by Heather Harris

Created on: August 11, 2009

Unhealthy levels of stress can follow you around like Linus' dust cloud in the comic strip Peanuts.

Wherever you go, you may be leaving signs and symptoms of stress overload behind that are visible to others by your mood and behavior. You will probably notice yourself wearing a little thin and you will probably also feel some stress affects to your body. Add all three components of mind, body and behavior together and you have a potential time bomb of stressors building.

Ways to know if you are carrying around an unhealthy level of stress is to run an inner check on yourself. Before heading to a physician, ask yourself some questions about your own mental health and stress level. Have you become more anxious, worried or restless? Are you finding it hard to sleep? Do you feel more irritable and insecure? Do you feel depressed, saddened or unreasonably angry most or all of the time? Do you feel as if you can't quite cut through the never-ending racket in your brain that makes things seem out of control?

Also analyze your relationship with others. Sometimes the way you deal with stress is similar to that of a child, you act out unnecessarily, desperately looking for an outlet. Have you recently started or increased the amount of angry outbursts you have on friends and family? Have you withdrawn from your normal circle of friends? Do you feel the need to eat much more or much less than you often do? Have you increased you consumption of tobacco, alcohol or other drugs?

Finally take an inner inventory of your own body. Only you and you alone knows what it feel like to live in your skin, so take stock. Have you developed headaches? Experienced chest pain or back pain? Have any medical conditions you live with on a daily basis gotten worse? If you have the means of checking, has your blood pressure or pulse readings risen? How about your stomach, have you had problems with pains, constipation or diarrhea?

If you answer to the majority of these questions is yes then consider that you are entering the realm of having stress levels of an unhealthy proportion. Or if one particular question seems to stand out, then take heed. If you feel as if you're stressed and have recently begun experiencing chest pains or pressure that weren't present before or have gotten worse, then by all means please get in touch with a physician who may be able to help recommend stress-relieving options in your life.

Don't just chalk up stress as a mental roadblock that anyone can conquer - to do so is unhealthy and could be deadly.

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