Bridging Behavioral Health

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Stress & Coping

Impact of Stress on the Body

When we think about stress, we tend to focus on the source of the stress, which might be challenges we face or big changes in our life. But these stressors are only part of the story. How much of an effect a stressful event has on us depends on how we manage or cope with the stress. We can all identify times in our lives where something significant happened in our communities and people around us reacted in different ways. Some people were overwhelmed and wanted to give up, others sat patiently and waited, others were extremely active and made efforts to figure out what to do. Each of us copes differently, and that’s OK.

It is important to recognize that in this pandemic, we are not experiencing just one brief stressful event, but rather a prolonged period of stress, which we refer to as "chronic stress". Our biological stress response system was not designed to be activated for such a long period of time, and chronic stress can put a lot of wear and tear on both our mind and our body. The figure to the left highlights the many ways in which stress can affect our various biological systems, which keep us healthy when they work well, but make us more vulnerable to illness when they do not work well.

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Stress & Coping

General Coping

If stress refers to the changes in our lives which challenge us, coping refers to the way that we that we deal with those stressful changes. We can decrease some of the negative ways stress impacts our body by using coping strategies. This is particularly important when faced with a chronic stressor. Coping strategies can include:

Check your thinking

Adjust expectations. Anticipating various outcomes to scenarios in life may assist in preparing for the stress associated with any given change or event.
Try to maintain helpful and adaptive thoughts. Gather information from reputable sources and look at the likelihood of various outcomes. Instead of focusing on a highly unlikely outcome, take comfort in knowing that a much less severe outcome is the most likely.
Problem solving. Problem solving is a coping strategy that involves identifying the source of the problem and coming up with solutions. We might not be able to solve the pandemic, but this strategy might be helpful for some problems we are dealing with.

Calm your body

Relaxation. Engaging in relaxing activities, or practicing calming techniques, can help to manage stress and improve overall coping. These activities may include deep breathing or progressive muscle relaxation.

Engage in self-care behaviors

Try to get enough sleep. Adults should aim for 7-9 hours of sleep a night, and children need more. It might be harder than usual to get a good night’s sleep right now. If you are having a difficult time sleeping, you might want to try some of these tips from the National Sleep Foundation.
Physical activity. Regular exercise is a good way to handle the stress of the current situation. This may involve walking, running, yoga, or using household objects as weights.
Nature. It is helpful to simply get outdoors and enjoy nature.
Find some balance. Try limiting your news exposure and spending time engaging in other activities, such as reading a book for pleasure.

Get in tune with your emotions

Acknowledge what you are feeling. Spend some time really trying to think what you are feeling and experiencing. Give it a name. Try to understand what the feeling is about.
Embrace humor. Finding comic relief can be helpful in times like these.

Maintain social connections

Seek support. Asking for help, or finding emotional support from family members or friends, can be an effective way of maintaining emotional health during a stressful period.
Lean on those who bring out the best in you. Choose to spend time with people who help you to feel better and more in control of your life.

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Stress & Coping

Coping During a Crisis/Disaster

We cannot avoid stress, but we can work on developing healthy thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to help manage or regulate that stress, which in the end helps to keep our minds and bodies healthier. There are also some more specific strategies we can use to make our worries less overwhelming. It can help to focus on what we can control right now instead of what we cannot control. We can also cope with our worries by trying to think rationally instead of worrying about the worst thing that could happen. Below, we provide some ideas for dealing with a variety of worries you may be having.