Physical complaints
Muscle pain due to stress

What is stress?
Quite literally, stress means nothing more than ‘tension’ or ‘pressure’. Stress is essentially a survival mechanism that helps us respond to threatening or challenging situations. Stress therefore has an important function.

Your body produces stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. It prepares our body to act quickly and to be able to deal with a threat. Stress causes you to be startled and therefore not to cross the road immediately, but to wait until the car has passed and the coast is clear. This is also called ‘acute stress’ or ‘short-term stress’

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Types of stress

Healthy (acute) stress
Short-term (acute) stress is therefore a normal and healthy response of the body to a challenging situation, such as an exam, a job interview or a sports match. It can help to focus attention, improve performance and prepare us for action.

Unhealthy (long-term or chronic) stress
Long-term or chronic stress can have consequences for your health and is unhealthy. Your body contains high concentrations of stress hormones for too long. This has a negative effect on your state of mind and your physical health. This unhealthy stress can arise from emotional situations that cause long-term stress. Think of a divorce, losing a loved one or losing your job.

As soon as your body does not get the time and space to relax and recover from the stress, such a situation can become chronic and you can become ill from it.

Stress is a natural phenomenon that everyone experiences from time to time. It only becomes a problem when it lasts too long and leads to an imbalance between your carrying capacity and your load.

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What are the symptoms of stress?
There are many types of stress reactions. You do not have to experience all the symptoms of stress. It differs per person, but also per situation. You will also notice that symptoms manifest themselves differently with short-term stress than with long-term stress.

 

You can experience 4 different types of stress symptoms:

• Physical

• Psychological

• Behavior

• Thoughts

 

Physical complaints:

1. Increased heart rate and increased breathing

2. Fatigue and lack of energy

3. A lot or little to no appetite

4. Headache

5. Muscle pain

6. Back and neck complaints

7. High(er) blood pressure

8. Sleep problems

 

If it is not immediately clear how your current physical complaints arise, stress may be the cause, especially when multiple symptoms occur at the same time. Discover more about the consequences of stress and the associated physical complaints.

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Psychological stress symptoms

• Becoming irritated or frustrated more quickly

• Becoming emotional more quickly, crying a lot

• Feeling powerless and unhappy

• A gloomy view of everything

• The tendency to withdraw

• Stress symptoms in your behaviour

• Bossiness, snapping and reacting extremely critically to others

• Excessive eating, drinking, smoking and use of narcotics

• Avoidance behaviour, avoiding subjects, people, situations

• Aggression

• Being extremely active, going overboard in sports for example

• Wanting to do too much at the same time

• Mental stress symptoms

• Memory problems, forgetting things

• Creative block or lack of problem-solving ability

• Experiencing brooding and obsessive thoughts