How Stress Impacts Daily Life and What We Can Do About It

Anxiety and stress are disruptors. They get in the way of our ability to live our lives and to successfully fulfill our daily obligations and responsibilities. Worse, they take us out of present moments of joy, contentment, and peace and replace them with future thoughts, suppositions, and inaccurate conclusions. When we are overcome with worry, our minds attach to “what if” rather than to “what is.” This type of thinking serves to distract us, disturb our daily lives, and rob us of a sense of stability and equilibrium.

In psychological terms, daily functioning and activities of daily living are essentially the things we would ideally and healthily be able to accomplish on a daily basis when we are unimpeded by worry, stress, or overwhelm. However, when stress and worry get in the way, we can find it difficult to complete even the most necessary and basic tasks. This is due not to laziness or lack of accountability but, rather, to the feeling of paralysis and fatigue that can come with overwhelming worry and stress. Some areas of daily functioning that can be negatively affected by anxiety include:

• Personal hygiene and self-care.
• Fulfillment of work duties and obligations.
• Fulfillment of family/parenting/caregiving duties.
• Attention to financial responsibilities/household obligations.
• Attention to physical well-being/health/exercise/sleep/diet.
• Ability to engage in pleasurable activities/hobbies/interests/rest and relaxation.

When any of all of these areas of daily living are impacted by anxiety, we narrow our lives and experiences and, in a sense, live incompletely, as certain elements of our daily lives fall by the wayside. We focus inordinately on our worries, which obscures these other important parts of our lives.

This begs the question of what we can do when we recognize that our daily functioning is being negatively affected by worry and anxiety.

• Honestly assess what is happening in our lives (work, family, personal relationships, physical health, financial strain, etc.). Paying attention to the specific elements that are causing us to stress and worry is an integral step in formulating a plan for reducing the negative impact of overwhelm.
• Envision what restored daily functioning might look like. Think about how we would like our lives to look if we were at optimal functioning. Perhaps this means we would have time to spend with our families, to exercise and engage in personal interests, and to leave work “at the door” when we leave the office. Having a sense of what restored functioning would look like can help us to think pragmatically about how to implement positive changes.
• Identify areas where we need support. If, for instance, we are struggling with how many hours we are working, we may consider using a personal day, speaking to a supervisor, or thinking about how to implement stronger boundaries with our jobs. When we look honestly at how much time and energy are devoted to different areas of our lives, we can acknowledge where help is needed.
• Implement a plan for stress reduction. As a new therapist, I routinely saw upwards of 30 clients a week, often seeing eight or nine consecutively without a break. I reached a point where I had to make a change, as it became clear that this type of schedule was unsustainable and was disrupting my daily functioning. My plan started small: begin scheduling a break in the middle of the day to eat lunch and take a break. From there, I worked to reduce my caseload to a more manageable number. It was only through an honest self-assessment of my stress level that I was able to envision how my life could be bettered by making changes to reduce my susceptibility to burnout.

When we are able to adequately reduce anxiety, stress, and overwhelm, our daily functioning reaches a level of restoration in which we are able to fulfill obligations, be present in our experiences, and devote time and energy to the things we want to do without undue focus on worries, stressors, or future potentialities. Signs of restored daily functioning might include:

• More time to devote to interests, hobbies, and self-care.
• Reduced time focusing on work-related worries and anxiety.
• Stronger boundaries with work communication and working after-hours.
• Better focus on personal hygiene, physical activity, and physical well-being.
• More balance between work, family, and self.
• Less focus and fixation on future scenarios (“what-ifs”) and more attention to the present moment (“what is").