My Mind: Tips

Don’t Stress over Stress

With your MS diagnosis comes the side effect known as stress. It’s completely natural, yet unfortunately, it’s unavoidable. No worries. It’s not going to get you down. You can easily learn how to manage and deal with stress in healthy, positive ways.

From loss of mobility to interference with work, the repercussions of MS can definitely send the stress-meter through the roof. In fact, the unpredictability of the disease is what often causes the greatest amount of stress. But trying to anticipate the next exacerbation is exactly what might trigger it. So, what’s a person to do?

Stress is part of everyday living. You can’t avoid it. And your family and friends can’t either. So, we all learn how to manage and cope with it. Here are a few simple things you can do to help work through the stress:

• Pump it up.  Daily exercise is a great way to burn off jittery nerves and calories!
• Strike a warrior pose.  Yoga, meditation and other relaxation techniques can help ease anxiety.
• Eat healthy.  Good stuff in, equals good feelings out.
• Catch some ZZZZ’s.  A good night’s sleep can leave you feeling refreshed and relaxed.  

If these suggestions don’t seem to help, you may want to seek guidance from outside sources. Stress-management programs are a great resource and have become a normal part of the treatment of many medical disorders. Add to that professional counseling and support groups and you’ve got a pretty great arsenal of stress-busting tools on hand.