Stress is a natural part of life, but when pressure feels constant and overwhelming, it can take a toll on your mood, energy, relationships, and overall well-being. At Moments Counselling, we recognize that stress looks different for everyone. We offer compassionate, personalized support to help you understand your stressors, explore healthy coping strategies, and restore balance in your life. Whether stress is affecting your daily functioning or your emotional health, our counsellors are here to help you build resilience and find relief.
Stressed Out?
What Is Stress?
Stress is an automatic physical, mental, and emotional response to challenging events. It triggers your fight-or-flight response, preparing you to face a threat or run away from it. In the short term, stress can actually be helpful, motivating you to meet a deadline or react quickly in a dangerous situation. However, when stress remains elevated over time, it can lead to a range of short and long-term physical and psychological health concerns.
Stress And Hormones
Two key hormones are associated with stress: adrenaline and cortisol. When the body enters fight-or-flight mode, it releases adrenaline, which increases heart rate, helps muscles use glucose more efficiently, and inhibits insulin production. While helpful in the moment, too much adrenaline over time can damage blood vessels and contribute to high blood pressure (hypertension), as well as increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, anxiety, weight gain, and insomnia.
Cortisol is the primary hormone associated with stress. It plays an important role in everyday functioning, such as helping you wake in the morning, regulating blood pressure, and detecting threats to keep you safe. During periods of stress, cortisol will slow down or alter bodily functions that are not essential for immediate survival. However, prolonged elevated cortisol levels can lead to weight gain, high blood pressure, low energy, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, mental fog, a weakened immune system, and changes in mood.
What Are Symptoms Of Stress?
- Weight gain or weight loss
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Stomach pain
- Irritability
- Teeth Grinding
- Chronic Pain
- Insomnia and Other Sleep Problems
- Lower Sex Drive
- Digestive Problems
- Eating too much or too little
- Difficulty concentrating and making decisions
- Fatigue
- Panic attacks
- Headaches
- Difficulty concentrating
- Sweaty hands or feet
- Heartburn
- Excessive sleeping
- Social isolation
- Nausea
- Feeling overwhelmed
- Obsessive or compulsive behavior
The Different Types Of Stress
Acute Stress
This is short-lived and something everyone experiences. It actually helps the brain practice and build a stronger response to future stressful situations. Common examples include swerving to avoid an accident or riding a rollercoaster.
Episodic Acute Stress
This occurs when a person experiences multiple repeated episodes of acute stress. This is common in those with high-pressure occupations such as firefighters or ER nurses.
Chronic Stress
This refers to prolonged periods of heightened stress levels. Over time, this type of stress can contribute to anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, a weakened immune system, and cardiovascular disease, among other concerns.
What Is Stress Management?
The goal of stress management is not to eliminate stress entirely, but to develop healthy ways to cope with it, ultimately lowering your risk of stress-related illness.
What Can We Do?
- Help you understand what your stress looks like.
- Help you identify your current stress responses and whether they are serving you or causing further harm.
- Help you recognize your stress signals.
- Help you recognize your stress strategies, are they beneficial or harming strategies
- Help you learn and implement healthy stress management strategies.
- Help you find strategies for self care.
Strategies We Use
- Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
- Behaviour Therapy
- Action Oriented Therapy
- Emotion Oriented Therapy
- Exposure Therapy
- Affirmations and Imagery
- ABC technique
- Play Therapy
- Mindfulness
Connect with a counsellor at Moments Counselling and discover strategies to regain balance and peace.
