Stress Causes

Many people experience stress on a daily basis.

Knowing your stress causes is an important step to stress relief.

Research shows that the major causes of stress are:

  • jobs and the workplace
  • personal relationships
  • children
  • financial problems
  • being too busy, and
  • general health
What causes one person severe stress, may be a minor source of stress for another.

Stress is in the eye of the beholder!

Most of these causes of stress can be put into two groups - daily hassles and major life events.



Daily hassles

Daily hassles are the little things that add up over time.

stress causes
Photo courtesy of Michael Matteo

The most reported daily hassles include a concern about

  • the health of somebody in your family,
  • being worried about your physical appearance
  • having too much to do,
  • home maintenance problems, or
  • rising prices or not enough money.
Do these sound familiar?

Everyday annoyances can make you a candidate for stress-related health problems.

While your own daily hassles may be different to these, what is important is their frequency and duration, and how you react to them.

To gain a better understanding of your daily stressors and how you react to them try using a stress diary.



Important life events

Important life events can also have huge effect on your stress levels.

Life events include the death of a spouse, divorce, major illness in the family, failing a course at school, losing your job, and retirement.

Psychologists have also suggested that pleasant events such as getting married or getting a job promotion can cause stress.

Whether pleasant or unpleasant, a stressful event requires adjustment and adaptation to change.

Symptoms of prolonged distress can include depression, sleep disturbances, fatigue, panic attacks, loneliness and increased chance of mortality.

A first step to understanding what is stressing you and how you react to stress, try using a stress diary.




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