How to get rid of tension and stress: useful tips. How to get rid of stress and anxiety at home? How to get rid of stress yourself

Stress is the body’s defensive reaction to a difficult, uncomfortable situation. The condition is accompanied by internal tension, increased anxiety and a feeling of fear.

Relieve stress at home

They get rid of stress symptoms through psychoanalysis and techniques that patients perform at home, on the way to work or at the workplace. Helps relieve nervous tension folk recipes: Safe tinctures and natural-based products do not cause side effects.

Stress and psycho-emotional tension

Stress is a state consisting of a complex of negative internal processes. Tension is individual moments that arise due to stress factors and entail serious consequences for the further development of a person.

These concepts indicate psychological condition person. Psycho-emotional stress causes physical and mental stress, characterized by partial loss control: in this state, a person overcomes difficulties without being sure of the result of his actions. Stress is the body’s reaction to factors that, for a number of reasons, the human mind perceives as overwhelming difficulties that cannot be overcome.

Types of nervous tension

Nervous excitation is characterized by a load on the central nervous system. In a state of stress, a person does not relax: at night he is tormented by nightmares, and in the morning he feels tired and apathetic. The nervous system does not recover. Mental stress changes the behavior of an individual, making a person aggressive and isolated from others. For convenience, there are two types of extreme mental stress:

1. The inhibitory type is expressed in a person’s low adaptation to new conditions, when he cannot adapt to the assigned tasks at work and the requirements in the family. His reactions are inhibited and inadequate in relation to the situation.
2. Excessive forms of mental stress (excitable type) are expressed in a change in the behavior of the individual: he withdraws from his usual habitat, becomes withdrawn and uncommunicative. Mental overstrain leads to rapid mood swings. This type of tension is characterized by increased aggression of a person who has experienced severe stress.
3. Excessive or prohibitive forms of mental stress arise due to hypermobilization of the body (a person experiences an emotional breakdown).
4. Exorbitant forms disrupt coordination of movement. Due to tension, confusion appears and concentration decreases.

Stress, tension, aggression

Symptoms of psycho-emotional problems

Nervous fatigue is reflected in a person’s behavior. His attitude to life, behavior and society changes. Symptoms of nervous tension:

• lethargy;
• apathy;
• inhibition of reactions;
• increased anxiety;
• depression;
• manic behavior (a person is focused on one task).

The symptoms and treatment of nervous tension are similar to stress relief methods. The primary goal is to reduce the level of anxiety and combat the main cause of this condition. Without medications, tension decreases gradually through an increase in a person’s activity and correction of his behavior.

Every symptom of nervous tension is accompanied by exhaustion of the human mind and body. Nutrition is disrupted, muscle tone decreases - the personality literally weakens before our eyes. A sign of problems in the body that arise against the background of mental stress: arrhythmia, hypertension, infectious diseases(malfunctions of the immune system), disturbances in the functioning of the intestines (constipation, diarrhea, increased flatulence).

How to relieve tension

Methods for relieving psychological stress directly depend on the condition of the affected person. Anti-anxiety pills and psychotropic medications are prescribed by a doctor in cases where exercise and regular techniques do not produce positive results. Psychocorrection is a safe technique for adults and children.

Psychological counseling and psychocorrection

The state of mental tension consists of physical reactions that can be learned to control. The method for home use is based on the correction of the body's reactions. Through breathing exercises a person learns to control fear, and exercises against tension help to concentrate.

Proper relaxation technique

The easiest way to relieve tension is to instruct the body to change its external reaction. To relieve stress and nervous tension at home after a working day, you should take a walk in the fresh air.

The benefits of walking

Walking alone with your thoughts allows you to understand the reasons for the current situation and take your mind off the problem. Change environment helps to quickly calm down, relax muscles and reduce overexcitation. It is better to take a walk before bed to relieve mental stress and prevent insomnia.

Exercise to relieve tension

The mental stress associated with overcoming imperfection is expressed in the behavior of the individual. She is tense and complex: her injuries are reflected in a person’s appearance and demeanor. He is stiff, stooped and clumsy. Gymnastics are used to combat internal tensions.

Relieve tension and stress:

• starting position – standing against the wall with your back extended;
• feet shoulder-width apart, arms extended forward (palms pointing down);
• as you exhale, the body slowly pulls upward; as you inhale, the weight of the body is redistributed over the entire foot.

The number of repetitions of the exercise depends on the physical fitness of the person. Psycho-emotional stress due to sudden changes at work or in your personal life is accompanied by panic attacks - this exercise will ease anxiety, and mental stress will disappear within 5-10 minutes.

Alternate body lifts with breath holds. A person needs to stretch out on his toes and tighten his abdominal muscles. As you exhale, the body relaxes and returns to its original position.

Breathing exercises

To quickly relieve stress or nervous tension, you need to calm your breathing. As a reaction to fear and stress, a person experiences shortness of breath, suffocation, chest pain and uneven breathing. With the help of simple breathing exercises, psychological stress is reduced, and the person returns to a normal state. Breathing exercises are suitable for both men, women and children.

Breathing exercises to relieve tension are easy to remember:

1. Starting position – sitting or standing. The person settles into a comfortable position with a straight, elongated back. It is important that the chest is smooth, straightened, and nothing interferes with calm breathing.
2. Closing your eyes helps you distance yourself from what is happening around you. The exercise is carried out at home, at work or on public transport.
3. The first breath is slow and deep. While inhaling, a person counts to himself to five. The air passes through the lungs, the stomach gradually rounds.
4. Exhale slowly. You should exhale gradually, tensing your abdominal muscles, then releasing your lungs. The complex of inhalations and exhalations is like a wave that first fills a person and then releases him.
5. You should inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth.
6. Between inhalation and exhalation, hold your breath for a few seconds.

Breathing exercises to relieve stress

A simple pattern of “inhale for 5 counts – hold your breath for 5 seconds – exhale for 5 counts” will help you relax your body and free your mind from anxious thoughts. Repeating the exercise helps to distract attention from the stress factor. Held breathing exercises within 10 minutes. The exercise is repeated 2-3 times a day.

Restoring the correct breathing rhythm normalizes a person’s mental state. Before going to bed, this exercise will help you fall asleep quickly and get rid of anxious thoughts.

Equipment for extreme situations

An effective method of relieving psychological stress in conflict situations is emergency measures. They use quick techniques to normalize the state in a stressful situation and to prevent a nervous breakdown. The “Boat” exercise helps a lot with a panic attack.

Starting position – sitting or standing. It is necessary to straighten your back and fold your arms in the shape of a boat (palms connected at chest level, elbows bent). In order to relieve stress and nervous tension, you should monitor your breathing for 3-4 minutes. At the fifth minute its frequency decreases. Calm, measured inhalations alternate with long exhalations. During inhalation, the lips are closed (inhale through the nose). After a few minutes, the body will relax and the mind will calm down.

Calming herbs and aromatherapy

You can relieve stress in a relaxed home environment. Soothing tea and essential oils, incense and scented candles will create all the conditions for relaxation of the body.

Herbal infusions that are stored help relieve internal tension. all year round. The following herbs are selected as a natural sedative: St. John's wort, oregano, chamomile and motherwort. Dilute the herbal taste of tea with honey, cinnamon or syrup. The composition of the collection is selected individually.

Herbal tea with honey

Getting rid of nervous tension at home is easy if you take baths with pine needles and essential oils once a week. Use 10 drops of oils (orange, cedar and lemon tree) added to a warm bath. This way you can relieve fatigue. After a bath, it is recommended to drink freshly brewed chamomile tea or a decoction with medicinal plants(Melissa and mint).

The beneficial properties of oils are used to improve blood circulation, in the fight against colds and stress. Incense helps to relax: using an aroma lamp and essential oils you can calm the nervous system. With the help of lavender, geranium and frankincense oil, a woman can relieve severe pain during menstruation (disorder hormonal levels causes increased nervousness and psycho-emotional stress).

Prolonged stress

The result of increased excitability (symptoms: irritability, apathy, confusion) becomes prolonged stress. A person has a headache, tremors in the limbs, joint pain, body aches - psycho-emotional problems lead to pathologies.

The attending physician prescribes medications that relieve physical symptoms. Psychoanalysis and work on lifestyle helps the individual get rid of stress and its consequences. The danger of a prolonged stressful state lies in the disruption of the central nervous system.

Mental disorders manifest themselves in people who have not struggled with constant emotional stress.

The right rhythm of life

You can avoid taking stress-inducing drugs if you plan your daily routine, create proper diet and worry about the health of the body. Anti-tension medications cause drowsiness and affect human behavior, and folk remedies are not dangerous from stress. Useful habits developed while working on thinking and behavior will prevent stress in the future.

Sports activities

The following will help relieve internal tension:

• playing sports;
• new hobbies;
• trips out of town;
• new acquaintances and meetings;
• timely rest.

Working on your own thinking saves you from stress - the attitudes by which a person lives create his reactions. Stress resistance is developed through self-education and self-knowledge. If a person knows the cause of fear, he is not afraid of the future, he is not afraid of the unknown.

The daily routine is a balanced day, during which the body has time to rest and get the necessary load. The culture of food consumption allows you to get rid of such manifestations of stress as overeating or starvation.

Physical exercise

The ability to withstand stress is tantamount to the ability to control the body's spontaneous reactions. A tense body cannot relax and resist stress and its consequences. Physical activity is used to harden the body: running in the morning or in the evening before bed helps. While running, a person clears the mind and allows the body to release accumulated tension.

You can overcome stress if you cultivate resilience in the face of problems. Working on your body improves self-esteem. Development motivates an individual to new achievements, and group classes allow you to make promising acquaintances. Relieving stress through yoga is based on a combination of meditative techniques and physical exercise. A person learns to look at the world, people and the causes of stress differently. Relaxation is the key to harmony and well-being.

Finding new hobbies

Interests and hobbies are the foundation of a developing personality. The basis of art therapy (one of the best methods of dealing with prolonged stress) is the disclosure of a person, his fears and anxieties through art. Figures, compositions, paintings reveal the true traumas of the individual. Through art therapy, old emotional wounds can be soothed. A person who knows himself is not afraid of the world around him.

New activities bring impressions and positive emotions. Positive experiences save you from stress. They switch the personality away from the problem and make the experience less significant.

Rest and relaxation

Lack of rest ends in emotional burnout. The personality loses motivation and weakens. The less time a person devotes to rest, the more susceptible he is to external influence. Rest consists of distracted activities: picnics, going to the cinema, communicating with loved ones. Such activities give the body the necessary respite.

Relaxation is aimed at revealing the true desires of the individual. Away from work and family responsibilities, she can make the right decisions. A change of place is a signal of calm for the body.

Conclusion

Stress and psycho-emotional tension are similar concepts that describe a difficult state of an individual. Difficulties at work and at home exhaust a person, make him weak and susceptible. Stress is expressed through physical symptoms: daily routine, sleep and nutrition are disrupted. The longer this state lasts, the more difficult it is to get out of it.

Physical activity, conversations with friends and psychoanalysts help cope with tension and stress. An individual treatment program is a balance between a person’s desires and needs. For further development, he needs to get rid of stress, which distorts the perception of reality.

Stress is a natural state of the body, developed by evolution, as a reaction to danger or a difficult situation. It mobilizes all the body's resources and helps to develop effective protection. When stressed, the concentration of certain hormones in the blood increases, primarily adrenal hormones - adrenaline and cortisol. The heart rate and breathing increase, and metabolism is activated.

In other words, stress is a protective mechanism inherited by humans from the animal world.

Does this mean that stress is not dangerous? Not at all. After all, the level of stress may not always be adequate to the threat. In addition, prolonged, incessant stress, albeit of low intensity, definitely harms the nervous system and the entire body as a whole.

Constant stress can lead to various diseases:

• weakening of the immune system,
• hypertension,
• heart attack,
• cerebrovascular accident,

and some others.

In addition, it can cause such an unpleasant syndrome as depression, or, more precisely, a depressive state.

To find out how to get rid of stress that torments you, you should understand its causes. This could be uncertainty about the future, dissatisfaction with the social and financial situation, problems in your personal life, and various phobias.

What is depression

As for, it appears when a person does not see any opportunities to solve a problem that constantly worries him, and at the same time does not want to come to terms with it. The degree of depression can vary. In the most severe cases, a person loses the ability to actively respond to external stimuli. For example, he answers all questions in the same way or does not answer at all. Depression at this stage can only be cured through the efforts of a professional psychotherapist. A completely different matter is a milder degree of depression, which is expressed in the loss of joy in life, a state of constant anxiety and a depressing mood. Also, this kind of depression can be accompanied by insomnia, fatigue, and decreased performance. These symptoms can also be supplemented by somatic ones - weakened immunity, various diseases.

In the terminology of psychotherapists, such a syndrome is called a “depressive state.” Statistics show that it affects two-thirds of the population of large cities.

What to do if you are suffering from depression

Before we talk about how you can get rid of depression, we should talk about how not to get rid of it. Naturally, many people facing depression choose the most simple ways fight him. For men, this is usually alcohol. For women, this is food especially rich in sugars.

As for alcohol, it is insidious in that it gives the illusion of a cure for depression. However, the temporary state of euphoria caused by intoxication is soon replaced by an even greater attack of depression. And this is not surprising, because few substances can compare with alcohol in the power with which it depresses the nervous system. If we add to this the formation alcohol addiction, then “treating” depression with alcohol usually leads to such a serious illness as alcoholism.

Eating a lot of food is the cause of excess weight problems. Of course, there are antidepressant products that promote the production of hormones such as serotonin, dopamine and endorphin. First of all, these are fruits and chocolate. However, eating a large meal full of fats and sugars, which is often eaten during stress, can hardly be considered a healthy activity.

How can you fight depression and stress? It is difficult to give an unambiguous answer to this, because one recipe that is useful for one person will not suit another.

However, it is well known that good medicine The remedy for depression is a change of environment and communication with friends. Go to events, go outdoors, go on a cruise, spend more time with friends. Many people get rid of depression by doing extreme sports. This promotes effective burning of stress hormones. However, regular physical activity can also be beneficial.

Hobbies help some people. Draw, embroider, design, glue, collect, compose. Perhaps this The best way get rid of depression at home. Perhaps in some activity you will find your second self, and this will significantly increase your self-esteem.

It is also well known that pets are an excellent cure for depression. If you get a cat or dog, then you simply won’t have time to be depressed - you will be busy caring for your tailed pet. And the love and affection that your four-legged friend will give you will help you cope with the blues.

Psychological ways to combat depression

Depression cannot be overcome unless you try to understand the reasons that cause it and try to change something about yourself and your attitude towards life. Below are tips to help you break the vicious circle.

Everyone has problems, you should not run away from them, but try to solve them. All people get sick, lose their jobs, get divorced, but this is not a reason to become depressed, “give up and go with the flow.” You can relieve negative emotions by crying and swearing, but you cannot constantly concentrate on the negative “chewing mental cud,” which will inevitably lead you to a nervous breakdown and illness.

Life is much shorter than we think; it can end in sudden death for various reasons, sometimes beyond a person’s control. Use every moment of life to benefit yourself and your loved ones, do not think about the bad.

Everyone makes mistakes, no one is infallible. It is better to work and make mistakes than to do nothing at all. If you sit with your hands folded, you will not achieve anything and will not solve your problems. Draw conclusions from the mistakes you have made so as not to repeat them twice. Try to learn from other people's experiences. Connect with people from whom you can learn something.

Read books not only on your profession, but also fiction, it will give you answers to many questions, it describes many life situations and mistakes that humanity has made over hundreds of years, and we are only repeating them. In the books you will find answers about instincts, love, friendship, and the ability to withstand the blows of fate.

Nothing lasts forever, the black streak of failures will end. Therefore, you must always be ready to move on. The end of one period of life means the beginning of another.

Avoid communicating with people who are sources of negative emotions and thoughts; after communicating with them, your mood deteriorates. They often have irrepressible energy; they want to drag you into the whirlpool of their passions, emotions, and problems. They destroy your self-esteem and self-confidence.

Maintain friendly relations with the people around you, but at the same time do not forget to love yourself, remember that you are also a person, demand respectful treatment of yourself. Rudeness from a boss or work colleagues causes stressful situations. The chance of losing yourself in such a situation is very high. Try to communicate less with such people and treat them the same way they treat you.

Don’t accumulate anger and negativity within yourself, make a decision, shake off the burden of negative emotions and move on. There are no hopeless situations. Don’t be afraid to take on new things for fear that you won’t succeed.

Appreciate what you have: health, family, friends, home, work. Determine your life priorities. Answer yourself the question, what does the concept of being a happy person mean to you?

Live in the present; memories of the past or dreams of the future waste your life energy. Plans are needed for their implementation in the short term.

Always be optimistic, think positively, find humor in the most hopeless situations. This will help you save energy and solve problems. Drive away the worry that drains your energy and leaves you unable to work.

The first person to apply the rule of positive thinking and survive was Robinson Crusoe from Daniel Defoe's novel The Life and Wonderful Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Remember his train of thought on a desert island: “I am alone,” but my companions died. And the conclusion: “...you can find good in every evil, you just have to think that something worse could happen.”

Medicines as a treatment for depression

Medications for mild depression are not recommended. However, if you have tried everything and don’t know how to get rid of stress and depression, and your condition is only getting worse, then you should not discard this option. Of course, before using any drug you should consult your doctor, because every medicine has a large number of contraindications and side effects.

Drugs used to relieve depression are divided into:

• easing depressive syndrome
• antipsychotics that regulate the biochemical processes of the brain
• nootropics that improve brain activity
• tranquilizers that calm and remove destructive emotions - anxiety, fear
• mood stabilizers

The required drug and its dosage are selected by the doctor based on the severity of the patient’s condition, the characteristics of his body and psyche.

Good news for those who struggle to cope with daily stress at home and work: there are available methods get rid of constant worry and anxiety. The author of a new book on stress recommends using simple acupressure exercises as first aid. Changing our reaction to stress is also within our power; to do this, we need to understand the work of the adrenal glands.

Any stress that we attribute to our emotional state - for example, anxiety, low self-esteem or violent reaction - are actually related to our physiology. These so-called "false feelings" are caused by a deficiency in the brain chemical reaction, capable of maintaining resistance to stress. However, such conditions can be quickly corrected by changing your physiology.

I asked Harvard University integrative medicine specialist Sarah Gottfried, MD, how to stop feeling like a failure if you can't live every moment of your life like you're a superhero. She suggested a new mantra: “It’s my adrenal glands, it’s not me.” According to Gottfried, we should stop blaming ourselves and trying to jump in over our heads, and instead should “think about our biology.”

Stress and the adrenal glands: how does it work?

Up to 70% of people who report stress actually suffer from some degree of adrenal imbalance (the organs that produce the hormones that control your response to stress). Under conditions of chronic stress, our body goes through three stages, which are characterized by varying degrees of adrenal imbalance and ultimately adrenal depletion.

At the first stage we accumulate extra energy to cope with stressors. After the first surge of adrenaline, the adrenal glands begin to secrete cortisol, which initially - and in small quantities - is a source of strength and endurance for us. In the right amount, cortisol helps metabolize food, fight allergies, and reduce inflammation.

But if the state of excessive arousal continues, the adrenal glands begin to secrete too much adrenaline and cortisol, replacing them with our feel-good neurotransmitters, namely serotonin (the source of self-confidence and optimism) and dopamine (the source of pleasure). When cortisol chronically circulates in the body, it begins to stimulate inflammatory responses and can cause the very diseases it was originally intended to protect against. Accordingly, signs of disease or infection appear.

Hand position: With your thumb, touch the “knuckle” of your middle (third) finger. Then move your thumb toward your palm until you feel a “soft” indentation or small depression. The pressure should be moderate. By pressing this point you help regulate pressure and reduce anxiety.

Exercise 2: Confidence Point

To stimulate a state of confidence, try pressing the “confidence point.” By pressing this point, you send a signal that reduces internal emotional stress, stimulating a state of calm. Place your hands in the appropriate position for at least 30 seconds before a speech, presentation, or any other time when you need a confidence boost.

Hand position: Place the thumb of either hand on the side of the index finger between the first and second knuckles. Apply light to moderate pressure.

Exercise 3: Breathing technique to get rid of fear

You can train your body to let go of fear. Vigorous exhalations stimulate the PNS, promoting calm. I used this breathing technique to relieve claustrophobia and make it easier for me to live in New York, where crowded subways and elevators are a part of life.

Breathing technique: Take vigorous inhalations through your nose and exhale through your mouth, concentrating on each inhalation and exhalation. As you exhale, forcefully throw your arms forward, as if you are pushing something away from you that you don’t like. Then, as you inhale, return your arms to your chest in a straight line, elbows pressed to your sides. Exhale sharply through your mouth, throwing your arms out again. Repeat one more time.

Hand position: Place the tips of your thumb and index finger together and raise your arms in front of your chest, palms facing away from you.

Duration: Start by performing this exercise for one minute, gradually increase the training time to three minutes. When you do the exercise for the first time, you may feel a little dizzy—just stop if you feel any discomfort.

Exercise 4: Hand Positions to Encourage Solution Searching

For effective solution problems, you must be confident in your abilities and listen to your intuition. The following hand position can be used to activate the problem-solving brain center. This position helps you focus your attention on a point on your forehead that corresponds to the approximate location of your pineal gland and is located at the intersection of the left and right hemispheres. This point is access to “whole-brain thinking.” In some spiritual and physical yoga traditions, it is considered the “third eye”—the intersection of intuition and wisdom.

Hand position: connect the tip of your thumb right hand with the tips of the second (index) and third (middle) fingers. Place the "top" of this triangle about 2.5 cm from a point on the forehead that is about 2.5 cm above the point directly between the eyes. At the same time, connect the tip of the thumb of your left hand with the tips of the second (index) and third (middle) fingers in the same way. Place the “vertex” of this triangle about 2.5 cm from the point on your forehead that will correspond to your “intuition”.

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Psychologists are specialists who help us solve problems, overcome fears and understand ourselves so that we feel calm. However, they are also people and, like all of us, are subject to stress, which needs to be dealt with somehow.

website will tell you about the methods of quickly relieving stress that the professionals themselves use.

1. Write down everything that comes to mind

Psychotherapist, writer and teacher Jeffrey Sumber(Jeffrey Sumber) uses several aesthetic ways to deal with stress:

“When I'm nervous, I like to eat well. But it must be healthy food or a new dish for me. I spend a long time shopping, choosing the right ingredients, then carefully cutting them, preparing dressings and slowly, with pleasure, eating the dish. I also often post the results on Facebook to make my friends jealous!”

3. Tighten all your muscles

American psychotherapist Kevin Chapman(Kevin Chapman) uses the method of progressive muscle relaxation, which was developed back in 1920, to combat stress.

The principle is simple: After any strong tension, strong relaxation occurs. That is, you need to tense your muscles for 10 seconds, and then concentrate for 20 seconds on the subsequent feeling of relaxation.

A total of 200 exercises have been developed for all muscle groups, but using 16 is quite sufficient. Find exercises and.

4. React correctly or not at all.

Psychologist Susan Krauss Whitbourne(Susan Krauss Whitbourne) does not fight stress, but tries to avoid it in advance. To do this, she has a mantra that she repeats when she gets into a stressful situation. She says, “I can’t change the situation, but I can change my reaction to it.”

A positive reaction to a negative event helps not only to avoid stress, but also to gain some experience if you look at it as a test and learn from mistakes.

5. Stop the flow of thoughts

Psychologist Martin Seligman(Martin Seligman) advises using one simple and very popular method to get unnecessary thoughts out of your head.

Clap your hands and shout " Stop! I'll think about it later!" You can also wear a rubber band on your wrist and snap yourself with it (or just pinch yourself). Use such stimuli to stop the cycle of thoughts and postpone the problem until later, for a certain time. Then try to switch your attention to some unusual object or activity.

6. Set aside 1 hour for your favorite activities and pleasures.

Psychotherapist Amy Przeworski(Amy Przeworski) advises setting aside a period of time during which you will do only what you want. Read, draw, eat delicious dishes- in general, do what makes you happy. No work, no responsibilities, negative thoughts and everything that you don’t like and ruins your mood.

7. Stimulate the nerves

An unusual but effective method based on physiology is offered by a therapist Tony Bernhard(Toni Bernhard). Lightly run your index finger over your lips several times. This movement affects the nerves on the surface of the lips, stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system and helps to quickly calm down.

8. Try different classic methods

Of course, there are also classic methods for relieving stress and relieving tension that work just as well.

For example, clinical psychologist and author of the book “Living with Depression” Deborah Serani(Deborah Serani) during times of stress tries to give the body what it wants. “I use everything that touches the senses. For example, I can just sit in the car and listen to jazz on the radio, draw, lie in a hot bath, or enjoy delicious gourmet tea.”

) uses yoga, exercise, or just healthy sleep to cleanse the head.

Main principle

The main principle of getting rid of stress is to completely abstract yourself for some time from the problem and from any source of anxiety. And the better you do this, the faster you will recover and be ready for new achievements.

Which way of dealing with stress did you like best? Maybe you have your own unique method?

Do you know this state when your nerves are tense to the limit and any little thing can make you angry? Probably everyone has experienced this at least once in their life. But this becomes a problem if irritability becomes a constant companion. The readiness to explode for any reason interferes with communication, and just normal life. Finally, nervousness may have far from harmless causes.

We have collected everything you need to know about increased irritability and methods to combat it in this article.

Irritability: a necessary outlet for emotions or a health hazard?

Irritability, or, as they often say in everyday life, nervousness, is an increased emotional reaction to external stimuli, which in terms of the strength of their impact usually does not correspond at all to the effect produced. Simply put, a person loses his temper over every little thing.

This condition is sometimes explained by bad character. In fact, severe irritability as a personality trait, according to psychiatrists, is rare - in only 0.1% of people. So if your loved ones or you yourself suffer from constant nervousness, you need to look for the cause of this condition. Factors that provoke attacks of irritability can be somatic and psychological; let’s consider them in more detail.

Cerebral disorders

Increased nervousness and irritability may be the result of insufficient blood supply to the brain - as a result, for example, of atherosclerosis or hypertension. In this case, they are combined with other emotional, mental and somatic disorders. In patients with atherosclerosis, memory deteriorates (especially for recent events), concentration weakens, and intellectual activity decreases. In hypertension, the leading symptom is a persistent increase in blood pressure, and headaches are not uncommon. Against this background, anxiety disorders and a state of nervousness arise.

There are also other types of encephalopathy (brain damage): renal, hepatic, diabetic, toxic, post-traumatic. In all these cases, the basis is a serious illness, poisoning or injury, and, of course, irritability is not the only manifestation of the above conditions.

Endocrine diseases

Hormonal imbalances often affect the emotional sphere. If you are worried about excessive nervousness, it will not hurt to examine your thyroid gland. An excess of thyroid hormones that accompanies some of its diseases - thyrotoxicosis - is accompanied by constant irritability, fatigue, insomnia, weight loss with increased appetite, tremor, tachycardia, and stool disorders.

Climax

The onset of menopause is often accompanied by a whole range of various symptoms, and a feeling of irritability is almost always present among them. Among other mental and nervous system disorders, women during this period note tearfulness, mood instability, fatigue, deterioration of memory and attention, and sleep disorders. If these signs are observed in combination with hot flashes, excessive sweating, and headaches, then most likely there is a pathological menopause.

All unpleasant manifestations go away on their own within several years after the complete cessation of menstruation. To alleviate the condition, including reducing irritability during menopause, you should contact a gynecologist-endocrinologist to prescribe corrective therapy.

It is important
Nervousness and irritability are constant companions of premenstrual syndrome. With this condition, symptoms may vary: some are more concerned about swelling, others - headaches, and others - pain in the mammary glands. But almost all women with PMS complain about severe irritability that occurs a few days before menstruation. The same mechanism - neuroendocrine changes due to changes in hormonal status - is activated during pregnancy.

Diseases and mental disorders

Severe nervousness and irritability occur against the background of such common mental disorders as neurosis, depression, and anxiety disorder. Sometimes they develop as a result of mental trauma. Irritability in mental disorders is often combined with insomnia, depressed or, conversely, unreasonably elevated mood, fear, and obsessive thoughts.

Sometimes increased nervousness hides a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia. People suffering from alcoholism, drug addiction and other types of addiction are prone to irritability.

Accurately determine availability mental illness or disorder, only a doctor (psychiatrist, psychotherapist) can diagnose it. Symptoms are often mild, and at first glance it is difficult to understand that a person is really sick. To make an accurate diagnosis, a thorough examination is necessary.

Nervous exhaustion

This condition is sometimes considered a type of mental disorder, but we decided to talk about it separately because it is perhaps the most common cause of irritability. With our modern lifestyle, many people suffer from exhaustion of the nervous system - from schoolchildren and students to office workers and housewives. Neurasthenia is caused by excessive mental and mental stress, which, in turn, arises due to work and study pressure, constant lack of time, abundance of information, inflated demands on oneself, negative experiences and other features of the life of inhabitants of modern cities.

In this regard, one cannot fail to mention the habit of suppressing emotions. Society demands from successful person be strong, balanced, stress-resistant. Trying to fit into this imposed image, fearing to appear weak, many people (this is especially typical for men holding high positions and generally associated with increased responsibility) restrain their emotions and do not allow themselves to show them. Nervous tension, which does not receive an outlet, steadily accumulates and sooner or later reaches a critical mass. The result is neurasthenia, which at best leads to constant irritability and nervousness, and at worst to a stroke or heart attack.

How can you tell if you have nervous exhaustion? A set of signs will allow you to suspect this condition. If you work a lot and have little rest, often experience stress and, against this background, begin to feel irritability, chronic fatigue, apathy, and difficulty concentrating - it is likely that your nervous system is exhausted. Often with neurasthenia, psychosomatic disorders occur: instability of blood pressure and heart rate, digestive disorders, unusual sensations on the skin.

Manifestations of a nervous condition

So, nervousness is not a character trait or a consequence of bad upbringing, but a pathological condition that requires correction. At the same time, unmotivated outbursts of anger are usually not the only manifestation. A nervous state is often accompanied by other signs:

• Insomnia. Anxious thoughts keep you from falling asleep or cause you to wake up in the middle of the night. The sleep is superficial, does not bring a feeling of rest, after waking up a person feels tired and exhausted, as if he had not slept at all. Daytime sleepiness interferes with work and usual activities.
• Persistent feeling of physical fatigue. This is an inevitable consequence of excess nervous tension and lack of sleep. Due to chronic fatigue, performance decreases and it becomes difficult to carry out usual activities.
• Headache. They intensify with physical or mental stress.
• Anxiety, suspiciousness and restlessness. A person suffering from nervousness is haunted by unreasonable fears, obsessive unpleasant thoughts, and often “finds” symptoms in himself dangerous diseases. Minor everyday troubles in this state are perceived as a disaster.

People who are prone to increased self-control sometimes experience the opposite picture: outwardly they are calm, but inside they are seething with irritation and anger. We have already talked about how harmful suppression of emotions is.

How to get rid of irritability and nervousness

Before you think about how to deal with irritability, you need to understand why this condition arose. To determine the cause, diagnostics are carried out. For an initial consultation, you can contact a neurologist or psychotherapist. The range of studies depends on complaints, medical history, and accompanying symptoms. The doctor may prescribe general blood and urine tests, electrocardiography and other diagnostic procedures to identify or exclude somatic pathology.

Treatment will be aimed primarily at eliminating or alleviating the underlying disease. But there are special methods to reduce irritability.

Psychotherapy

Various psychotherapeutic techniques allow you to work through the causes of a nervous state and master the skills of controlling emotions. People who are accustomed to restraining irritation and anger learn to channel them in a positive direction. The psychotherapist develops a program for getting rid of nervousness individually, taking into account the patient’s personality and lifestyle. The following techniques can be used:

• behavioral psychotherapy, during which the patient learns to respond correctly to traumatic situations, effectively cope with stimuli in everyday life, and receive more positive emotions;
• cognitive psychotherapy aimed at understanding and working through the internal causes of irritability;
• hypnosis.

Pharmacotherapy

Drug treatment for nervousness depends on its cause. For example, if irritability is due to hyperthyroidism, therapy should be aimed at normalizing thyroid function, and treatment in this case is carried out by an endocrinologist. If the cause is depression, a psychotherapist prescribes medications. In such cases, antidepressants are prescribed.

But there are also symptomatic remedies, the use of which allows you to cope with irritability, regardless of its cause. Over-the-counter herbal-based sedatives (sedatives) have a minimum of side effects. Their action is aimed at reducing the excitability of the nervous system and weakening the reaction to stimuli. Many sedatives help normalize sleep.

In severe cases of nervousness, potent medications are prescribed - tranquilizers and antipsychotics. These drugs have many side effects, including addiction, and should not be used unless absolutely necessary.

Lifestyle correction

When patients ask how to get rid of irritability and nervousness, doctors first advise changing their lifestyle. First of all, it is necessary to eliminate the factors leading to nervous exhaustion:

• if possible, establish a work and rest schedule;
• to refuse from bad habits;
• normalize sleep (try to go to bed and wake up at the same time, do not watch disturbing news and programs at night, have dinner no later than three hours before bedtime).

General recommendations for a healthy lifestyle are also relevant in the fight against increased irritability. Try to stick proper nutrition, go in for sports, spend more time in nature and fresh air. To compensate for the lack of nutrients in the diet, you can take vitamin and mineral complexes.

People suffering from increased irritability often hear advice such as “be more tolerant”, “avoid conflicts”, “change your attitude towards the situation”. However, not all so simple. Such “recommendations” are more or less relevant only if nervousness is a consequence of stress, and not of any disease. At the same time, one should not underestimate the seriousness of psycho-emotional stress: it can become chronic and can itself provoke malfunctions in the functioning of organs and systems. In any case, irritability is a warning sign. Therefore, do not neglect consulting a specialist: he will be able to find out the cause of this condition and, based on it, select the correct treatment methods.

Over-the-counter drug to relieve symptoms of nervousness

To quickly relieve symptoms of irritability, we can recommend an affordable Russian drug. Unlike the classic Corvalol, Corvalol Phyto from the Pharmstandard company does not contain phenobarbital, a substance that can be addictive and equated to drugs in a number of countries. The drug contains herbal components, the calming effect of which is manifested individually and in combination.

Ethyl bromizovalerianate in Corvalol Phyto helps reduce excitability and enhance inhibition processes in the central nervous system, due to which a sedative effect is achieved. The drug is also able to normalize vascular tone. Motherwort herb tincture calms, reduces heart rate, and has a mild hypotensive effect. Peppermint oil relieves spasms and promotes vasodilation. Thanks to the complex of these three components, Corvalol Phyto allows you to relieve irritability, reduce vegetative symptoms of stress, and normalize sleep.