The Role of Therapy in Dealing with Chronic Stress
Chronic stress is not just a fleeting feeling of being overwhelmed; it’s a constant state that can significantly impact every facet of life — mental, emotional, and physical. While everyday stressors are usually manageable, chronic stress can feel insurmountable, leading to health issues such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and psychological distress. This blog post explores how therapy can help with this pervasive issue.
Understanding Chronic Stress
Stress activates the nervous system. Ordinarily, we respond to the source of the stress and then relax. But sometimes our bodies get stuck in activation. Something happens, we experience stress, and then we get caught up in a negative story about ourselves that starts to loop, prolonging the stress response. Over time, the body can become habituated to stress hormones. Even when things are fine, your mind continues to loop and your body continues to feel stressed.
How Therapy Helps
1. Identifying the Sources of Stress
A therapist can help you to identify stressors that you may not have recognized or acknowledged. Understanding the sources of stress is pivotal in developing strategies to address them effectively.
2. Developing Coping Strategies
Personalized coping strategies may include problem-solving skills, time-management improvements, realistic goal setting and self-care routines.
3. Improving Emotional Regulation
Everyone experiences stress, the key is to minimize the refractory period. Mindfulness and somatic therapy practices help to retrain the nervous system. It’s not enough to change your mind, you have to change the way you feel. (See previous posts on EMDR, Braninspotting and EFT.)
4. Building Resilience
By improving your ability to recover from setbacks, you are strengthening your mental fortitude and are less susceptible to the debilitating effects of stress down the line.
5. Offering Support and Validation
A non-judgmental, listening ear can be helpful. It may also keep you from exhausting friends and family.
6. Addressing Unresolved Trauma
Some stress comes from unresolved trauma. If you are having outsized reactions to current stressors, your body may be living in the past. Resolving old trauma will get you current and make things feel more manageable.
Conclusion
Managing chronic stress is crucial for mental well-being and physical health. Therapy can help you to handle stress more effectively, change unhealthy behavior patterns and improve your quality of life.