The stress response is the way your body reacts to stressful events or situations. When facing a stressful event or period, your body releases specific hormones that trigger certain actions. In the face of danger, for example, adrenaline and cortisol give you the burst of energy needed to run.
Stress can be short-term or chronic, depending on how you manage it. If you don’t take steps every day to manage stress, your body can suffer from hormonal imbalances, as well as inflammation and mental health deterioration.
How Stress Affects Women’s Health
Some of the health effects of stress are similar in both men and women. However, some responses are more common in women than men, as follows:
- Women are more susceptible to tension headaches and migraines from stress
- In 2018, one study showed that women were twice as likely to suffer depression and anxiety disorders as men
- Younger women with a genetic predisposition for heart diseases can develop high blood pressure and ensuing heart disease
- The link between weight gain and stress is stronger in women than men
- High cortisol levels in women’s bodies can throw all other hormones out of balance, affecting the menstrual cycle, your skin, hair, fertility, and sex drive, among others
- Shedding weight while stressed is next to impossible because cortisol makes your body hang on to its calories
There are many other ways that stress negatively affects women more than men. Additionally, the burden of trying to have successful careers and bring up children falls on women, causing further distress.
Learn below how you can manage stress effectively and restore your body’s good health.
1. Name Your Enemy
Effective stress management starts with identifying the places in your life where stress comes from. Pinpointing events causing acute stress is easy. You could have had a new baby, changed jobs, gone through trauma, etc.
Identifying underlying causes for chronic stress is much harder. For example, if you’re in a high-pressure job you love, you may not notice the stress you accumulate from pushing deadlines or meeting crazy targets. Or you may accumulate stress causing you to procrastinate, which causes more stress as deadlines approach.
Mindful introspection can help you identify where stressors come from in your life. Determine what role you play in causing your stress and how you can change it. Therapy can help you delve into the depths of your chronic stressors and identify healthy ways to cope.
2. Avoid, Alter, Adapt or Accept
When faced with stressors, the above are the four responses that can help you to cope. There are predictable and unpredictable stressors; start with the former, which is easier to manage. Do the following:
- Avoid unnecessary stress – say no when your boundaries are being pushed, avoid people who stress you, avoid places that make you anxious. Do not avoid stressful situations that must be dealt with.
- Alter stressful situations you can’t avoid – express your feelings respectfully, be willing to compromise, create a balance in your schedule, or try to find ways to cope with the stressor
- Adapt to stressors – change your perspective of the stressor. Adapting can help you regain control by shifting your attitude and expectations. Look at the bigger picture and practice gratitude amidst the stressor
- Accept what you can’t change – some stressors are unavoidable, and they cannot be changed or prevented. Accept these things as they are and look for the positive side. Learn to forgive and let go of what hurts you and share your feelings with someone to relieve your stress.
In these four ways, you can effectively deal with any challenge that you meet, whether predictable or unpredictable.
3. Exercise
Physical activity is good for relieving stress, weight management, increasing happiness, and building fitness. Simple moderate-intensity exercise for 30 minutes or more three times a week should be your minimum goal. This can be as simple as a brisk walk or run around your neighbourhood.
You don’t have to do the exercise all at once. Studies show that accumulating activity throughout the day gives you the same benefits as one 30-minute session. So start slowly – get up and find ways to incorporate exercise into your daily life.
Sweating helps to release some of the toxins building up under your skin. Focus on coordinating mindful breathing with your exercise for better effect. Enjoy your surroundings if you’re outside. Also, chewing gummies with CBD while exercising can deliver much-needed relief.
4. Build Relationships
Stress can make you feel isolated and alone, which compounds the effects of the stressor. Women need to talk out stressful things with friends – just sharing with a gentle listening ear does wonders with managing stressors.
Make time for your girlfriends, spouse, and family, no matter how busy your schedule gets. Face-to-face interactions while doing fun activities or enjoying a meal together causes the body to release a cascade of hormones to fight the body’s stress response.
Conclusion
A lot of the things that cause stress for both men and women have a bigger impact on the fairer sex. Why this is, science has yet to explain.
However, healthy interactions in day to day life can help to prevent stress from building up to chronic levels. Practice mindful stress management every day and with everything.
