleep patterns, change in eating patterns angry feeling,
irritability, loss of interest in sex or other activities and even not feeling
sure of yourself.
It can be helpful to keep a stress diary, maybe even in your diabetes log.
You can record how you feel under stress, what caused the stress and how you
handle the stress. You might see some patterns in how stress affects your
eating and blood sugar.
How can I cope with stress?
People handle stress in there own way. Some ways of coping can cause
other problems. Eating too much, drinking alcohol, smoking or using drugs
are not healthy ways of dealing with stress.
There are some helpful ways of coping with stress. These strategies
will help you feel in control, informed and supported by other people.
Some coping tips include:
- Talk with other people about things that make you feel stress.
- Know your limits and don't try to do more than you can.
- Realize it is ok to cry and express your feelings.
- Realize it is good to laugh every day.
- Exercise.
- Take care of yourself and your health.
- Plan your day and set goals that you can meet.
- Take breaks.
- Pray, meditate, get involved in your church.
- Do fewer things but do them better.
- Avoid stressful situations when you can, or plan ahead how you will
handle the stress.
- Use energy in other ways. Hobbies, exercise, fun activities can help
you handle your stress.
- Volunteer to help others in need.
- Join a support group.
You may find different ways to deal with different stresses. Remember
that just as ignoring your blood sugar won't make your diabetes go away,
ignoring the stress won't make it go away.