Stress Cycle
Hello everyone welcome to our first day of Stress Awareness Week, a collaboration between multiple awesome sub-communities! You can find the masterpost here.
An interesting way to look at stress is through a stress cycle. Stress triggers a multitude of events in ourselves. All those events can repeat in a cycle with no break and can cause us to have no relief from our stress. Lets examine what is part of a stress cycle and how we can break it.
Although there are many types of stress cycles, let's use the one above for today. The causality, or the relationship of the cause and effect is shown at the top. First, a certain event can happen that can be the beginning of the stress. For example, lets say we lose a job. Instantly, that can cause a lot of stress. The perspective of how we look at the event can contribute to our stress. We would all, most likely, look at losing a job as a terrible thing.
Then, another event can happen that can make our stress even worse. Let's say that a family member becomes ill. That of course would add to our stress. Next, comes the response. How do we respond to this stress? In this example, a response we could have to losing a job and having a family member fall ill is sleeping less, as we would try to find another job and would worry about the family member.
Then, what emotion do we experience because of all this stress? An example in this situation could be irritability and anxiousness. Next, what is the negative consequence of all this stress? A consequence we could have as a result of all our stress is painful headaches.
Below, you can see many examples of physical and mental responses, emotions, and behavioral consequences of stress. By looking at the first image, you can see that the last step of this cycle is stress continued. As shown in this cycle, once a causality occurs, a chain of reaction follows that can increase the stress and it can repeat. However, if you look to the side, you can see a way to break this cycle, through a positive release! This does not have to be a solution to an event or problem, it can just be something that helps you better cope with stress. For example, we could break our current stress cycle by journaling as a way to convey our emotions.
-Some Questions To Answer
-What does a stress cycle look like for you? (Remember that it can look different for everyone, and doesnt have to be like the one shown above!)
-How can you break this stress cycle?
-Can you think of a way we can create a positive stress cycle?
Thank you all for joining in one of our activities for Stress Awareness Week! We hope that you have found this post interesting! Please be sure to check out the other great posts related to the event here!
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-What does a stress cycle look like for you? (Remember that it can look different for everyone, and doesnt have to be like the one shown above!)
Body: musculer tension- fatigue.
Mind: muddled thinking- nightmares- negativity.
Emotions: loss of confidence- irritability- depression.
Behaniour: over_eating- sleeplessness- restlessness.
-How can you break this stress cycle?
I don't know, I hust lose control.
-Can you think of a way we can create a positive stress cycle?
No.
@DinaElwy, it sounds like stress really takes a toll on you emotionally and physically. When stress drains us so much to the point where we feel cloudy and unmotivated.. but still somehow leaves us restless... it can be hard to feel like we have much say in how we get through it.
This week well be talking about stress a lot— even ways to manage it more effectively. I hope you come by and check out the different thread contributions from all four SubCommunities.
And, you already know, 1-1 emotional support is always available to you. ♡
your friend from the Anxiety Support Forum,
Zaati
@hopedreamlove
-What does a stress cycle look like for you?
I'm usually thrown into a stressful time. Try to fight my way through it head-on. Practice self-care as much as possible if it's a longer lasting stress. And calm myself down vehemently afterwards. I have a lot of trouble with this because I can't easily get out of a stressed mindset, so I really have to work at it to find my calm again.
-How can you break this stress cycle?
If you can, remove yourself from the stressor. And if you can't, practice self-care. As much as somehow possible.
-Can you think of a way we can create a positive stress cycle?
Everyone has stressful situations at times. But we don't have to suffer for longer than necessary. We can try to stay calm before the event if it is something foreseeable. Then we face the stressful situation as well as we can. And after that is should be a good period of calm and self-care. Reward yourself for being strong, comfort yourself if you feel you didn't do so well, calm down and find your daily rhythm again.
@Soe22
i really like how much you emphasize self care in this response! i agree, it's really really important to take care of yourself as you manage whatever stress you may be dealing with 
@hopedreamlove My stress cycle usually invovles getting an intense emotion and then having the "trigger" to eat! I'm one that stress eats! I've been practicing different ways to handle my stress like using essential oils and herbs instead of going straight to the salty snacks! I also started putting on classical music when I get start to stress out and that really helps.
@lavenderpeach1107
hey, that's so interesting! i'm actually the complete opposite! i can barely stomach to eat anything when i'm stressed, which may not be the best habit. stress can manifest itself so differently in different people. take care
@aeris156 You take care too my friend 
@lavenderpeach1107
@hopedreamlove Hope, your post was extremely informative and so well- structured!
@hopedreamlove
Answers to some of the questions <3
1) What does a stress cycle look like for you?
Body: headaches, breathlessness, increase heart rate.
Mind: inability to concentrate, worrying, negativity.
Emotions: anxiousness.
Behavior: restlessness.
2)How can you break this stress cycle?
By writing down my emotions and worries or by taking a brief walk, listening to music.
-What does a stress cycle look like for you? (Remember that it can look different for everyone, and doesnt have to be like the one shown above!)
Body: none
Mind: Indecisions, Inability to concentrate
Emotion: Loss of confidence, Irritability
Behavior: Sleeplessness, sometimes Restlessness
-How can you break this stress cycle?
Usually when I note that I'm getting started with the cycle, I will try to distract myself with something else (usually opening another tab to watch a Youtube video) so the problem doesn't overwhelm me. I've found that helpful except sometimes the distraction actually distracts me from coming back to the problem and becomes time-consuming.
-Can you think of a way we can create a positive stress cycle?
I would try to keep on doing what I've been doing but also reminds myself to come back and think of the problem when I'm comfortable to. I can also turn to do something physically (like standing up and walking around) to get my mind off the topic and relax.
- For me, it doesn't even take a concrete event for a cycle to start, sometimes the thought of something that might happen initiates the cycle. Then comes a phase of constant worry and of exploration of different possible scenarios, and my mind keep bringing me back to the negative scenarios. Then it starts affecting my productivity, and lead me to find less joy in everyday life. Stress doesn't bring much physical reaction for me, it's more about the emotional level.
- I can manage to deal with it either by getting support or keeping myself occupied with other thoughts.
- If we can channel our stress and turn it into motivation, or at least to use it as an incentive to deal with things once and for all rather than running away from them, it can have positive effects.
@hopedreamlove Thank you so much for posting this hope, it was so well written and I'm so proud of you and all you do for the subcommunities here on 7 cups <3 go hope!!
-What does a stress cycle look like for you? (Remember that it can look different for everyone, and doesnt have to be like the one shown above!)
Oh man, I don't know.. but I think it's really repetitive and most likely consists of me stressing out over something and invalidating my own feelings :( As a listener, I find it so easy to validate others but it's so difficult to validate my own feelings for some reason! So yeah my cycle would probably revolve around my own invalidation along with some very irrational thoughts. :(
-How can you break this stress cycle? I really need to work on validating my own feelings, clearly! I think the more I help others validate their own feelings, I slowly get better at validating my own.
-Can you think of a way we can create a positive stress cycle? I think I've already figured this one out lol.. my negative stress comes from my emotions but my positive stress usually comes from the work I have to complete for school and 7 cups and other stuff. But regarding my negative emotional cycle, I'm not sure.. I guess the best thing or most "positive" thing I can do is to learn from my own emotions.
@TheAtticusFinch
Aww, thank you so much, reading that made my day! Thank you for everything you do around here, I'm so proud of you as well!
Thank you for participating in this event! Your answers are very well thought out, and I love how you will break your own stress cycle by using validation!
-What does a stress cycle look like for you? (Remember that it can look different for everyone, and doesnt have to be like the one shown above!)
Increasing, spiraling thoughts that cause me to feel less and less motivated to take action.
-How can you break this stress cycle?
Becoming aware of negative self-talk and self-sabotaging behaviours and implementing a positive break or perspective.
-Can you think of a way we can create a positive stress cycle?
Regularly breaking the cycle with self-care and minimizing the emotional, mental and physical damage.
