I bet you think I write a lot about stress and stress management. [Stress, It Adds Up, 9/28/08; Change Your Mind, 5/10/08; Managing Job Related Stress, 4/10/08; Happy Holidays?, 10/18/07; Take A Moment,... Breathe, 10/10/07; A Happy Marriage Helps Relieve Stress, 6/25/07; Childhood Stress, 4/15/07 & 4/24/07; Managing Stress At The Job, 3/16/07] Well, I guess I do. It's for a good reason. There's so much of it in our lives. And it effects us a lot. But how can you tell when you've had too much? Well, that one's easy. You get sick. You get headaches, stomach ulcers, high blood pressure, skin rashes, anxiety, depression, various addictions, etc. Of course, I could go on. But you get the point. Too much stress will killya! You can postpone that with medicines. And then more medicines to treat the side effects of the other medicines. But why wait until it's too late? We have to be aware of the less obvious signs that your stress level is getting dangerous for your health, BEFORE YOU GET SICK. You've got to know when you've had enough!You know stress is starting to effect you when,... you start to argue more; get angry quicker and about little things; you are more and more distracted at work; get more forgetful ("Honey, where did I put my keys?"); become more accident prone; start drinking, smoking, or eating more; you feel more tired; sleep is more restless, or you start having more bad dreams; you worry more about everything; you may develop fears, or old ones may resurface. I could go on and on. But that's probably ENOUGH! What do you do about it? You mostly know (and there's a list above to refer to). The important thing is to USE WHAT YOU KNOW. One thing I will mention is that you have to take your vacations (and not just the long weekends). In Europe they get 1 to 2 months paid vacations. We average about a week. Guess who lives longer. Stress effects us every day.You've had enough.Our prayers go out to the family of Senator Edward Kennedy who died this past week.
