Stress

Stress is your body's response to pressure or demand — a deadline, a difficult conversation, money worries, too much to do and not enough time to do it. In short bursts it sharpens focus and gets things done. The difficulty is not stress itself, but stress that never really switches off, because the body was not built to run on high alert indefinitely.

Stress and anxiety overlap and often get confused. Broadly, stress tends to be a response to an external pressure that is genuinely there — too much on your plate — while anxiety is more often the mind reacting to a perceived threat, present or not. See Anxiety for more on that distinction; in practice the two frequently feed each other.

Recognising Stress

Because it builds gradually, stress is often easier for people around you to spot than it is for you. Common signs include:

• Physical — tension headaches, jaw clenching, disturbed sleep, fatigue, stomach problems
• Emotional — irritability, feeling overwhelmed, low mood, a short fuse
• Behavioural — withdrawing from people, procrastinating on the things causing the stress, drinking more than usual, snapping at family
• Cognitive — racing thoughts, difficulty concentrating, indecisiveness

What Causes It

Common sources include work pressure, financial difficulty, relationship strain, caring for someone else, health problems (your own or a loved one's), and major life changes — even ones you chose and wanted, like moving house or a new job. Often it is not one big thing but several smaller pressures arriving at once, none of which would be a problem on its own.

What Helps

• Work out what is actually within your control. Some stressors can be reduced or solved directly; others cannot, and trying to fix the unfixable just adds more stress on top — seeInterventions for more on that distinction.
• Protect recovery time. Sleep, breaks, and time away from the source of the pressure are not indulgent extras — they are what stops short-term stress becoming long-term burnout.
• Talk to someone. Naming what is going on, to a friend, family member, or your GP, tends to reduce its weight even when nothing about the situation itself changes yet.
• Use free NHS support. NHS talking therapy services across Norfolk and Suffolk offer workshops and one-to-one support for stress and anxiety — ask your GP for a referral, or self-refer to your local IAPT service.

When Stress Tips Into Anxiety or Burnout

If the pressure eases but the on-edge feeling does not, or if you notice yourself avoiding more and more of ordinary life, that is often the point where stress has tipped into something that benefits from more structured help. See Anxiety for what that can look like and what to do next.