In recent years stress has not only become a widely used term by the media but has also been recognized as a major contributory factor in a number of debilitating illnesses.

Stress is a normal reaction to events that are changing, we would lose our capacity to make decisions about things if we did not have any stress, the change in our balance level after stress means we will be better able to cope with change in the future and so stress has a stimulating effect on our personal growth. And yet Stress is still a problem, it is very hard to quantify. What we mean by stress is actually excessive stress over our coping level and everyone's level is different.

Once again a balance is important, some people are able to thrive in situations which others would find totally overwhelming, because we are all different.

Defining stress is also difficult, parents looking after children at home, redundancy, promotion, too much work, too little work, no time to relax, poor communication, noise level and many other factors can be stressful. Don't forget that children can also have stress due to pressures at school, peer pressure, hormonal changes etc. Even play can be stressful at times.

We all have a physiological reaction to stress, chemicals enter our blood sending messages to our organs which will take time to return to their balance.

Symptoms of Stress 

There are five categories in the assessment of your stress levels. If you have any of these symptoms then you should try to define what is causing you stress.

If we do not reduce our Stress Levels  then we are in danger of continuous Secondary stress responses, when our bodies continually trigger the stress reaction, these usually occur in situations which we cannot control.

Symptoms of Secondary Stress Responses

We need ultimately to change our situation until we are coping with stress