Causes and Symptoms of Stress in Women

While symptoms of stress among adult men and women are similar, there are some specific symptoms that are likely to surface more frequently among women. The causes of female stress, on the other hand, tend to be fairly different from the causes of stress in men.

Women have different emotional dispositions and personalities as compared to men and therefore while the physiological changes that occur during stress are the same, women tend to have different kinds of reactions at varying severity levels. Consequently, their reaction to stress as well as coping mechanisms tend to be different from men.

Women are also more likely to experience stress. Not only do they have to play a multiple roles of a homemaker, a mother and a professional, they also have the added responsibility of bearing children too. Managing these multiple roles is one of the main causes of stress among women. Lack of reciprocal and joint emotional management in families augments the situation causing the stressful condition to precipitate.

The emotional and psychological symptoms of stress among women are actually related closely to the physical make up of the female body. Female irritability and mood swings associated with symptoms of post menstrual syndrome have been a subject matter of research since long. Apart from these peculiar stress symptoms experienced during and after menstruation, some of the other typical symptoms of stress that demand special mention include:

Tension headaches

Women who have been through various stressful events tend to experience tension headaches, some times daily, if the stress level remains high. In chronic conditions these headaches refuse to go away despite medication.

Insomnia

A working woman has two full time jobs – one at workplace and the other as a mother. The sheer enormity of the work leads to stress related insomnia, often requiring medication to get the much required rest.

Female irritability

Female irritability is not only a sign of post menstrual syndrome. Irritability can also occur due to the overwhelming amount of tasks that women have to perform. Wondering how everything will get done, women often get stressed out, which leads to irritability. Female irritability often translates into lashing out at children, husband and colleagues.

Memory lapses

Often dismissed as insignificant occurrences, frequent memory lapses are a typical sign of stress in women. Actually the mind is so focused and concentrated in handling a specific task at hand that missing out on certain aspects that need to be remembered becomes common. A woman will often forget why she went to the kitchen and will remember only when she is back that it was the pot of coffee that she forgot to bring along.

Increased vulnerability to illness

Stressed women are more susceptible to developing infections and skin diseases. This is mainly due to the negative affects that constant stress has on the immune system. Women are also known to develop shingles due to stress.

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