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April Is National Stress Awareness Month; Here’s What You Should Know about Stress

April is Stress Awareness Month, a time to recognize the severity of intense stress and how it can impact the mind, body, and soul. During Stress Awareness Month, it’s important to reflect on what stressors we are experiencing and the impact that stress can have on our lives, both mentally and physically. Read on for resources on stress management techniques and how to offset the effects of stress for improved overall well-being.

 

Stress and Its Effects on the Mind, Body, and Soul

While stress is a normal part of our lives, it’s crucial to understand how it affects us and learn effective ways to manage it. Prolonged higher levels of stress (often referred to as chronic stress) can be overwhelming and detrimental to our mental and overall health. Lower levels (or, acute stress) are more digestible for the mind and body. Acute stress is more day-to-day items that add a level of pressure temporarily, like bad traffic or a pop quiz for students. Smaller stressors like these can be expected as a part of our human experience, and often the body’s “fight or flight” adrenal response helps us to perform well in these stressful situations.

However, ongoing life stressors can pile up quickly, be difficult to manage, and become overwhelming. Then, mental and physical health begins to suffer. Someone who is chronically stressed may be unable to focus or remember things, or their mind may feel foggy. Someone who operates well under chronic stress may not fully realize the amount of pressure they are under until it begins to affect their physical health. According to the Mayo Clinic, chronic or ongoing stress can lead to serious mental and physical health issues, like:

  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Muscle Tension and Pain
  • Heart Disease, Heart Attack, High Blood Pressure, and Stroke

These issues develop for someone under constant stress, due to the body’s reaction. The brain and body alarm your adrenal and nervous systems to release a hormone called cortisol that increases your heart rate and blood pressure, while also releasing sugar into your blood. This creates that “adrenaline rush” sensation some people feel when public speaking or doing different daring or stressful activities.

While adrenaline and cortisol rushes may feel good, prolonged high cortisol levels can negatively impact your immune system, digestive system, and reproductive system, and can even affect growth for teens and adolescents. In most cases, once the catalyst causing stress on the mind or body passes, the body lowers cortisol and adrenaline levels and regulates normally again. However, for someone who experiences constant stressors, this natural brain and body response can end up doing damage long-term. This is why it is vital to be able to identify common stressors and learn how to manage them.

 

Common Stressors

By knowing the most common stressors locally and beyond, it’s easier to identify what may be causing stress in your own life. In fact, with the ongoing pandemic and news of continual tragic current events, research has confirmed the United States as a whole has been experiencing higher levels of stress than usual. According to recent research, the top stressors are:

  • The COVID-19 Pandemic and its Effects
  • Violence and Crime
  • Work (or Lack of Work)
  • School-Related Stressors (Applying for College/Continued Education, Exams, Requirements, Grades)
  • Income or Money-related items (Cost of Living/Finances/Debt)
  • Home Upkeep (Mortgage Payments, Repairs, Weekly Shopping, Cooking, Cleaning)
  • Family Relations
  • Romantic Relations
  • Friendships
  • The Current State of the Economy or Politics
  • Climate Change and Other Current Events
  • Current State of Personal Physical or Mental Health
  • Chronic Illnesses or Unexpected Health Difficulties
  • Caretaking

 

Common Symptoms of Stress

Another way to help yourself identify your stress levels is by knowing their physical and mental symptoms. Often, people do not realize their physical ailments may be tied to their mental state.

Here are the most common symptoms to be on the lookout for:

Emotional Symptoms: Physical Symptoms: Behavioral Symptoms:
Irritability Digestive problems

 

 Changes in appetite or eating habits
Constant worry Headaches Using avoidance tactics, like procrastination
Forgetfulness Sleep problems Increased use of substances like drugs or alcohol to cope
Inability to focus Weight gain or loss

 

 Habits like nail biting, fidgeting and inability to sit still
Mental fog Low energy Menstrual problems
Feeling Depressed Aches, pains, or muscle tension Skin and hair problems
Feeling unmotivated High heart rate Exercising less and/or napping more
Fatigue Clenched jaw or grinding of the teeth Avoiding spending time with others
  Frequent colds or signs of a weakened immune system  
  Trembles, ringing in the ears, and/or cold or clammy hands or feet  

 

How to Combat Becoming Overwhelmed with Stress

If you are struggling with one or more symptoms of stress, there are active steps you can take to offset its effects in your life with proper management techniques. The easiest stress management technique is to focus on the aspects of your life you can control, such as your schedule or how you spend your time. Some things like work events or required school functions, you may not have much control over attending; however, you can control your free time. If you tend to say yes, or over-commit yourself, do your best to practice minimizing your commitments, and maximizing your free time to take care of yourself. If you feel as if an empty calendar stresses you out just as much as a full one does, it could be helpful to schedule time for yourself. For example, enter in time for a movie night with friends or family, or even yourself if your social battery is drained. Scheduling intentional rest time, days off, or just time to do what you enjoy will help your mind and body recharge and decompress from stress.

Try These Simple Stress Management Techniques:

  • Breathing exercises or meditation
  • Regular light exercise like yoga or walking in nature
  • Watching a movie or reading a book
  • Spending time with family and friends
  • Spend time engaging in one of your hobbies
  • Utilize creative outlets like art-making, making or playing music, or building something
  • Journaling about what is causing stress or your thoughts and emotions
  • Eating a balanced diet
  • Getting the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep each night
  • Self-care

 

Some Stress in Life Is Unavoidable, but Manageable with Support

Life can be difficult; it’s full of seasons of love and loss, fast pace and slow pace, great joy, and unbearable sorrow. Unexpected or uncontrollable stressful life events can leave someone unsure of where to turn for support. A 2023 survey conducted by The American Psychological Association, showed that 36% of adults don’t know where to start when it comes to managing their stress, and 33% said they feel completely stressed out no matter what they do to manage their stress.

If you resonate with this, the best step would be to reach out for professional guidance. Getting support from a licensed counselor or therapist will help you process your stress in a healthy way, learn more in-depth stress management techniques, and equip you to be more adaptive and resilient to current and future stressors. The American Psychological Association confirms that “Coping with long-term stress requires a different set of skills than adjusting to temporary stressors.” The best way to obtain that skill set is to get guidance from a mental health professional. Always reach out for help when you feel too stressed to know what to do.

 

SunCloud Health Can Help

If you are ready to seek professional support for your stress, we can help. The experts at SunCloud Health are here to help you identify the root causes of your stress and empower you to learn how to cope and overcome it. As a leader in the treatment of mental health disorders, eating disorders, and substance use disorders, we have the facilities and the multi-disciplinary teams to meet your needs. We have various levels of care and an admission staff that can recommend which level is best for you.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or stressed out, remember you are not alone.

Reach out today for support.

Call (844) 576-0279 or contact us online: https://suncloudhealth.com/contact-us

Rachel Collins, LCSW
Site Director of Northbrook PHP and IOP

Rachel Collins, LCSW, is the Site Director of SunCloud Health’s Northbrook Partial Hospitalization (PHP) and Intensive Outpatient (IOP) programs for both adolescents and adults. Rachel earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and went on to complete her master’s degree in social work from Michigan State University. She has since worked in a wide range of settings, including inpatient treatment, PHP/IOP programs, therapeutic group homes, and private practice. Rachel specializes in treating trauma (using Cognitive Processing Therapy) and anxiety, practicing through a relational, compassionate, and client-centered lens. She is passionate about creating a therapeutic space in which clients feel safe and able to explore various parts of themselves with curiosity as opposed to judgement. In addition to her leadership and clinical work, she is passionate about creating art, and learning about the intersection between creativity and mental health.

Kayla Corirossi, MA, LCSW
Site Director, Naperville PHP/IOP (Adolescents & Adults)

Kayla Corirossi, MA, LCSW, is the Site Director of SunCloud Health’s Naperville Partial Hospitalization (PHP) and Intensive Outpatient (IOP) programs for adolescents and adults. She brings extensive experience working with individuals across the lifespan, including adolescents, adults, and geriatric populations, and specializes in the treatment of mood disorders, trauma, substance use, family systems, forensic populations, and individuals in crisis.

Kayla has worked in a wide range of clinical and community settings, including community-based interventions, police crisis response, correctional facilities, inpatient treatment, PHP/IOP programs, and with vulnerable and underserved populations. In addition to her clinical and leadership work, she is passionate about providing mental health education and advocacy within the community.

Kayla earned her Bachelor’s degree with a double major in Psychology and Sociology from Aurora University and went on to complete her Master’s degree in Forensic Social Work, also at Aurora University. Her clinical approach is evidence-based, compassionate, trauma-informed, and integrative, emphasizing collaboration and individualized care.

Driven by a personal mission to meet individuals where they are, Kayla is committed to helping clients feel safe, supported, and understood. She strives to create a natural and empathetic healing environment while ensuring individuals from all backgrounds and identities know they are not alone and have access to meaningful resources and support.

Elizabeth E. Sita, MD
Medical Director of Adult Services
Dr. Elizabeth E. Sita, MD, is a Board Certified psychiatrist specializing in the care of patients with eating disorders. She completed her undergraduate training at the University of Chicago and graduated with Highest Honors. She then earned her medical degree at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and was recognized with the Chairman’s Award for Excellence in Psychiatry. She subsequently completed residency with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University, where she was elected Chief Resident and received the Resident Psychiatrist Leadership & Service Award. Upon completing her training, Dr. Sita came to Ascension Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital, where she served as Assistant Medical Director of the Center for Eating Disorders and Director of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Services before transitioning to lead the new inpatient eating disorder unit as Medical Director of Eating Disorder Services at Ascension Saint Joseph Hospital – Chicago. In these roles, she has cared for a multitude of adolescents and adults struggling with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and other eating disorders as well as severe, cooccurring mood, trauma, personality, and substance use disorders. Dr. Sita has been recognized throughout her training and practice for a commitment to excellence in patient care and for her ability to engage patients in their most challenging moments. Her passions include the care of treatment-resistant eating and mood disorders as well as questions of medical capacity and end-of-life decision making. She believes that, first and foremost, human connection is key to mental health and well-being and strives to share this philosophy in each and every patient encounter. She is excited to bring her expertise to SunCloud Health as the Medical Director of Adult Services!   VIDEO: Meet Elizabeth E. Sita, MD, Medical Director of Adult Services  
Lacey Lemke, PsyD
Assistant Vice President of Clinical Services

Dr. Lacey Lemke (she/her) is a licensed clinical health psychologist with specialized expertise in the treatment of eating disorders and the practice of medical and health psychology. She completed her doctoral training in clinical psychology with a Primary Care emphasis at the Adler School of Professional Psychology. Dr. Lemke went on to complete both her predoctoral clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship through Ascension Health, where she gained advanced training working with individuals experiencing eating disorders and self-injurious behaviors, as well as within pediatric subspecialty settings including endocrinology, neurology, and adolescent medicine.

Dr. Lemke is deeply committed to providing evidence-based, compassionate care and collaborates closely with interdisciplinary teams to ensure comprehensive treatment. Her professional mission is to support patients in achieving their fullest potential by guiding them to the most appropriate level of care and empowering them to make meaningful, sustainable progress toward improved health and well-being.

VIDEO: 2. Meet Lacey Lemke, PsyD.