We can all feel stressed sometimes, but if the feeling begins to overtake your entire life, resulting in your day-to-day activities being impacted, there may be something deeper going on for you that needs addressing.
What is stress?
Stress is a reaction to mental or emotional pressure. It’s often related to feeling like you’re losing control over something. When you’re feeling anxious or scared, your body releases stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol.
What causes stress?
- You feel under lots of pressure
- You’re facing big changes in your life
- You’re worrying about an upcoming event
- You have responsibilities that you find overwhelming
- You’re experiencing discrimination, hate or abuse
- You’re in a difficult relationship.
For some people, what begins as a stressful day or week can develop into a chronic mental health condition like anxiety, panic attacks or depression.
Quite often, the symptoms of stress can take shape as physical symptoms:
- Difficulty breathing
- Panic attacks
- Blurred eyesight or sore eyes
- Sleep problems
- Fatigue
- Muscle aches and headaches
- Chest pains and high blood pressure
- Indigestion or heartburn.
Talking with a trained professional could help you find ways to deal with your stress. There is never any shame in admitting you need to share your stresses with someone. Therapy can help you become more aware of your own thoughts and feelings and help to get to the root cause of any mental health issue you might be experiencing.
How can osteopathy help you deal with your stress?
Osteopathy is a holistic approach to supporting and improving your wellbeing. This type of treatment is an established, recognised system of diagnosis and treatment that focuses on the structural integrity of the body. It is a natural and safe therapy that you can undertake alongside any other medical support you might be receiving.
Osteopathic treatment can work in combination with therapy to help reduce mental health issues like anxiety. As it focuses on your joints, muscles and spine, it will help you relieve the physical symptoms stress can leave you with.
Your treatment will involve addressing:
- Your body’s overactive nervous system
- Tight muscles
- Headaches
- Digestive issues
- Joint pains.
An Osteopath will pay particular attention to the muscles around your thoracic spine, this is where your sympathetic nervous system is located, this is responsible for the ‘fight or flight’ response. By focusing here, your Osteopath will identify exactly where your stress is impacting you and will be able to provide you with techniques you can include in your day-to-day life which will help you manage the effects of your stress.
Your osteopath can also show you breathing exercises you can perform in the comfort of your own home which will help you in moments of stress.
If your stress is causing physical symptoms to disrupt your life, please do get in touch with the Enfield Osteopathic team. We will work together to get you in the best shape possible so you’re able to lead a comfortable, pain-free life.
