Signs of Stress
From Kicking Your Stress Habits
By Donald A. Tubesing, PhD, MDiv
You’re already very familiar with some stress symptoms, but distress can cause a wide range of conditions. Maybe you have some that you didn’t know are stress related. There are five categories the common warning signs of stress can take; physical, emotional, spiritual, mental and relational signs.
| Physical Signs | Emotional Signs | Spiritual Signs | Mental Signs | Relational Signs |
| Appetite Change | Anxiety | Emptiness | Forgetfulness | Isolation |
| Headaches | Frustration | Loss of meaning | Dull senses | Hiding |
| Fatigue | Feeling blue | Doubt | Low productivity | Resentment |
| Insomnia | Mood swings | Acting Unforgiving | Negative attitude | Loneliness |
| Weight Change | Bad temper | Martyrdom | Confusion | Lashing out |
| Illness | Nightmares | Searching for miracles/magic | Lethargy | Intolerance to other’s feelings |
| Muscle pain | Crying spells | Loss of direction | Whirling mind | Clamming up |
| Indigestion | Irritability | Cynicism | No new ideas | Lowered sex drive |
| Pounding heart | Easily discouraged | Blaming others | Boredom | Nagging |
| Accident prone | Depression | Apathy | Spacing out | Distrust |
| Teeth grinding | Nervous laughter | Intolerance to others’ faith | Mental bullying | Lack of intimacy |
| Skin outbreaks | Worrying Excessively | Feeling abandoned | Feeling stupid | Using people |
| Restlessness (eye twitching, foot-tapping, finger-drumming) | Feeling like no one cares | Needing to prove self | Poor concentration | Less contact with friends |
| Increased drug, alcohol, tobacco use | Feeling happiness is just out of reach | Challenging a higher power | Feeling useless | Fear of betrayal |
- What stress symptoms have you experienced that you didn’t know were stress related?
- What are you experiencing now?
- Is there a category (emotional, relational, etc) that you have more symptoms in than the others?
