Coping With Stress: A Beginner's Guide
How to manage stress using The Stress Bucket visual tool
Stress is a common experience for most people, and various factors, such as work, relationships, or health issues, can cause it. Although a small amount of stress can motivate and energise us to accomplish our goals (for example, when we need to deliver a presentation or sit an exam), excessive or chronic stress can significantly impact our physical and mental health, so learning how to manage it is crucial.
In this beginner's guide, we'll explore the warning signs and symptoms of stress and practical tips and strategies for coping with it effectively. By the end of this article, you'll better understand stress and the tools you need to manage it.
How do I know if I am experiencing stress?
Stress can affect us both physically and mentally. Understanding the physical and mental symptoms of stress is essential for recognising when we are experiencing stress and taking steps to manage it. Here are some common symptoms of stress to look out for:
Physical symptoms
Headaches
Fatigue or low energy
Muscle tension or pain
Sweating
Nausea
Sleep disturbance
Digestive problems such as stomach ache, diarrhoea or constipation
Increased heart rate or blood pressure
Mental symptoms
Difficulty concentrating
Racing thoughts or constant worry
Feeling overwhelmed or anxious
Irritability or mood swings
Loss of interest in activities you previously enjoyed
Feeling sad or depressed
It is important to note that everyone experiences stress differently, so your symptoms may not be the same as someone else's; however, if you are experiencing any of these symptoms, it's a good indication that you may be under stress and need to take steps to manage it.
What is making me stressed?
The Stress Bucket model is a useful tool to help manage stress (Brabban & Turkington, 2002). Imagine that you have a bucket that represents your capacity to handle stress.
Various stressors - the raindrops, fill up your bucket. The nature of these stressors is different for every person and unique to your life and circumstances. Some everyday stressors include work/workload, exams, difficulties in relationships, and money worries, particularly nowadays with the cost of living crisis. Some stressors might be sudden and unexpected such as the death of a loved one or being made redundant. If these stressors exceed your capacity to cope with them, your bucket overflows, resulting in the symptoms of stress.
How can I reduce stress?
The goal of reducing stress is to keep your bucket from overflowing by regularly emptying it, represented by the taps in the diagram. Healthy coping strategies will let the water out, but unhealthy strategies tend to act as hoses that inadvertently re-fill the bucket; they may feel like they help in the short term, but in the long term, they cause more problems and increase stress. Examples of unhealthy coping strategies include:
Using alcohol or drugs to cope - using drugs or alcohol to numb emotions or escape problems can lead to addiction and other health problems.
Excessive screen use/doom-scrolling - a popular avoidance tactic or another way of numbing emotions.
Over or undereating - turning to food for comfort or avoiding food altogether can lead to poor physical health and body image issues
Avoidance - avoiding situations or people that trigger stress can lead to social isolation and increased anxiety
Healthy coping strategies for managing stress
The good news is there are many ways to cope with stress and reduce its impact on your life. Here are some examples of healthy coping strategies:
Take care of your physical health: regular exercise is a great way to manage stress (Tsatsoulis & Fountoulakis 2006).
Zoom out and see the bigger picture: often, when we feel stressed, our attention tends to narrow, and we can become consumed by the things that are stressing us. We can end up overthinking and worrying, further exacerbating stress. Take a step back or 'unhook' from overthinking and worry by noticing and naming when worry shows up.
Practice mindfulness or mindful moments: Mindfulness-based interventions effectively reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression (Khoury et al., 2015).
Slow down: stress tends to speed us up - we rush from one thing to the next, trying to get as many things done in the shortest time. Take breaks through your day, even for a few minutes, and use that time to 'check in' with yourself; in a compassionate tone, ask yourself 'how am I feeling right now?'
Practice self soothing at times of stress or when you feel overwhelmed.
Get enough sleep: Lack of sleep can exacerbate stress levels (Hirotsu et al., 2015), so practice good sleep hygiene and aim for between 7 and 9 hours per night.
Connect with others: studies show good social support can enhance resilience to stress (Ozbay et al. 2007).
Eat a healthy diet: a balanced diet can help support overall health and reduce symptoms of stress and anxiety.
Make time for doing things you enjoy. Laughter and having fun are great stress relievers, so putting time and energy into something you enjoy doing is essential to get a handle on stress.
Takeaways
Most of us will experience some form of stress during our day to day lives, but chronic stress can significantly impact our physical and mental health.
The Stress Bucket is a visual tool to help you identify current stressors you are experiencing and the unhealthy coping strategies that might be re-filling your stress bucket.
Many activities can help relieve stress. Continually engaging in what works for you will help you cope with stress in the long term.
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References
Brabban, A. & Turkington, D. (2002) The Search for Meaning: detecting congruence between life events, underlying schema and psychotic symptoms. In A.P. Morrison (Ed) A Casebook of Cognitive Therapy for Psychosis (Chap 5, p59-75). New York: Brunner-Routledge
Hirotsu, C., Turkish, S., Levy Andersen, M. (2015). Interactions between sleep, stress, and metabolism: From physiological to pathological conditions. Sleep Science, 8(3), 143-152.
Khoury, B., Sharma, M., Rush, S.E. & Fournier, C. (2015). Mindfulness-based stress reaction for healthy individuals: A meta-analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 78 (6), 519-528.
Ozbay, F., Johnson, D.C., Dioulasso, E., Morgan Lii, C.A., Charley, D. & Southwick, S. (2007). Social support and resilience to stress: from neurobiology to clinical practice. Psychiatry (Edmonton), 4 (5), 35-40.
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