Stress Awareness Month: Let's not raise awareness - let's raise action

April was Stress Awareness Month, and the other day, I thought to myself that the last thing we need is more awareness about stress. Stress is persistent and pretty hard to miss!

The thing I find unhelpful about awareness months is that most folks stop at just that: awareness. As if just noticing is enough – “We’ve done our part, where’s my silver star? I noticed!” And don’t get me wrong – when we learn about something for the first time, that’s great. Awareness is a big step. After that however, raising awareness becomes lip service and performative. It is absolutely not enough. Having now noticed, it is incumbent upon us to do something about it. We must not only ask, but try to answer the question: How do we actually cope with stress? Or better yet – treat the root cause of it instead of waiting for the long tail of negative symptoms that stress wreaks upon our lives?

We sweat the small stuff

Here’s the deal. It’s never just one thing. Turns out the root cause of stress is often the accumulation of a lot of small things that pile up. And it’s untrue to say that stress only comes from negative experiences. Sure, everyone is likely aware of how much stress work can cause. Add that to other logistical life stressors like doing household chores, making sure our loved ones are cared for, remembering to renew our passports or drivers licenses – but even positive experiences like landing a new job or upgrading to a new home can bring their own brand of stress.?

Stress sneaks up on us, lurking in the background while we go about our daily lives. Even if we don't have any major stressors, we all still have that underlying tension that builds simply from having a to-do list a mile long. But here's the thing – by identifying those root causes of stressors in our own lives, we can be better equipped to deal with the accompanying stress. And by identifying stressors for others who might be struggling and reaching out, we can help alleviate that stress before it spirals out of control.

Stress doesn’t care about your work/life balance

We're living in an age where the line between work life and personal life is getting blurrier by the day. It's no longer enough to manage stress during business hours and then switch off when we get home. We need to integrate well-being into every aspect of our lives, 24/7. The World Health Organization calls it a stress epidemic, and it's no wonder why – chronic stress has significantly negatively impacted our mental and physical health.

So, what can we do about it? For starters, we need to start treating the root cause of stress rather than just the symptoms. Take teeth grinding, for example – a common physical symptom of stress. Sure, a bite guard can help, but shouldn't we be asking why we're all grinding our teeth in the first place? Maybe the teeth grinding is actually a downstream impact of the fact that your kids’ school had an outbreak of the latest round of the flu virus, which led you to scramble for childcare while also managing your day job and a sick kiddo.?

And it’s worth noting that not all stress is avoidable. After all, there are many variables and factors of daily life that are outside of our control, but as a first step, it’s important to determine the root cause if we can even begin to examine whether or not it can be treated.?

According to a 2022 report from the American Psychological Association, more than 75% of Americans report experiencing symptoms due to stress. That's a staggering number, and yet we continue to slap band-aids on the problem instead of addressing the root cause. Fatigue? Have some coffee. Headache or sore muscles? Pop some Advil. But here's the thing – while these quick fixes might offer temporary relief of symptoms, they won't do anything to tackle the underlying issue.

If left untreated, stress leads to many serious health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, obesity and diabetes.

Leaning into proactive action instead of reactive band-aids

So, how can we start addressing the root cause of stress? For starters, we can prioritize our mental health. It's just as important as our physical health and should be treated as such. Maybe that looks like examining what you’ve been putting off and making a game plan to start tackling that daunting to-do list little by little. Maybe it looks like talking candidly with a trusted friend about what’s on your mind. Or asking our community to support us when life throws us curve balls we couldn’t anticipate??

If we’re experiencing fatigue or headaches, how might we take a curious approach to understand potential root causes of those stressors? How’s our sleep hygiene, our diet? Once physical causes are ruled out as possibilities, we could take an investigative approach by tracking our symptoms, journaling our activities and trying to spot patterns of cause and effect. Most importantly we have to start from a belief that fatigue, headaches, generally feeling bad, are not acceptable symptoms of a status quo physical/mental state. Not everyone needs to feel stress on a consistent basis. This isn't an acceptable byproduct of a busy life in the 21st century.?

Give yourself the gift of “NO” – as in, this is absolutely not ok with me. I absolutely don't want to spend the remainder of my 27,000 days on planet earth feeling like this. Tell yourself, “In fact I want to feel better and I've been told that it's possible. So, now, I'm going to do something about it.”?

TAKE ACTION.?

Whatever the action is, the key is to be proactive rather than reactive.

Stress awareness is important, sure – here's your silver star! But it's only the first step. Now, let's take it a giant step further and start doing something about it. Let's start addressing the root cause of stress in our lives. After all, mental health is physical health, and it should be the foundation for all healthcare.