It’s Stress Awareness month! If you haven’t seen my post here about Stress Awareness month and the stress awareness takeover, then go and check it out so that you can see what is going on!
Hi I’m Terri, an ex teacher and now full time blogger. You can fine me over at The Strawberry Fountain talking about life with my two boys, husband and our newest addition, Buddy the cocker spaniel puppy.
1.) Do you suffer with stress frequently or occasionally?
I had my first experience of suffering with stress late last year. Prior to that I was always quite anxious and would get stressed out easily but nothing compared to what I experienced last year. I now understand the difference between suffering from stress and being stressed, they are two very different things.
2.) What sort of things cause you stress?
For me it was work related but mixed with the work life balance and the mum guilt of splitting myself to thinly between being a good teacher and being a good mum.
3.) Does anything in particular make stress worse for you?
I find that worrying about other peoples opinions about me add to the stress and trying to please everyone, although impossible, is something I find myself doing more often than not. This can be in work, in my writing or even with my parenting decisions.
4.) Does stress have an impact on your physical health?
Yes. When I am stressed my endometriosis flares up and I get psoriasis around my hair line. This leaves me doubled over in pain, moody and with flaky skin on my head and face, as you can imagine this makes me look delightful and leaves me worrying about what others will think when they see me which then stresses me out further. I also find that I struggle to sleep when stressed or if I do sleep it is restless and I wake up feeling tired.
5.) What do you do to alleviate stress?
I try and talk to my husband and ask for help when I feel I can. I have also started to incorporate more exercise as well as yoga and meditation into my week which I find helps. When I was very bad last year I also used medication which did help and luckily I wasn’t reliant on them for long.
6.) Do you think more needs to be done to raise awareness of what causes stress and the impact it has on us and those around us? If yes, what would you do or like to see done?
Yes, I don’t think people take it seriously but then I also think to many people complain about being stressed to describe a busy or hectic day/week and so the seriousness is diminished in some ways. I think work places should do more to help staff, especially in teaching. I think work loads should be monitored and breaks should be mandatory. Free gym sessions of some sort could be offered as well as making counselling sessions accessible but also acceptable in the work place. Being able to take sick days for stress without being judged should also be encouraged.
7.) Do you have any tips for anyone dealing with stress?
Talk. If you are feeling more stressed than normal talk to someone, a partner, a friend, a doctor.
Ask for help and don’t be ashamed to do so.
Make changes where you can, delegate if possible and say no if you need to.
Try and live a healthy lifestyle with a good diet and exercise, it sounds obvious but it does help.
You can find me here:
https://facebook.com/thestrawberryfountain
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https://twitter.com/thestrawberryfountain
If you want to see more about stress awareness then please search ‘stress awareness’ to read all the posts throughout April.
