Chapter 2: Stresses affect mental health

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HealthWiki > Promoting Community Mental Health > Chapter 2: Stresses affect mental health

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In this chapter:

 

In this chapter:

• Chapter 2: Stresses affect mental health
• Dealing with all the stress
• Being there for people
• Anxiety
• Trauma
• Grief and loss
• Depression

Common, everyday situations often create stress. This includes everything from a loud, unexpected noise to arguing with someone in your family, to preparing for a test in school, to misplacing your keys. Usually, the stress comes and goes, and we go on. We don’t all experience the same moments of stress in our lives, or react the same way to them, but we all experience stress. While extremely stressful situations or terrible events can cause trauma that people often need help addressing, mostly, stress is something we "just deal with."

Many people live with ongoing, harmful stresses:

• Working several jobs to get by, having too little income or a lot of debt.
• Abusive or unhappy relationships.
• Challenges related to rough times as a child, or young adult, or for people who had to change countries or move to a new place to find safety.
• Discrimination because of how you look, who you are, or from ideas others have about you These can be based on race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, body size, customs, language, or other reasons, including mental illness Discrimination can be direct and dangerous but also can happen in small ways that wear away at you over time.

Stresses come regularly from illness, work, or family life, and for children or young people they often come from school environments and online interactions. Even exciting events, like a new baby or starting a job, can be stressful because they create big changes.

People respond to too much stress in different ways. Some people get angry more easily while others are overcome with worry and doubt. Stress makes it impossible for some people to make decisions, while others are pushed to make snap decisions without thinking them through. People may use alcohol and other drugs to try to lower their stress, which may lead to additional problems.

If you are one of the many people who “just deal with” stress, it can help to identify the methods to beat stress that work best for you. Many people find overcoming a challenge leads to more confidence that they can do it again next time. Helping each other get through stress and stressful times can bring relief, and when group actions or supportive social programs remove some of the stresses altogether, this lightens the load people carry.

Stresses can take the joy out of life.	But you don’t have to face stress alone.

Stresses affect the body

When stress or fear happens suddenly, you can feel it in your body—your heart beats more quickly and your breathing may change. And then, as the stress fades, you often feel your body relax. Short-term stress is common for everyone and not always a problem. In fact, responding to and getting through stress is often a rewarding part of our emotional health (see “Stress and anxiety are not always harmful”).

When someone is stressed all the time, it can build up and affect them more. Sometimes the stress in our lives doesn’t directly affect our thoughts and feelings, but the body shows it is there. Common conditions such as trouble sleeping are often tangled up with stress. Stress can also show up as body aches and pains or illnesses we can’t explain another way.

People often get used to stress and don’t notice how it is affecting the body, even when the stress is enough to cause harm.

Stresses that continue for a long time (for example, from a high-pressure workplace or an abusive relationship) can cause both mental health challenges, such as anxiety and depression, as well as physical signs, including headaches, lack of energy, and stomach upset or other intestinal problems. Ongoing stress can lead to long-term health problems including high blood pressure and heart disease, diabetes, and problems affecting the immune system. For example, racism and other types of discrimination in the US cause very high rates of stress-related physical problems in Black communities.

What we notice about our bodies holds clues about our emotions and gives us ways to manage them. While our bodies often hold stress, they also often hold the keys to reduce stress—that is why many people consider sports, stretching, walking, dancing, and other physical activity to be “stress busting.” There are many techniques to use our own body awareness to reduce stress, including acupressure, finger-holding, reflexology, breathing techniques, and other practices (see examples below and in Regain calm: Find what works for you, and Pause and rest).

How to use finger-holding to manage strong emotions

Techniques involving pressure points, pressing on specific points on the body, can help make people aware of what is happening inside them.

Using finger-holds in challenging moments can bring peace, focus, and calm. This calming can give you time to think of the right response or action to take. Finger-holds can also be used for relaxation with music or before going to sleep, to release the problems of the day and bring peace to body and mind.

You can do this for yourself or you can hold the fingers of someone else who is angry or upset. The finger-holds are helpful for crying children or tantrums. They can also be used with people who are very fearful, anxious, sick, or dying.

1. Start by wrapping either of your hands around one finger of the opposite hand. Choose one finger to focus on a source of stress, or go through all 10 fingers one at a time. People often focus on each finger being connected to a specific feeling, such as:
   

   grief, sadness

   fear, panic

   anger

   worry, anxiety

   lack of self-esteem

   Emotions can be like waves of energy moving through the body and mind. You can make a channel of energy connecting each finger to a particular emotion or part of your body.
   • The thumb for sadness or grief
   • The index finger for fear or panic
   • The middle finger for anger
   • The ring finger for worry or anxiety
   • The little finger for low self-esteem or trying too hard
2. Hold each finger with a firm touch for at least 1 to 2 minutes and up to 5 minutes. As you hold each finger, you often feel a pulsing sensation.
   • Focus on your breath moving in and out of your body and simply feel the feelings instead of thinking about what events or life circumstances caused them.
   • Breathe out slowly, releasing the feelings and problems. Imagine the negative feelings draining out of your finger into the earth.
   • Breathe in a sense of harmony and healing.

This page was updated:18 Apr 2025