We all experience stress at times, and there are many triggers. Stress can be rooted in work, social, financial, health or lifestyle issues, or a combination of all. There are times in life when every aspect seems to be one huge ball of stress.

Stress for a short period of time isn’t a problem. But if left unchecked, it can affect your life and wellbeing significantly. So, how much is exactly “too much” when it comes to stress?

Stress is not something you can take lightly. It can be a major cause of many chronic health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity. Knowing how to spot the sings and symptoms that you’re under too much stress can help you stay aware and address the issues before they harm your health.

People often don’t realize that they are stressed and leave the symptoms in isolation instead, so here are 5 common signs for you to spot whether you’re overstressed.

1. You Aren’t Sleeping well

Whether you’re sleeping too much because you feel exhausted or find it hard to fall asleep, overstressed is the most common culprit. When you’re overstressed, your mind is overwhelmed and affects your ability to sleep. Any fluctuation in sleep patterns needs to be addressed. Sleeping patterns change with age and environmental factors. However, when you are overstressed, sleep is one of the first things to get affected.

2. You Can’t Stop Thinking about Problems

If you can’t shut down work or any other problems for a while to find balance, stress has hold of your life. You may believe that the more thinking about the problem, the quicker you can fix it. However, the excessive chit chat of worrying can escalate to cause psychological and physical problems. If you are constantly checking you phone, emails, and other forms of communication from work, it is time to really face what’s important in your life. Stress is suffocating you.

3. You Have Major Mood Swings

Our mental health gets affected when stress levels rise. If you find yourself happy one moment and then immediately crying or enraged, your hormones may feel the impact of too much stress. Bottling up things inside and carrying everything alone doesn’t help. Make time to find out what’s truly causing you to behave this way. Stress does not only injure the body, but it can enhance anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, addictions and other mental health issues.

4. Various Types of Body Pain

We don’t usually listen to the whispers until pain starts to scream. Under high stress levels, your body will start to break down. Hence, you may started experiencing unexplained aches and pains in your body, such as stomach issues, diarrhea, ulcers, tense muscles, chest pains, and shortness of breath or palpitations. You will get aches all over, arthritis will flare up, and even headaches will be common. Whenever you have pain in your body, be aware of it. Do not ignore the symptoms. That might be the sign of you being overstressed.

5. You’re Getting Frequent Headaches

Whether it’s from a bad night’s sleep or a hangover, you’ve probably experienced a headache before. However, if you experienced constant headaches for no reason at all, that could probably be a sign of being overstressed. Headaches are usually caused by a number of issues such as eye strain, insomnia, sleeping in the wrong position, and high or low blood pressure. Besides that, headaches are also a sign of chronic stress due to muscle contractions in the neck and head region.

In Summary

Life can sometimes be challenging. We are constantly putting tremendous expectations on ourselves. We keep trying to be the best version of ourselves in every aspect without knowing the stress level rises a little at a time. Stress is a silent killer. So, take the time to check in with yourself and get to know what’s important.