Stress: Symptoms, Causes and How to Reduce It

What is stress?

Stress is a normal physical response to a challenging or new situation. It is your body’s way of trying to keep you safe. When you feel under pressure, your body releases stress hormones such as adrenaline, and these bring on physical changes that help you respond.¹

This is often called the “fight or flight” response. Your heart beats faster, your breathing speeds up and your muscles tense, ready for action.^1,2

Symptoms of stress

Everyone experiences stress differently. It can affect how you feel, how you think and how your body works.¹ Common signs include:^1,3

• Headaches and tight or sore muscles
• A faster heartbeat
• Trouble sleeping, and feeling exhausted
• Irritability, anger or changes in mood
• A change in appetite
• Feeling overwhelmed or as though you’re not coping

Stress can also show up in specific ways. See our guides to stress rash, stress and your gut, teeth grinding and tension headache.

Is stress always bad?

No. Stress can be a positive reaction when it motivates you and helps you get through a challenge, such as an exam or a job interview.¹ In young, healthy people, short-term stress responses are adaptive and usually don’t harm health.⁴

Stress becomes a problem when it makes you feel overwhelmed or when it continues for a long time.¹ If the pressure doesn’t let up, your nervous system doesn’t get the chance to reset.³

What long-term stress does to the body

Researchers describe the cost of long-term stress as “wear and tear”. The same hormones that protect you in the short term can cause damage when they stay switched on for months or years.⁵

• Heart and blood pressure. Adrenaline raises your heart rate and blood pressure. With long or frequent episodes of stress, high blood pressure can lead to heart problems.¹ A pooled analysis of almost 200,000 working adults found that those with high job strain were 23 per cent more likely to develop coronary heart disease. The authors noted this is a much smaller effect than standard risk factors such as smoking.⁶
• Immune system. A review of 30 years of studies found that brief stress shifts immune activity, while long-lasting stress is linked with weaker immune responses across the board.⁷
• Muscles and pain. Muscles tense to protect you from injury. When they stay tense, the result can be headaches, and neck, shoulder and back pain.¹
• Sleep and mood. Ongoing stress disturbs sleep and can leave you exhausted.³ The health effects depend on how many stressors you face, how long they last and how much support you have.⁴

How to reduce stress

There is no single fix, but several approaches have been tested.

• Deal with the cause where you can. If the source is work, look at workload, deadlines and support, and raise it with your employer, who is required by law to reduce your exposure to work-related stress. Taking regular breaks and making time for things you enjoy help too.⁸
• Move. Regular exercise and a steady daily routine with consistent times for sleep and meals both help your body handle stress.²
• Protect your sleep. Stress and poor sleep feed each other. See sleep hygiene.
• Slow your breathing. Stress makes breathing fast and shallow. Try breathing in for a count of three and out for a count of three or longer.³ A meta-analysis of 12 randomised trials found that breathing exercises lowered stress more than control conditions, with a small-to-medium effect.⁹
• Try mindfulness. An analysis of 29 studies in healthy people found that mindfulness-based stress reduction courses had a large effect on stress and moderate effects on anxiety and low mood.¹⁰
• Relax your muscles. Progressive muscle relaxation, where you tense and release one muscle group at a time, is a simple skill to learn.³
• Don’t lean on alcohol. Avoid using alcohol or other drugs as a way of coping.²
• Talk to someone. A friend, your GP or a mental health phone service are all good first steps.¹

Stress or anxiety?

Stress is usually tied to something specific, such as a deadline, a bill or a conflict, and eases when that passes. Anxiety is more than feeling stressed. The anxious feelings don’t go away once the pressure is off, and they can arrive with no clear cause.¹¹ Long-running stress can turn into anxiety. See anxiety symptoms and burnout.

When to see a doctor

• You feel stressed all the time, or you can’t manage it on your own³
• Stress is affecting your sleep, your work or your relationships
• You are relying on alcohol or other substances to cope
• You have physical symptoms, such as chest pain or ongoing headaches, that need checking

Your GP can talk through what is going on and, if needed, set up a mental health treatment plan.¹ If you are in crisis or having thoughts of suicide, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call 000.

References

1. healthdirect. Stress.
2. Better Health Channel (Victorian Government). Stress.
3. healthdirect. Relaxation techniques for stress relief.
4. Schneiderman N, Ironson G, Siegel SD. Stress and health: psychological, behavioral, and biological determinants. Annu Rev Clin Psychol. 2005;1:607-28.
5. McEwen BS. Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators. N Engl J Med. 1998;338(3):171-9.
6. Kivimäki M, Nyberg ST, Batty GD, et al. Job strain as a risk factor for coronary heart disease: a collaborative meta-analysis of individual participant data. Lancet. 2012;380(9852):1491-7.
7. Segerstrom SC, Miller GE. Psychological stress and the human immune system: a meta-analytic study of 30 years of inquiry. Psychol Bull. 2004;130(4):601-30.
8. healthdirect. Work-related stress.
9. Fincham GW, Strauss C, Montero-Marin J, et al. Effect of breathwork on stress and mental health: A meta-analysis of randomised-controlled trials. Sci Rep. 2023;13(1):432.
10. Khoury B, Sharma M, Rush SE, et al. Mindfulness-based stress reduction for healthy individuals: A meta-analysis. J Psychosom Res. 2015;78(6):519-28.
11. Beyond Blue. Anxiety.