While it may seem like something insane, it is 100% true. You can get addicted to stress, and it’s not good for your body or your metal health. As a high school student I suffer from stress sometimes, but I’ve gotten used to it. I think that sometimes if I’m no longer stressed, I just feel like being stressed because I’m used to it.

How does one become addicted to stress? Well, stress is a natural response of your body and it may benefit you at some point, but if you are exposed to stress very often your body will get used to it and when you least expect it your body will start feeling stressed, when that is really not the case.

Now that you know that stress can be an addiction, how do you identify it? It is fairly simple to do so, you can look for some symptoms like: fatigue, increased heart rate, high blood pressure, insomnia, a change in appetite, anxiety, irritability; the list goes on and on but you get the point.

After identifying that you are actually stressed you may decide want to get rid of that feeling, and while it can be hard sometimes there are some ways that will help you feel better and calmer.

• My first recommendation is to take a moment to pay close attention to your breath also known as meditation. Meditation is proven to help not only stress but also helps with dealing with anxiety, chronic pain, depression, heart disease and many more.
• Another amazing way to help you relieve stress is to go out and take a moment to exercise. From a yoga session to a run session or any kind of exercising. Exercising is one of the best ways to deal with stress since it will help you drive you away from whatever is tormenting you and make you feel better in the end.
• Journaling is another great way when dealing with stress. Yes, it may sound silly, but keeping a journal where you can keep your thoughts is an amazing way to feel free and clarify all of your thoughts.

The list of how to deal with stress goes on and on, the point here is that whenever you feel stressed, you need to figure if you are in reality stressed. If you are, you may want to try some of the suggestions I left above, as these will help you declutter your thoughts and allow you to feel free and have a more meaningful life.