The Status Knot: Is Stress Making you Cool?

 Happy Mental Health Awareness Month!  

Today I was in search of some great wisdom or resource to post on my Facebook page.  I had just completed a routine scroll of the "news feed" and I was feeling so discouraged.  "Worst. day. ever." read one post, "Guess I'll skip lunch...ugh- so much to do!" and then finally I read "work sucks, weekend was too short, countdown to vacation!!"  Hm.  Is this regular Monday-blues or is this the new "thing" in our online world?

It seems to have become cool to talk about stress.  As a therapist this thought made me want to jump up and shout "Yes! It is great to talk about stress!"  but as always I slowed myself and asked, "is it?"  Is online "stress bragging" serving us?  I can tell you that my life is busy and I am exhausted until I am blue in the face, but will that make me feel less stressed? Or will I simply feel more important because I am stressed?  Yikes!

These articles from the American Psychological Association tackle the idea that STRESS has become a status symbol in our culture.  On par with the latest fashion trends and luxury cars.

http://www.yourmindyourbody.org/stress-as-a-status-symbol-part-1/

Let's pledge to kick the stress out of our statuses and find more constructive ways to deal with feelings of stress in our lives.  Stress is a dangerous accessory, you cannot adorn yourself with it as easily as a designer handbag- it is a natural and expected reaction that we can learn to deal with by understanding our limits and having unending compassion for ourselves!