What Are The Most Common Sources of Stress?

Be it from a personal conflict or too much workload, stress is something we all encounter in our everyday lives. While stress itself is a normal experience, it’s how we deal with it that matters the most. Identifying where your stress comes from will make it easier for you to figure out how to cope. 

Understanding Stress

Stress itself is a biological response to situations that your body perceives as threatening. In stressful situations, your body produces hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol to keep you alert.

Some physical signs that may show up when you experience stress are:

• Dizziness or headaches
• Increased heartbeat
• Muscle tension
• Trembling

These signs are reactions from your body to keep you alert and ready for potential threats. However, prolonged stress can have detrimental effects on your physical and psychological health.

How Stress Starts

Stress begins as a bodily response to a potentially dangerous situation. This can mean anything from a dangerous, life-and-death situation, to any change that causes physical, emotional or psychological strain such as moving jobs, failing an exam, or even getting stuck in a really bad traffic jam.

The chemicals and hormones produced by your body during stress heighten your heart rate and keep blood flowing into your muscles, signaling a fight or flight response. In the short term, it makes you stay alert and ready to “fight” whatever comes your way. In the long term, however, stress has dire consequences for our health.

Prolonged stress can eventually increase the risk of getting chronic illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure.       

Common Sources of Stress

While there are many possible causes of stress in everyday life, here are some of the most common sources. 

1. Personal Relationships

Conflicts in your personal relationships can be a major source of stress, be it with family, friends, or coworkers. When your relationship with someone else becomes strained, you may find yourself avoiding spending time with them or feeling tense whenever they’re around.

Like any other sources of stress, constant conflict with another person can have adverse effects on your physical and psychological health. It’s especially hard when this conflict is with close friends or family that you spend time with quite often. 

If you start to feel that this bad relationship cannot be fixed, try to spend more time around other family members or friends that you like being with. Try relaxation techniques to calm down when the tension has gone up, and learn how you can accommodate them in interactions to minimize the conflict.    

2. Financial Issues

Economic problems seem to also be a common cause of stress. In a study by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2015, nearly 3 out of 4 adults in the United States report feeling stressed about money at least some of the time. This can be further amplified for people who live in low income households, in poverty, or in debt. 

Worrying about money may be harder to prevent for those who are going through economic hardships. In the meantime, trying out techniques to cope with stress like exercising or meditating regularly may help to keep your stress from going overboard, while maintaining a frugal lifestyle such as cooking at home and cutting back on non essentials to cut costs.     

3. Work or Education

Considering how we spend around 40 hours per week at work or at school, our job or our school takes up the majority of our time. As such, tension will also inevitably arise.

Some of the most common sources of stress at work are from too much workload, conflicts with coworkers and/or your supervisor, and feeling unsatisfied with your job role or career. With school, stress can come from exam week, relationship with schoolmates, or big projects and assignments.

4. Major Life Events

While major life events such as marriage, moving out, or expecting a child can be happy events, they are also a major source of stress. These events can bring a huge disruption in your daily routine and put additional pressure on you. With a baby on the way, for example, you’ll have to adapt and learn how to become a parent and take care of your child.

With this kind of stress, you can figure out ways to reduce its impact on you. Preparing yourself for what is to come and talking to others who have gone through the same thing can help put your mind at ease.   

What Puts You At Risk?  

With all the things in life that can cause it, stress is inevitable. However, we can learn how to reduce its negative effects and prevent it from causing harm in the long term. 

First, stress can have worse effects on our health if we choose the wrong coping habits. We may engage in unhealthy behaviors, such as binge-watching TV shows for hours, eating unhealthy food, drinking alcohol, or smoking to deal with stress. It may feel good for the time being, but these behaviors can make things worse in the long run.

Lack of emotional support can also increase the risk of long-term stress. In the research by APA, nearly half of participants who reported having no emotional support say they felt sad or depressed due to stress, compared with only one third who say they have emotional support.

Social isolation can potentially increase the negative impact of stress. Knowing that you have someone you can depend on for emotional support can help mitigate the effects of stress on your health. Sharing your concerns with others, such as friends, family, or through a platform like Reyo can also be a good coping method to deal with stress. 

References:

American Psychological Association. (2015). Stress in America: Paying with our health.

Healthline Editorial Manager. (2020, March 29). Causes of Stress: Recognizing and Managing Your Stressors. Retrieved from Healthline: https://www.healthline.com/health/stress-causes

Mind. (2017, November). How to manage stress. Retrieved from Mind: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/stress/causes-of-stress/

Scott, E. (2020, June 29). The Main Causes of Stress. Retrieved from Verywell Mind: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-the-main-causes-of-stress-3145063

Scott, E. (2021, March 28). New Findings About Stress and Health. Retrieved from Verywell Mind: https://www.verywellmind.com/stress-and-health-research-3144991