The importance of recognising stress.

Stress is a much over-used word and equally a much suffered from condition.

The key to coping with Stress

Is to know your limits and recognise stress and all of the signs, the difficult thing to understand is that two people could be dealing with two very different situations, one could be factually recognisable as dealing with a stressful situation, the other may actually be more a case of your mind causing you to feel stressed.

The other interesting point is

Many people thrive off high-stress levels and this is likely due to the science of what is actually happening to your hormones whilst dealing with the pressure, however, the long-term effect of this, whether thriving or not is still real and a medical issue.

The actual medical process experienced when stressed occurs through several steps, the initial stress response is adrenaline and signals to the body to elevate blood flow and oxygen – allowing you to be more responsive and alert, The speed at which this hormone acts is extremely fast – faster often than signalling between eyesight and the brain.

The second phase, however, is the processing of the ongoing risk and at this point, the brain will release two hormones to trigger the release of cortisol if the perceived threat or danger has not passed. Cortisol is a much more complicated and harmful thing to deal with. It is a natural steroid and in the short term it allows the body to repair tissues very quickly, in the long term, however, it will affect your ability to digest food and rest while also resulting in increased appetite and the storage of unused nutrients as fat.

So, the key here is to understand your mind and the signals it is sending you– recognising stress can sometimes be a case of understanding signals. If you are getting the first wave of adrenaline, then you should take that signal as one to assess the level of risk. There are times for us all where we face genuinely stressful situations and the key is to assess these periods and plan; regain control of the consequential period.

This is of course a simplistic ideal, however, the processes of methodically working through the cause of the danger signal are easy to do and will allow you to feel confident. If you are stressed because you are running a few minutes late for a meeting, for example, you should be able to categorise this as a fairly low-level stressor, and perhaps take steps to be more organised in the future.

This classification of stressors is a useful technique, especially when experiencing chronic or long-term stress. If you are already in the stress zone then every additional minor factor increases an already high level of cortisol and results in burn-out, this is a condition of extreme physical and mental exhaustion and requires remedial steps of action.

These top tips are highly recommended to allow yourself the best opportunity to deal with stress.

For many with SPLDs every day is a stressful situation, especially when they don’t understand or have not yet been diagnosed. The fact that people that can be undiagnosed and can cope at all, usually indicates that they are highly resourceful individuals with great coping strategies, this, however, has been built on triggers and stressors that, when not fully understood result in the danger signals turning into chronic stress. GET SUPPORT

PDC will be adding a series of resources and practical tips to help understand the different types of stress. There are areas that are specific stress factors for those with SpLDs and known as cognitive-stress, it is important to recognise the difference and we will be providing this information in easy and practical writings to help you to learn, combat and achieve. We will also be focussing on areas that tend to affect those with an SpLD if you have concerns about stress or simply are struggling to cope with Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, ADHD or other condition, we would urge you to contact us and even provide a calendar to book a 15m consultation free of charge to help get you on the right track!