5 Types of Stress and How Stress Affects Your Menopause Symptoms
How Does Stress Affect Your Menopause Symptoms?
If you’re going through menopause, or perimenopause, you may be feeling stress and anxiety. You may be asking, “Is stress making these menopause symptoms worse for me?”
In this episode & blog post, we will cover:
What is stress?
What are five types of stress?
How do these stressors affect you in menopause?
I will also share:
Self coaching/reflection questions to examine your stress!
I’ll touch on stress eating at the end of the episode, and share a bit of my stress eating story from the time that I lost my partner and father of my child.
I don’t need to tell you that midlife can be a really stressful time.
The transition from childbearing years, into the later years of life, can bring up so many different feelings, of joy, of loss. Everything can feel like it’s changing, even who you are seems to be changing.
And this is true.
Everything IS changing. Many things are happening at this stage of life:
divorce
job loss
mourning your younger self (and younger body)
grief from losing a loved one
There is also something called eustress, which is supposed to be normal stress that can be beneficial for the person, but causes some anxiety. This can be a move, or a promotion.
If you are struggling with brain fog, a promotion can be a great thing, but inside you may be feeling some worry that you won’t be able to keep up.
What exactly IS stress?
It can be a feeling of overwhelm. Who hasn’t felt that at times?
Many things can overwhelm you as you age, including worry about health, (health anxiety), your children, your partners, your careers, and yourself.
Hmm … Isn’t it funny that I put the word “yourself” last?
Here is your first self coaching question: Do you put yourself last on a regular basis?
Stress defined:
One definition of stress: being unable to cope with emotional pressure or life demands. It can also be defined as anything that disrupts the body's own balance to its system.
You may have heard stress described as the FIGHT, FLIGHT, FREEZE OR FAWN response.
This is our stress response system.
You face a threat. Many descriptions liken this to a tiger chasing you. Your body responds to that threat, whether it is emotional, or physical.
The threat doesn't have to be life threatening. The response however, is a primitive one, and it is to ensure survival of YOU.
The next instinct might be to run away from a threat, that’s the flight part. You that may want to run from your boss who is searching for that thing you promised to do!
Flight is the response to get you away from danger.
Freeze is exactly what it means, it means to just STOP. You're not running, you're not reacting, you are frozen. You may be disassociating from what’s happening, shutting down.
Fawn is a reaction to the conflict, and it can be one of people pleasing to diminish further conflict.
All of this is to remain safe in the face of danger.
Do you notice what you feel when this kicks in for you?
You may feel sweaty.
Your pulse may go up.
You may feel it in your stomach,
You may even get diarrhea.
Lots of digestive issues can be attributed back to the nervous system and stress! Your body senses a threat (stressor) and your body wants to protect you.
All of these start with the same thing: the FIGHT part!
5 types of stress.
What does the body see as “danger”? These are defined as stressors.
What we THINK and label as stressful.
Your thoughts can cause stress. PERCEIVED STRESS is your own self assessment of your stress. Do you ever notice that you become sweaty, or anxious when you start to think about something?
I used to get anxious at my morning meetings at work, even after 18 years. Every so often, being on display, and speaking made me hot, and anxious. This came from a tendency to second guess myself.
I knew I had to develop more self trust!
Negative thoughts can increase your stress levels and impact your quality of life.I have connected a Perceived Stress Scale for you below, to measure your perceived stress.
Events. There are many life events that cause stress, and even good life events cause stress.
That’s the eustress I was talking about above. Events can be big, or little. Small, like the meeting example I shared.
Big, like losing my parents and the father of my child when I was 37.
Self Coaching Prompt: Ever feel stressed going to a certain event? Can you identify what parts of the event make you feel stress?
(Is someone there always sharing their latest diet and triggering food and body thoughts within you? THAT alone can increase stress.)
Illness. This can place a stress on the body.
It can be emotional, and physical. As we age, many experiences with illness, like colds, flu, virus, happen to us, and this can cause stress.Virus like varicella or chicken pox, hang out in the and when the body is in a state of stress … out comes the shingles
Stress can open the door for illness. The stress response is tied to the immune system.
You can have increased inflammation.
I can only imagine the stress of a chronic or terminal illness.
Lack of sleep. This can be from that emotional stress we talked about, and from illness or pain.
This disruption in your circadian rhythm causes stress. Circadian rhythm is like your internal clock. It can be disrupted.
I'm recording this on a day that daylight savings time has set in. Shift work, flying across time zones, too much blue light from your phone or laptop even TV can disrupt circadian rhythm.
Lack of sleep can increase hunger, even disrupt a specific system, part of our lymph system, the glymphatic system, that helps detox the brain while sleeping. THIS CAN IMPACT BRAIN FOG.
Self Coaching Prompt: Can you identify what keeps you up? While some of us pee a lot at night, thoughts can keep us up too. You could keep a journal by your bed, and dump all the thoughts out when you can’t sleep. You may see some patterns, and then identify what you need to work on.
Blood sugar imbalance. High and low blood sugar can cause stress on the body.
Yo-yo dieting, and calorie restriction causes stress on the body.
Why? You may find yourself binging on sugary foods. You may then spike your blood sugar, and in turn restrict calories as a form of punishment for being “bad”.
Dieting as a behaviour does not creates long term weight loss. (1)
Self coaching prompt:
Are you trying to eat regularly, and combine protein, complex carbs and fiber in your snacks and meals? If you have signs of blood sugar imbalance, this could be a first step along with visiting a doctor.
Put these all together and you may have what is called chronic stress.
How do these stressors affect you in menopause?
Your hot flashes, and anxious feelings may increase in menopause, because of hormones, and because of stress perception.
These are called Vasomotor Symptoms. (2) Vasomotor symptoms include hot flashes, sweating, and even palpitations.
Here’s a tip: can you assess the stress in your life?
Over time, if we are activating this fight, flight, freeze and possible fawn system, we are activating that STRESS RESPONSE, called our HPA axis, on a consistent basis. This can lead to chronic stress.
The HPA AXIS, in brief.
Hypothalamus: which sits at the base of the brain and is really like our relay/response centre for messages that the body is giving. Messages like: hunger, temperature changes, illness, and thoughts about threats or stressors.
Pituitary gland: which is called our master gland, because it makes hormones that control multiple areas in the body
Adrenal: which make our stress hormones. They sit on top the kidneys and secrete chemical messengers. The one we hear about a lot is cortisol, but they do secrete other things, like DHEA, which is sometimes called a youth hormone!
When you are in menopause, or post menopausal, your adrenal glands are responsible for some of the estrogen that the ovaries made. This goes through a different chemical process, but that is one of the roles of adrenal glands.
They also produce cortisol. If the cortisol is high, then this may result in hot flashes. (2)
You may hear the fatigue your feel in menopause described as adrenal fatigue. There are more progressive thoughts on this, and I am working on a post about that!
Could stress affect your eating behavior?
Well … yes! Stress challenges our body systems, like our endocrine system, and our nervous system. It can change our digestive system. Stress may cause stomach upset, digestive complaints, lack of appetite or increased appetite.
One study stated that “with stress roughly 40% increase, and 40% decrease their caloric intake when stressed, while approximately 20% of people do not change feeding behaviours during stressful periods.
This wasn't a study that went into depth about hunger and fullness for an individual, type and duration of stress.
Stress brings out behavior changes. This can happen around our eating patterns. Have you ever been so stressed that you don’t eat or overeat?
Or are you the type of person that eats when stressed? Comfort foods on the couch, or just plain snacking, can make us feel better. Temporarily.
Until you feel guilty and blame yourself for eating too much, or being “bad”.
Ever notice that your food choices also change when stressed?
When we have so much on our shoulders, and minds when life gets turned upside down. Quick meals, foods that are extra sugary, or creamy, seem to fit the bill. Sometimes we just need EASY. This can be a form of self care.
I share a bit of my grief journey, and my experience with food in this episode.
Self coaching prompt: Have you ever said to yourself, “That’s ok self, if this is the way you cope, I understand. You've learned a way to take care of yourself through all you have been through.” This is self compassion.
I share this concept with all my clients.
Treat yourself like your own best friend. Most of us do NOT.
Food can give us more than calories and energy. It does provide comfort. It can soothe the soul, and the heart. That is heart hunger.
The 7th principle of Intuitive Eating is to Cope With Your Emotions with Kindness. When you find yourself experiencing heart hunger, or any other of the nine hungers, and using food to cope, practice some self love.
Acknowledge, without judgement, that food is a coping mechanism for you, in this moment, while you gather the tools to create new coping mechanisms.
Would looking at how you feel about your stage in life help, if you are able to do so?
We rarely talk about the loss of identity, and other things, we feel at this age.
We can feel less valued as we age.
Are you able to reflect on how you feel turning fifty, or entering menopause?
Are you able to acknowledge the stress in your life, big or little?
While I’m not discounting the role that hormones play in our stressful feelings in midlife, understanding your own stressors can be ONE way to help support those hot flashes, sweats, and anxious feelings you may be going through.
Resources and sources:
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As always, none of the content on this website, or podcast, is meant as medical or mental health advice. Please seek help from a licensed healthcare practitioner