MENTAL HEALTH & EMOTIONAL WELLBEING

Stress in itself isn’t necessarily harmful. Everyone needs goals and challenges, but too much can be damaging. Stress is a well-known trigger for depression and it can also affect your physical health, so it is important to identify causes of stress in your life and try to minimise them. Any sort of loss, from bereavement, divorce and separation to a child leaving home causes stress, as do long-term illness and disability, marriage, job loss, moving house or Christmas.

Some common signs of too much stress include: · Increased irritability · Heightened sensitivity to criticism · Signs of tension, such as nail-biting · Difficulty getting to sleep and early morning waking · Drinking and smoking more · Indigestion · Loss of concentration Dealing with stress It’s important to act to relieve damaging stress before it affects your physical or mental health. The secret to managing stress is to look after yourself and, where possible to remove the causes of stress. If you start to feel things are getting on top of you, give yourself some breathing space take time to do relaxing thing that make you feel good.

Some ways of coping with stress:

· accept offers of practical help
· do one thing at a time, don’t keep piling stress on stress
· know your own limits, don’t be too competitive or expect too much of yourself
· talk to someone
· let off steam in a way that causes no harm (shout, scream or hit a pillow)
· walk away from stressful situations
· try to spend time with people who are rewarding rather than critical and judgmental
· try to keep things in proportion and don’t be too hard on yourself
· practice slow breathing using the lower part of the lungs
· use relaxation techniques
· physical activity can be very effective in relieving stress
· one response to stress can be anger, find out more about anger management

Seeking help

Do not be afraid to seek professional help if you feel that you are no longer able to manage things on your own. Many people feel reluctant to seek help as they feel that it is an admission of failure. This is not the case and it is important to get help as soon as possible so you can begin to feel better. Your GP can help by advising you about treatment which may involve referring you to our practice counsellor to talk through your problems, and may also mean the use of medication for a short period.

There are a number of organisations which can help you to tackle the causes of stress including Relate (relationship difficulties), Support Line (for young people and families and Age Concern (for older people). Many other organisations are available check them out on the following link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/mental_health/usefulcontacts_index1.shtml