As you may have heard in the media, the detrimental effects of stress are increasingly being understood and acknowledged as a problem affecting growing numbers of us. Stress can have harmful effects on both our physical health – heart problems, high blood pressure – and our psychological wellbeing and stress will often manifest as an interaction of both physical and psychological problems. 

You may be finding yourself increasingly irritable, snapping at people or struggling to cope with the demands placed on you because of rising, sometimes intolerable, levels of stress. You may be stressed by circumstances at work, at home, in education or for some other reason. Sometimes the most difficult thing is not being aware of what is causing us to feel stressed in the first place! It is also increasingly acknowledged that social factors like inequality, poverty, racism, and oppression are significant contributors to stress. 

At Psychology Sussex, our psychologists, psychotherapists, and psychotherapeutic counsellors are experienced in working with you to explore what it is that is causing you stress and how to go about managing this. 

Some of the common factors you may be experiencing are:

• Feeling increasingly irritable, wound-up or angry;
• Having difficulty managing your emotions or feeling overwhelmed;
• Crying at times, or in situations, that do not feel linked to any particular reason;
• Racing thoughts;
• Feeling anxious  or worried;
• Feel depressed;
• Feeling tense;
• Feeling dizzy;
• Having difficulties with sleep (insomnia);
• Sexual difficulties;
• Experiencing headaches or feeling dizzy.

Increasing levels of stress can also make it harder to deal with the everyday demands placed  on us which can sometimes lead to feeling so overwhelmed that we are unable to meet the challenges of these demands. This in turn can lead to increasing levels of stress and this pattern can become a vicious cycle. 

Sometimes, in a bid to manage stress, we can also turn to behaviours that themselves have their own consequences like smoking, drinking more, taking prescription or illicit drugs, or snapping at people. Stress and the ways we manage it can also have profound consequences for our relationships with others.   

Our aim at Psychology Sussex is to help you manage the causes and consequences of stress in a way that feels beneficial to you – both in the short-term and in the long-term. We understand these difficulties at Psychology Sussex and work collaboratively with you to explore the triggers of stress in order to come up with solutions tailored to your needs. 

Do not hesitate to contact now to speak to one of our team about how it is Psychology Sussex may be able to help you.