Stress

If you feel stressed, you’ll usually be overloaded by multiple things going on in your life. For example, you may be busy at work, or something bad has happened in your private life. You may start to feel stressed if these events or situations demand more from you than you can handle. At that point you’ll no longer be able to oversee your daily tasks or activities. We refer to this as a burnout rather than stress if the complaints last 6 months or more.

Stress can result in both psychological and physical symptoms. In order to refer to it as stress, your situation must minimally include three basic symptoms:

1. You suffer from at least three of the following symptoms:

• You’re tired.
• You’re not sleeping well or feel restless while sleeping.
• You easily get angry, irritated or agitated.
• You’re not good with noise or chaotic situations.
• You cry easily or have frequent urges to cry.
• It’s hard to focus on anything. Your attention is easily distracted and you don’t absorb all the information you need.

2. You also feel like you can’t handle much anymore. You feel like you no longer have control of situations in your life.

3. You’re unable to continue with your daily activities as a direct result of this. These can be activities in your work, your home situation and/or in traffic.

In addition to these basic symptoms, you may also suffer from:

• Exhaustion
• Feeling dizzy.
• A headache and/or numbness in your head.
• Chest pressure or pain.
• A fast and restless heartbeat.
• Abdominal pain or upset stomach.

It’s important you listen to the following advice when you know you’re struggling with stress:

• Continue doing your daily activities as much as possible. You’ll maintain a daily rhythm and recover faster by staying busy.
• Accept that you’re stressed and see what you can cut out to maintain a calmer pace of life.
• Find out which things in life make you feel stressed and how you deal with these. Could you think of solutions or ways to deal with this differently?
• Apply the solutions you have come up with in your life. Then see how this affects your stress levels. Repeat this until you have found a suitable solution.

You should contact your GP if:

• You suspect you’re stressed and in need of some support. Your GP can discuss your situation with you, find out the cause of your stress and come up with possible solutions together with you. Your GP can also refer you to the practice nurse or another care provider.
• The symptoms last longer than 6 months.