Have you ever experienced a physical or emotional demand that you felt unable to handle? If so, you have had stress at some level. Often as single parents, we can feel an extreme amount of stress that can adversely affect our health, relationships, and overall quality of life. All people feel stress at one time or another, but the constant activity of single parents can keep us in an almost constant state of feeling overwhelmed-sometimes to the point of despair. Circumstances and our thoughts can both produce high levels of stress. Low levels or not constant levels of stress are fairly normal occurrences that everybody experiences at different times in their lives. Major problems can arise when we have a constant level of high stress without much time to de-stress.
The effects of high levels of constant stress in our lives can be detrimental to our health. According to an article on WebMD
• Forty-three percent of all adults suffer adverse health effects from stress.
• Seventy-five to 90% of all doctor’s office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints.
• Stress is linked to six of the leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide.
• The lifetime prevalence of an emotional disorder is more than 50%, often due to chronic, untreated stress reactions.
Symptoms of stress can include anxiety with associated shortness of breath and/or heart palpitations, headaches, high blood pressure, muscle tension, rapid weight loss, and problems sleeping. For many people this last item-not sleeping well, can cause a snowball effect that continues or worsens the stress and its ill effects.
Relationships can cause stress and relational problems can occur when we feel the constant weight of high stress levels. General constant grouchiness and barking at people can adversely affect relationships. Children are very perceptive and will often be able to identify when we are extremely stressed out. Facial expressions and body language can be a tell tale sign to others as to how we are feeling. When experiencing high levels of stress we can be in conflict with co-workers, find ourselves arguing with others easily, and completely overreacting to minor situations.
It is important for us to take care of ourselves in order to be there long-term for our family. While you might not be able to completely eliminate stress in your life, try to find ways to significantly reduce it. For some easy tips on how to deal effectively with stress please read my article titled, “De-Stressing Your Life.”