Checking Your Energy Level

Energy gives you vitality, allows you to perform everyday tasks and helps your body maintain itself. Stress can make heavy demands on your internal resources, both physical and psychological. The greater the pressures are in your life, the more energy you’ll need to keep up with the pace.

Your liver stores your energy in the form of vitamins, minerals, fats, and carbohydrates. When you’re under stress, your brain signals your liver to release nutrients into the bloodstream, providing the extra energy your cells need.

Repeated stress reactions can drain your reserves of nutrients. Unable to keep up with the increased demands for energy, your body can break down in exhaustion. Your body becomes less capable of coping with stress and more vulnerable to illnesses. This breakdown explains why you feel mentally and physically exhausted when you are under a high level of stress.

If you don’t get relief from stress, pressures can build, and you can get caught in a cycle of low energy and fatigue. To see if stress is affecting your energy level, please answer the following questions:

SIGNS OF LOW ENERGY AND FATIGUE

• Do you often feel tired? Are you feeling a lack of energy? (Sleep doesn’t seem to relieve your fatigue.)
• Do you feel lifeless, listless, and numb? Does work seem more boring?
• Do you have difficulty coping with minor stresses? Are you losing your perspective? Do minor hassles seem like big problems?
• Do you feel depressed? Symptoms that often resemble that of depression may actually be signs of exhaustion and may include a loss of a sense of humor, apathy, and vague sense of anxiety.
• Do you feel helpless or unable to deal with your problems? Do you find yourself withdrawing from your problems through sleep, television, or fantasy?
• Do you turn to cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs when you feel stressed?

If you answered "yes" to some or many of the questions, your body may be close to exhaustion and breakdown. You may wonder if you’re really depressed or just stressed. Depression differs from acute stress in one important way. Depression is a response to loss, internal conflict, or suppressed anger. If you’re experiencing acute stress, however, you simply feel exhausted and drained of energy to cope physically or mentally rather than a sense of loss or conflict.

Relaxation, sleep, exercise, and nutrition can relieve your stress and give you more energy. By understanding the source of your stress and developing the skills to cope with life’s pressures, you can stop being a victim of stress. You can become resilient and thrive on stress.