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Possibly the biggest problem with treating stress is that people don't know they are under stress or choose to ignore it as a consequence of working hard to get ahead. In other words they are ignorant or apathetic to the issue of stress.

It is important to get informed about stress and take action to reduce or relieve it in some way. Unrelieved stress can lead to all sorts of health complications from catching the common cold to life threatening cardiovascular disease.

Here are some signals that may help you to identify that your stress levels are getting high.

Sudden Anger

You become suddenly angry and lash out at the people around you (generally verbally), such as your family, friends and work colleagues? There may be no apparent explanation for the outburst.

Feeling Overwhelmed

The everyday things in life tend to overwhelm you. You feel that your usual routines are just too much and that you want to get away from it all.

Constant Worry

You tend to be anxious or worried for most of the day about nothing in particular.

Depression

You feel a general sense of depression or lack motivation. Things that you used to enjoy and give you pleasure are hum drum and dull. You find that life just doesn't excite you like it used to.

Exhaustion

You get very tired without doing much and then have trouble sleeping because you are worrying about things. Do you have trouble staying awake at night after work ?

Constant Colds

You seem to pick up every cold or flu bug that is doing the rounds. Then you find it hard to shift the illness and it takes longer than other people around you. You may start to notice that you are sick more often than your friends or colleagues.

Lack of Concentration

You can't concentrate on one thing at any time. You find it hard to focus on things and your memory tends to be unreliable. You frequently starting to do something and then drift away and forget what you were doing.

Mood Swings

Your go through the full range of emotions from happy to sad to angry to tears all in a few minutes of each other with no obvious reason.

Often you may think these symptoms are caused by other issues in your life but lurking underneath many problems that we have in life is unmanaged stress.