Control Stress with Stress Management Counseling

Stress, anxiety, and depression are common among residents of Hong Kong. About 10 percent of people may struggle with mental disorders, including anxiety. Stress and anxiety can take a heavy toll on not just your mental health but your physical health. Just as important, it can lower your quality of life. Anxiety counseling can help you take control of the stress in your life and stop anxiety at its source.

Why Are You Stressed?

Most of us are dealing with numerous sources of stress in our daily lives, from work and bills to family life and day-to-day responsibilities. Each time you are exposed to a stressful situation, your body reacts. Stress is a natural physical response that prepares your body to fight or flee from a potential threat. Your body releases hormones that increase blood flow, heart rate, blood pressure, and blood glucose. It is immediate and often dramatic.

When stress is well-controlled, your body counteracts it naturally with the rest-and-digest response. After the stressor passes, the parasympathetic nervous system calms your body, and the previously engaged system relaxes, allowing your body to return to homeostasis. Uncontrolled stress, on the other hand, such as work-related stress, can keep your body in a constantly heightened and alert state.

This heightened state of arousal will keep you feeling keyed up and unable to relax. It can even interfere with your decision-making abilities, leading to decreased cognitive flexibility and a tendency to get “stuck” on specific ideas or topics. Chronic stress takes a toll on more than just your mind: It can also affect your body, increasing your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes.

Even when you do not recognize the excess stress in your life, your body does. Symptoms of excess stress can be both mental and physical and may include:

• Headaches or body pain
• Digestive problems and a change in eating habits
• Insomnia and fatigue
• Substance misuse
• Irritability and anger
• Sadness or depression
• Anxiety

Talking to a counselor can help you get your stress under control and develop a healthier balance in your life.

How Stress Management Counseling Works

You might not be able to control the amount of stress in your life, but you can control the way you respond to it. Counseling for stress at work can give you healthy tools for tackling stress at its source, minimizing its effects in your life, and managing it.

Common sources of stress include:

• Job losses or job changes
• Divorces or relationship issues
• A significant change in financial status
• Moving
• Beginning or ending school
• Experiencing an addition to or a loss from a family
• Being diagnosed with a serious illness
• Suffering from discrimination

Most of us have developed our own ways of managing stress, but these are not necessarily equally effective. Smoking, nail-biting, emotional eating, or shopping can all take the edge off the stress you face at work or home, but the effects are likely temporary. Worse, they can have their own negative effects in other areas of your life, which bring more stress. With counseling, you can learn to develop healthier coping mechanisms to truly take control of the stress in your life and break free from anxiety.

Anxiety counseling is effective for both short-term stress, such as that associated with a job change, or long-term stress, such as that associated with a high-pressure job. With counseling for stress at work, you can pinpoint the specific issues causing stress and find the most effective ways to address them. You can learn to take control of your triggers and reduce their effects on your life. You can manage your anxiety and dial down your response.

Experts recognize counseling as an effective treatment for stress and anxiety. With it, you can reach your full potential. When you are struggling with stress, working with a mental health counselor can help you better identify your needs, develop tools to get through the tough times, and work towards your goals.

A counselor can help you with both short-term stress, such as that associated with a job change or divorce, or long-term stress. Counseling for stress at work can help you identify the issues that are causing you stress and find healthier ways to address them. With therapy, you can take control of your triggers and find better ways to manage your anxiety.

Anxiety counseling is an effective and recognized treatment for stress and anxiety and can help you reach your full potential. Not only can stress management counseling help you better identify your needs, it can also help you lay out a plan towards your goals, and develop the tools you need to get through difficult times. Contact Renewed Edge today to learn more or to schedule an appointment with our counseling team.