Our life goes through a lot of ups and downs, and at times certain situations bring stress with them. Stress is a psychological and physical response to certain events in life.

Every person has a different response to the situation of stress. For some people, exams become a cause of stress, but for others, it might be a cakewalk. For some, a presentation at the office could lead to work stress. Whatever might be the circumstance, stress management skills are the answer for rescue. These skills are developed as a recollection/experience from the incidences of past situations. Sometimes we might find answers on our own, and sometimes it becomes unbearable and that’s the moment when we should consider taking up counselling for stress. During today’s time, professional mental health services have become synonymous with online counselling and therapy. Similarly, online stress counselling could be the apt solution to cope with stress and related problems.

Causes of Stress :

• Life Events: Major life changes such as marriage, divorce, moving, or starting a new job can be significant stressors.
• Work or School Pressure: Deadlines, workloads, exams, or performance evaluations can induce stress.
• Financial Stress: Concerns about money, debt, or financial instability can lead to significant stress.
• Relationship Issues: Conflict with family members, friends, or romantic partners can be stressful.
• Health Concerns: Illness, injury, or chronic health conditions can cause stress, as can concerns about one's health or the health of loved ones.
• Trauma: Past traumatic experiences such as abuse, accidents, or natural disasters can lead to ongoing stress.
• Uncertainty or Change: Ambiguity about the future or unexpected changes in one's circumstances can be stressful.
• Perfectionism: Setting excessively high standards for oneself and feeling pressure to meet them can cause stress.
• Social Pressures: Expectations from society, culture, or social media can contribute to stress, such as pressure to conform or achieve certain milestones.
• Lack of Control: Feeling powerless or lacking control over one's circumstances can lead to stress.
• Personality Traits: Certain personality traits, such as being highly neurotic or perfectionistic, can predispose individuals to experiencing more stress.
• Poor Coping Skills: Inadequate coping mechanisms or a lack of effective strategies for managing stress can exacerbate its impact.

Stress types:

Stress is often categorized into different types based on its source, duration, and impact on an individual's well-being. They are-

• Acute Stress: This type of stress is short-term and typically occurs in response to immediate stressors, such as a sudden deadline or a minor conflict.
• Chronic Stress: Chronic stress persists over an extended period and can result from ongoing situations like a difficult work environment, financial strain, or a prolonged health issue.
• Episodic Acute Stress: Some individuals experience repeated episodes of acute stress due to frequent exposure to stressors, leading to a pattern of recurring stress reactions.
• Traumatic Stress: Traumatic stress results from exposure to a traumatic event, such as physical violence, natural disasters, or serious accidents, and can have lasting effects on mental health.
• Anticipatory Stress: This type of stress arises from anticipating future stressors or negative events, such as worrying about an upcoming exam, job interview, or medical procedure.
• Ambiguous Stress: Ambiguous stress occurs when individuals face uncertain or unclear stressors, such as waiting for medical test results or dealing with ambiguous social situations, leading to heightened anxiety and distress.
• Social Stress: Social stress stems from interpersonal relationships, social evaluations, or social comparison, often involving concerns about acceptance, rejection, or fitting in with others.
• Secondary Stress: Secondary stress refers to the stress experienced indirectly through witnessing or empathizing with others who are experiencing stress or trauma, such as caregivers of individuals with chronic illnesses or victims of natural disasters.
• Work-Life Conflict: Stress resulting from the perceived imbalance or conflict between work and personal life responsibilities, often leading to strain in both domains.
• Cultural Stress: Cultural stress arises from conflicts between an individual's cultural identity, values, or norms and those of the larger society, which can occur in multicultural or immigrant populations.

These types of stress encompass various aspects of human experience and provide insight into the diverse ways stress can manifest and impact individuals' lives. Understanding these distinctions can inform tailored interventions and strategies for stress management and prevention in clinical and everyday settings.

Why is finding a solution to ‘Stress’ important?

Stress could be caused due to multiple personal or professional reasons, and if not attended to could cause serious health issues. Chronic stress can be associated with fatal mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, eating disorders and personality disorders, also affecting physical health. It also hurts our physical health. With mental health and physical health both getting affected, stress could even cause hair loss, menstrual complications, skin problems, sexual dysfunction and complexities. 

Is Online Counselling for Stress Relief Effective?

Tackling stress will not seem like a task if proper professional guidance and support are received. During the current times, especially during the pandemic period every service/commodity is available online. Online services have made life easier, effective and time-saving. By selecting the mode of online stress counselling, one could effectively save a lot of travel time, and expenses, and get relief from stress just by being in a comfortable spot. 

As researched and concluded by various researchers, the mode of online counselling is not only effective but comes with added benefits as well. The shift of counselling services online has made it accessible even in the farthest and most remote locations by way of connecting the best psychologists from across the corners.  Clients could now avail the facility of seeking customised, personalised options for online counselling while selecting the therapists. Online therapy is and will always remain more consistent as it remains unimpacted by the forces of nature, late nights at the office or pouring traffic.

Where could one approach to seek Online Counselling for Stress?

There exist multiple options online with employed counsellors and therapists providing online counselling for stress. If it seems quite a task to understand the best possible option, for the therapist to select, one could refer to TalktoAngel. TalktoAngel not only provides quality online counselling for mental health but also ensures best practices. They boast about their vivid basket of qualified psychologists being connected from different parts of the country delivering online counselling for mental health services in 24+ Indian languages. Just with one click, one can book a therapist online and receive affordable and comfortable online counselling for stress management.