What is it?
Stress is a feeling of being overwhelmed by what is going on around us and is often expressed through thoughts of “I can’t cope”.
What does it feel like?
It might include feelings or anger or irritability, extreme tiredness or tearfulness. People often deal with stress by “pushing through it” or procrastinating and both can lead to yet more stress. When stressed, people may feel like everything is their responsibility and that they have no time to take a break and look after themselves. Stress can lead us to be snappy with friends and family, to make poor decisions about our personal wellbeing, and can eventually result in physical illness.
Potential therapy options
Usually the best treatment options for stress are based around increasing your knowledge of the problem, having a better understanding of your thinking, and making some changes to your behaviour. The evidence suggested cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is usually the most effective treatment. We have a number of interventions that use CBT to help people overcome stress – often the most effective one is our Stress and Mood Management course but SilverCloud online CBT, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and some of our one-to-one interventions are also very helpful.