To mark Stress Awareness Month, we ask mental health and wellness experts for tips on how to manage stress, from long walks and digital detoxes to alternative therapy and boosting your intake of vitamin B.
6 Expert-Backed Ways to Cope With Stress
If you’ve been feeling stressed during the past 12 months, you are not alone. Cases of burnout and stress were common before the pandemic, but the impact of COVID-19 on the economy and people’s emotional wellbeing has generated an environment where feeling this way is often the default, especially in the midst of restrictions, regulations, and lockdowns. While it’s natural and normal to feel stressed, it is crucial to recognize when this silent scourge may be taking a toll on your physical and mental health.
According to research, high levels of stress over an extended period of time can drastically alter our physical functions and affect nearly every organ system in our body. It is also linked to sexual dysfunction, acne, anxiety, depression, psoriasis, hair loss, obesity, cardiovascular disease, personality disorders, insomnia and gastrointestinal problems, among other issues. “In my 20 years in the wellness and mental health industry, we have never received a significant increase in calls as much as we did in the past 12 months,” says Neil Shah, founder of the Stress Management Society. “Why? Because people need help.”
April is Stress Awareness Month, a global campaign launched in 1992 to help increase public awareness around the causes and cures of stress. “[Its] aim is to get people talking,” says Shah. “We encourage people to recognize the symptoms of stress early, before it’s too late. It should be taken seriously and the dialogue around stress and mental health needs to be destigmatized.”
Here, Vogue speaks to six health experts to find out their advice on how best to cope with stress.
This story originally appeared on: Vogue - Author:Anne Lora Scagliusi
