Did you know that anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S.?
They affect about 40 million adults 18 and older every year.
This is about 18% of the total population! Most of us have experienced different levels of stress at some point in our lives.
Some signs are very obvious, and then there are the not-so-obvious ones.
Sometimes we let these little signs go unchecked and believe our stress to be under control.
However, it’s critical not to ignore them as they can wreak havoc on your body in the long run.
And in today’s, we will tell you the subtle signs of stress on your body.
From back pain, short temper, excessive sweet tooth, dehydration to sleep issues, and more, Read till the end to learn about all of them.
1. Sore jaw:
Did you know stress can affect your mouth?
Just like sore muscles, stress can cause you to clench your jaw or grind your teeth.
If you are experiencing jaw pain or frequent headaches, you could be clenching your jaw without noticing.
Take a moment to relax all of the muscles in your face.
You may look a little silly doing this, but your jaw will thank you later. However, be sure to keep note if you wake up with jaw pain, as this could be a sign of nighttime bruxism.
How often do you visit your dentist in a year? Tell us quickly down below in the comments section!
2. Back Pain:
When we are stressed, we tend to tense more than usual.
A constant flex of certain muscle groups can cause sore muscles.
Why do we tense up when we are stressed out?
This seems to be the body’s natural response as if to protect you from an oncoming injury.
The problem is, if you never relax, those muscles stay tense, and at the end of the day, you could be feeling exhausted and sore.
To remedy this, take a few minutes every hour or so to stretch, get hydrated and focus on your muscles relaxing.
We sometimes tense up without even realizing it, so keep this in mind when you’re working or at home.
Stand up, reach for those toes, reach up to the sky, shake it out.
3. Second-Guessing Yourself:
Stress affects how we think and process information, including how we make decisions.
No matter how you make decisions, be it more intuitive, analytical, or somewhere in the middle, that is your tried-and-true decision-making style.
If it works for you, you usually stick by it.
However, if you feel yourself questioning how you make decisions, continuously switching up your style, or avoiding decisions, you could be stressed out.
Stress can also cause us to look for only positive outcomes rather than any negative consequences.
This could lead to poor decisions, an endless cycle of self-doubt, and more bad choices.
Self-awareness is key for this one.
Discovering your decision-making style as well as your stressors can help you manage daily stress so you can learn to start trusting yourself again.
4. Numbness or Tingling in Your Arms and Hands:
You may be holding all that tension you’re feeling in your neck and shoulders, which is a very common problem.
With major stress, the tension can lead to compression of a particular bundle of nerves that go into your arm.
This can cause numbness and tingling.
Leaning over computers and smartphones for hours a day, and being stressed out while we’re doing it, can make these muscle issues worse.
Your ears should be directly over your shoulders, but with poor posture, they’re a few inches forward.
It’s an awkward and pain-inducing position.
5. Falling Sick Often:
You need a strong immune system to fight disease, but stress weakens your body’s defenses.
It makes you more likely to catch colds or the flu. It also may make autoimmune conditions such as lupus and inflammatory bowel disease worse.
Take care of your immune system by boosting it with healthy eating habits and exercise.
Most importantly, training your immune system through stress reduction can do wonders in keeping you healthy.
6. Short Temper:
Even the sweetest-natured person on the planet can snap if stress is taking over their lives. Because you’re in that fight or flight mode, your brain unconsciously prevents you from
focusing on anything that could make you more stressed.
This includes friends and family who may only be trying to help.
7. Biting your nails:
If you’re just biting your nails in lieu of cutting them, then this probably doesn’t apply to you.
But starting to attack your previously cared-for fingertips is a change in behavior that could definitely indicate stress.
The thing about biting your nails is that it’s very easy to do subconsciously, particularly if you’re distracted by watching TV or scrolling on your phone.
You might not notice what you’re doing at first, but attempting to recognize signs like these can go a long way towards helping you identify when you’re stressed out about something.
8. Picking your skin:
Similar to biting your nails, picking at your skin is a way of preoccupying your hands while your mind is elsewhere – probably on whatever is stressing you out.
These two behaviors go hand in hand with feeling restless, you’ll likely be unable to concentrate until you face the source of stress.
Try doing something physical, preferably outdoors, to help cope with stress, and spend time in nature.
9. You’re unable to concentrate:
You might be sitting in front of the TV or flicking through Instagram when you suddenly ‘come to’ and realize you’ve no idea what just happened.
You might find your mind wandering at work, or find yourself zoning out of conversations with friends or family.
It’s possible that whatever’s being said just isn’t that interesting.
But it’s also possible that your mind keeps pulling you back to an issue that’s yet to be dealt with.
Make adjustments to how you organize your time.
This will help you feel more in control and better able to cope with pressure.
Making lists, tackling one thing at a time can have a positive impact.
10. Expanding Waistline:
When stress lingers for a long time, your stress hormones continue to rise and potentially remain elevated.
In this case, the body actually resists weight loss, despite your best efforts to eat well and exercise regularly. Why?
Your body presumes you’re in strife and you might starve. So it hoards the fat you eat and deposits it around the midsection, reserving it for the next panic-worthy situation.
11. Sleep Issues:
Waking up exhausted, having trouble going to sleep or staying asleep, having bizarre dreams or nightmares?
You could have some significant stress in your life that is causing sleep problems.
We’ve all experienced an event that has given us a hard time falling or staying asleep.
But sometimes day-to-day stress has a way of creeping into our subconscious keeping us from a restful sleep.
One of the side effects of sleep deprivation is feeling more irritable, sometimes to the point where coffee can’t boost our mood anymore.
It’s important to keep your stress in check because irritability can have serious impacts on your work and interpersonal relationships.
12. Excessive Sweet Tooth:
Persistent stress triggers the adrenal glands to work overtime pumping out stress hormones.
This ramps up your appetite, making you more likely to grab a cupcake than a carrot.
Once you get your sweet fix, the sugar rush goes straight to the ‘reward’ center in the brain, creating a vicious cycle of mindless overeating, irrespective of hunger.
Rather than acting on impulse, stop, pause, and take five deep breaths! Deep breathing can help transition the body into a calm state by activating the rest and digest system.
This slows down the heart rate and clears the head, helping you become more mindful of food choices.
13. Dehydration:
If you find yourself heading to the water cooler more often and can’t figure out why you could be dehydrated thanks to too much stress.
Stress causes your body; those stress hormones, causing your adrenal glands to be overworked and fatigued.
The adrenal glands are also in charge of producing a hormone called aldosterone, which helps regulate your body’s levels of fluid and electrolytes.
As adrenal fatigue progresses, your body’s production of aldosterone drops, triggering dehydration and low electrolyte levels.
So while upping your water intake will help in the short term, it’s still a chronic problem that needs to be addressed.
14. Skin Problems:
There are many different causes of acne, including hormonal imbalances and bacteria. But high cortisol levels in the body caused by stress can increase oil production and lead to breakouts.
If you notice that your acne is occurring at the same time as a seriously stressful situation, try getting a handle on your stress levels and clear skin should follow.
A study found that stress can lower collagen production, causing you to become more susceptible to wrinkles and fine lines.
What’s more, severe stress can also trigger serious skin issues, such as psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, and contact dermatitis.
One of the best ways to beat stress is by eating the right types of foods.
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