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Stress can affect mental health, of course, but it also has effects on physical health, says Maryanna Klatt, PhD, director of the Center for Integrative Health at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
Stress can heighten inflammation that’s linked to cardiovascular disease, some cancers, arthritis, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes and other physical functions. It can slow your ability to heal. It can cause us to gain weight more easily through metabolism changes. It affects our ability to develop protective responses to vaccinations.
That’s why it’s important for everyone to develop effective stress-management strategies, especially if you’re finding yourself frequently stressed by news or social media happenings.
A new, nationwide survey commissioned by the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center found that 45% of adults in the United States say they’re stressed at least once a week because of what they’re seeing in the news and on social media. About 1 in 6 respondents (16%) said they feel stressed every day.
Stress is not always tough to manage
“Stress in itself is not bad,” says Dr. Klatt, who’s also a professor of Clinical Family Medicine at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. “But it is problematic when it becomes your chronic state of being, and when no action is taken to address the stress.
“We only become stressed about situations or people we care about. This tells us something about what we value. The most important thing is to use that knowledge to transform our stress into ways that enrich our humanity rather than lessen it.”
How to manage this kind of stress
Dr. Klatt says some of the best, broad strategies for coping with stress include:
- Physical movement
- Talking with and spending time with others that increase feelings of connection, whether it’s other people or just pets
- Breaks from social media
- Time in nature
Dr. Klatt is a mindfulness expert and yoga instructor who has focused her research on developing and evaluating cost-effective ways to reduce the risk of stress-related chronic illness.
She created a program called Mindfulness in Motion that uses gentle yoga, mindfulness and relaxing music tailored to the needs of different groups, from people in certain work environments to retirees to people dealing with specific chronic illnesses.
More specific tools for stress management include meditation and breathing exercises, such as pranayama breathing or a simple 4-7-8 breathing method.
Many people dealing with stress a result of the news might experience crisis fatigue, which has its own suggested coping techniques to limit exposure to certain stressors and approaching certain situations with care.
If you have the resources to take some time off, a well-placed mental health day can improve mental and emotional exhaustion. And during busy periods of life, prioritizing alone time is important for mental health — and, as many Americans have reported, we aren’t getting enough of it.
The good news about news-triggered stress
Stress impacts us at every level, Dr. Klatt says. That includes our physiology, our mental attitude and our relationships at home and at work.
“It can be challenging to figure out what actions we can take to transform our stress,” she says. “I was happy to see that survey participants actually could identify what they did to address their stress.”
Just 7% of survey respondents said that they don’t do anything to manage their stress.
“This is good news that most people are aware that managing stress is a need,” Dr. Klatt says. “Think of the most stressed-out person you know. Do you want to be around them or spend a lot of time with them? My guess would be ‘No.’ Whatever you are doing to manage your stress, keep doing it.”
Susannah Kistler is associate editor of Ohio State Health & Discovery and associate director of multimedia strategy and storytelling at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Department of Marketing and Strategic Communications.
Eileen Scahill is a senior writer at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Department of Marketing and Strategic Communications.
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