Careful of the Crutches You Use to Beat Stress
Are you looking for ways to deal with the stress in your life? Well, you’re not alone because 75% of people claim that they felt completely overwhelmed at some point in the last year. While there are ways to cope with your stress, there are also terrible steps that you need to avoid. Here are a few to be aware of.
Alcohol
It’s incredibly common for people to rely on alcohol when they are stressed. People often think that alcohol provides a high but this is actually far from the case. Instead, alcohol is a depressant. It will make you feel lower after you consume alcohol as well as being a poor way to deal with stress, it can lead to other issues like depression. The best way to deal with an issue like this is by exploring an alcohol rehab center. Here you will gain professional support and get your life back on track. If you simply let your addiction get worse, then you can end up in a situation where you start having severe issues like blackouts.
Eating
When you are stressed, there is always going to be the temptation to go on an eating binge. Certain foods cause you to get highs that are perfect when you are feeling low. Unfortunately, it’s all the food that is bad for including those that are filled with sugar and artificial sweeteners. You can also end up yo-yo dieting. Once you start getting into a habit like this, it’s difficult to reverse it. There are certainly causal links between stress and obesity.
Exercise
You might think that exercise is always going to be beneficial to you, however, this is not the case. Don’t forget that exercise always puts your body under a lot of physical pressure. Take running as an example. Running regularly has been suggested by researchers to cause arthritis. The problem is that when you are stressed, you will be inclined to put your body under more pressure and more intense situations. To work off the stress you might lift heavier weights, hit the punching bag just a little harder or run to the point of exhaustion. You need to keep control of your exercise routine, even when the pressure is building.
Gaming
Finally, you might find that you rely on gaming to deal with your stress. This makes a lot of sense when you think about it and it’s a popular choice for parents whose children get stressed. For instance, there are a lot of games where you can literally just blast your way through different enemies which is great fun and a fantastic way to relieve stress. However, like anything else, it is possible to get addicted to gaming. One research paper suggested World of Warcraft was more addictive than cocaine. This isn’t surprising as people waste hundreds of hours of their lives on games like this.
I hope this helps you understand some of the worst ways to deal with stress that you definitely need to dodge.