This month is stress awareness month, which has been held in April since 1992, to help raise awareness and open
conversation of how much stress can impact us in everyday life.
Stress can be defined as a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation. It is a natural thing, that
we all suffer from in different ways. You can suffer from both acute stress and chronic stress. Acute stress is the
most usual – which happens within a few minutes or hours of the stressful event and only lasts a short period of
time. You can also have chronic stress – this lasts over a longer period of time, or will keep coming back, so usually
happens if you are under a lot of pressure. Knowing about your stress and understanding why this stress is
happening is very important in moving towards being able to better manage it.
Whilst not all stress can be bad, if it continues in the long term it can potentially be harmful, both on your physical
and mental health, so learning to manage your stress is important.
If you need some tips for managing stress, watch the video below:
In the UK, stress is a big issue – in fact in the UK’s largest stress survey it was found that 74% of people said that
stress has made them feel overwhelmed and unable to cope. From this we can tell that just taking time to identify
the pressures in our lives can help us to understand our mental health and protect it by addressing these pressures
and learning how to manage them.
It’s time to #ACTnow this April – take some time to think about stressors in your life and act on them this Stress Awareness Month.
