Managing & Surviving End-Of-Year Stress

Tracey Sullivan Pharmacy Features Writer

Anyone else feel a sense of dread about halfway through October, that comes with the realisation that end-of-year madness will kick off when the calendar rolls over onto November 1st? This seems to be the time of year that EVERYTHING needs doing – work deadlines before Christmas, Term 4 school assessments for kids, school camps and sports activities, the house to tidy and prepare before the holidays, increased driving time to all the end-of-year events, Christmas Day preparation and present buying, holiday planning, medical appointments….

End-of-year burnout/exhaustion occurring in November and early December is something to watch out for as all this peak activity and extra demands take a real toll on our bodies and increase our mental load.

 

How does end-of-year stress impact us physically?

  • Neck pain/tension headaches: When we get stressed it is common for us to tense our neck and upper back muscles. Over time this can cause neck pain, headaches, shoulder and back pain.
  • Pain sensitivity: things that normally we wouldn’t notice now seem amplified.
  • Breathing issues: When stressed the body releases a hormone called cortisol. This hormone makes you breathe faster so that the body gets oxygen rich blood to the organs. Quick, deep breathing can cause shortness of breath. Being short of breath can make us feel nervous, anxious, and even lead to panic attacks.
  • Nausea/abdominal issues: Changes in our eating and drinking habits can play havoc with our gut health. Being in fight/flight mode can affect the gut biome and also slows the gut down. This can mean bloating, pain or constipation in some people but in others can cause nausea, diarrhoea and frequent trips to the loo.
  • Insomnia: Stress affects the quality and duration of sleep. Being tired during the day leads to difficulty focusing, irritability and fatigue. This leads to more cortisol release, trapping people in a vicious cycle.
  • Posture: Feeling upper body or neck pain can cause people to adjust their posture to relieve pain, however this may be an unnatural or harmful position leading to long-term back and neck problems.
  • Illness: the longer stress continues the more prone to illness we become. Back-to-back colds or a shingles outbreak are all signs that things are amiss.

 

What about emotionally?
End-of-year stress can affect us emotionally as well as physically. Feelings of overwhelm, irritability, racing thoughts and trouble remembering are all signs that stress is building. Racing thoughts, losing your sense of humour, difficulty making decisions and avoiding social interactions are also emotional responses to stress.

 

Survival tips:

  • Clear your calendar – no matter how hard you try it’ll fill up anyway, but starting the week with a clear diary can be helpful. Take anything unnecessary off your plate.
  • Try and get all medical appointments and annual health checks scheduled for earlier in the year. There is nothing worse than waiting for health results in the lead up to Christmas.
  • Make a GP appointment in October if you have prescription medicines that may run out over summer. This way you will have repeats to cover you over the summer break. It can be much harder to see your regular GP over this time.
  • Delegate – ask others for assistance to wrap up work and home projects.
  • Get in early for body sore spots – book a physiotherapy or acupuncturist appointment if needed.
  • Create realistic to-do lists – must do’s only!
  • Keep new projects at work or home for the New Year.
  • Don’t hang in there for the big holidays, take a long weekend off to recharge before the end of the year.
  • Lose the booze – alcohol is dehydrating and a mood depressant. It can really increase anxiety in some people. Have some alternatives like kombucha at the ready.

 

Get a head start on the end of the year
This is the time of year when it starts getting harder and harder to maintain our normal healthy eating, sleep, exercise and water intake. Try to keep these as a priority with some protective boundaries around your time so you can still keep these within healthy limits.

End-of-year stress can spiral out-of-control surprisingly quickly, leading to burnout, illness, injury or long-term conditions like depression. Recognise your anxiety triggers and have an awareness of the symptoms you suffer when under stress. Managing the physical and emotional symptoms of stress at an early stage can help set you up for a good finish to the end of the year and a great start to the new one.

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