What Even is Stress?
We’ve all seen it, we’ve all heard of it, and unfortunately, we’ve all most likely experienced it. Stress is extremely common among the human race in general, and unless your life is completely stress free, you can benefit from seeking help for your stress, or at least attempting to get it under control. In fact, according to Will Wister, the U.S is the most stressed out country on Earth, ranking at 65% claiming to feel stress several times a week. This means that even smaller cities around the greater Atlanta areas like Fayetteville, Ga are effected by stress. Will goes on to explain that people within the U.S are so stressed out because they are trying to live “full lives” meaning every aspect of their life must be jam-packed with activities and a need for success (relationship, kids, work, friends, family, sports, etc.). Will also says that women are much more likely to experience significantly more stress than men. Inevitably, if you feel alone in your stress, you are not.
According to the Stress Management Society in the U.K, Stress is not necessarily a bad thing, it is a mostly physical reaction that we as humans have been having since the Stone Age. Think about a time when you feel most stressed- is it at work when deadlines are piling up and your to-do list is never ending? Is it when you’re at home and the dryer breaks while on your first load of seemingly endless laundry? When you and your significant other have been fighting for weeks and there is no end in sight? Is it when the bills are piling up and your full-time job just doesn’t seem to be cutting it anymore? Maybe a combination of all of these? Usually when experiencing stress, your body will react by releasing an influx of hormones like adrenaline, which causes the heart pounding, fast breathing sensation that you may experience during a particularly stressful time. Your body does not understand that you’re stressing over bills and not a life threatening situation, so it is preparing for a fight, flight, or freeze situation. While your body is reacting with all of these hormones and other chemically imbalanced ways, your brain loses its ability to think calmly and rationally.
How to Know When you Need to Seek Help for your Stress
As explained before, stress is relatively normal. Stress is a biochemical reaction that we all have to certain situations. It is when your stress starts to affect every aspect of your life that you may need to seek help for your stress in order to get it under control. For example, if you find yourself worrying about your job while at home, so much so that you cannot hold a conversation with your kids and partner, we may need to find a way to seek help with your stress. This works both ways, if you find yourself stressed about your family situation so much so that you are worrying about it at work and it is affecting your ability to perform, there are ways to help deal with your stress in a healthy way. Being the “go-getter” Americans that we were all taught to be, it is common to have stress in multiple parts of our lives. The key to this issue, is to leave that stress in that area of your life, and tackle it in the moment, instead of bringing it into other parts of your life as well, because this is how it starts to take over. Bringing stress from work to home or vise versa, or crossing any other boundaries is a sign of chronic stress, and likely needs to be treated by a professional. How you deal with your stress also determines whether or not you should seek help with your stress- drugs, alcohol, yelling, or being violent are all unhealthy ways to release stress. 
As with many other conditions, if your stress is starting to affect your sleeping or eating habits, it is time to see a professional to get some help with the stress. If your stress is taking a toll on the relationships in your life, if you find yourself unable to relax, even while doing relaxing activities like going on vacation or getting a massage, it may be time to seek professional help for your stress.
Seeking Help for your Stress- Professionally
Seeking help for stress is not something that people typically think of when they think of going to a therapist. “I’m only stressed, not crazy”, you may say to yourself. But professional help can truly make a difference when it comes to how you are coping and dealing with your stress. 
These tips and tricks that a therapist can do with you can ultimately clear your head so that you can tackle the things that are stressing you the most. A therapist can work as an outlet to unload all of the stressful situations that you maybe cannot tell others. Simply talking to someone else, namely, a professionally trained stranger, about your stress can help tremendously. Seeking help with stress can be stressful itself, but we have come a long way from counting backwards from ten and deep breathing exercises, even though these coping skills are tried and true. A quick google search for therapists, or therapist offices in your area such as “help with stress in Fayetteville, Ga” or “therapists in south Atlanta” will likely do the trick. Things like exercising at least 30 minutes a day, drinking enough water, avoiding harmful substances like alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine, try keeping a stress diary, and getting a full 8 hours of sleep everyday can also make a world of difference in helping your stress. Ultimately, we all want to live happy, healthy, and ideally, productive lives. Seeking help for your stress is the first step to a better you!
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