More from my book on how to identify stress

How do you spot that you may be stressed?

These are some of the signs that you may be stressed – do you recognise any of them?

1. You are not quite yourself

This is a difficult sign to recognise. Often it's other people who point it out to you. You may be losing your temper on a regular basis or snapping at the least little thing.  You seem to have lost your sense of humour and everything feels a struggle.  You can also feel that ‘everybody is out to get you’ and that nobody works as hard as you do.  You feel as if you can’t cope with the slightest problem that is thrown your way and in some cases can burst into tears at the slightest comment.  You make silly mistakes and can’t seem to cope with your workload.

2. Tension in your body 

Tension around the shoulders and neck may not be down to sitting at your computer for hours on end it could be a sign of early stress. Whatever you do, the tension will not go.

3. Developing odd habits

You may find yourself developing habits like biting your nails or talking to yourself.

4. Eye twitching

If out of the blue your eye starts to twitch this could be down to stress and tiredness.

5. Feeling sick

You start to feel nauseous all the time and whatever you do you don’t feel any better.

6. Colds, cold sores and ulcers

These could all be signs that you may be under stress. Stress affects every cell in your body and it's a case of your immune system not managing as well as it should and it affecting the internal workings of your body.

7. Sleepiness and bad dreams

Stress can affects your sleeping patterns, you might lie awake in the middle of the night going over things in your head or you may just want to sleep constantly. The stress response may keep you awake or it can feel like you are sleeping all the time but your body is never restoring itself and resting properly.

8. Odd niggles

Other symptoms of stress include teeth grinding, unexplained rashes and hives. You may have heart palpitations and feel that your body is rushing.  Stress can also give you spots and acne and a red skin.  It can also manifest as hot flushes, tingling in the hands and feet, tension headaches and hot feet.  If you keep having thoughts of dying, suicide or feel detached from everything, then you are most probably stressed.