Welcome to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Day (CBT) on the forums!
Twice a week will now be known as CBT day.
Once a week a Health Educator will launch a challenge. Members are encouraged to take on the challenge and post their results. A few days later, a Health Educator will post specific tips and strategies to aid you in the way you look/interpret yourself and the way you view the world.
This week we will be talking about stress…
There are many different symptoms of stress and the way stress manifests is different depending on the person and/or situation. Here are a few:
• Physical symptoms: Stomach pain, back ache, head ache, racing heart, trembling, insomnia, muscle aches, chest pain, nausea, chills, flushing, heart palpitations and more
• Mental symptoms: Confusion, loss of concentration, racing mind, difficulty with memory and more
• Emotional symptoms: Anxiety, irritability, impatience, anger, frustrations, fear and more
• Behavioral symptoms: Pacing, talking quickly, fidgeting, increased or decreased eating, crying, yelling and more
There are two kinds of stressors: external and internal.
External stressors include:
• Physical environment: noise, bright lights, heat, confined spaces.
• Social: rudeness, bossiness or aggressiveness on the part of someone else.
• Organizational: rules, regulations deadlines and office politics.
• Major life events: divorce, lost job, promotion, new baby.
• Daily hassles: being stuck in traffic, forgetting your purse
Internal stressors include:
• Lifestyle choices: caffeine, not enough sleep, overloaded schedule, not eating enough or often enough.
• Negative self-talk: putting yourself down, catastrophizing.
• Mind traps: unrealistic expectations, taking things personally, all-or-nothing thinking, exaggerating.
• Stressful personality traits: perfectionist, workaholic, people pleaser.
Thinking back to the record you’ve kept this week, which category did you fall into?
