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Stress and anxiety are a part of our life that sometimes can not be avoided. However, in some cases, there are dangerous consequences that need to be minimized and controlled. For example, family stress exists and causes a lot of problems for your family’s members and the future of your children. In this article, TrueRemedies would like to give you some basic information about signs of family stress and help you overcome it.
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Warning Signs Of Family Stress To Watch Out Before Too Late
I – What Is Family Stress
Family stress is common nowadays as there is an imagined or real imbalance between the family’s demands and their ability to meet these demands[1]. For example, a family that is forced to make a home mortgage from 7 % interest to the current market rate and fails to use the financial resources to serve the demand of each family’s member will be put at the risk of the family stress.
Every day, the family has to face many stressors or transitions causing a change in the system. It could be negative or positive. For instance, the parents bring their anxiety and bad moods from the office to home. Children are overwhelmed with the burden of subjects and lessons at school. And there is a weak connection between the parents and their children as they do not have enough time to talk and enjoy the fun moments with each other.
If we don’t resolve and overcome them soon, the small complication and quarrels will be collected and become bigger and bigger until it blows up.
II – Causes Of Family Stress
Here are some of the most common causes of family stress that most families face.
1. Financial Stress
Financial issues often lead to stress for not only individuals but also families[2] [3]. If you are in a family, there are a lot of things you have to care about. You always have to think about the ways on how to earn enough money to meet the basic demands of your family’s members and buy the necessities such as shelter and food.
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The good financial budget is a must if you want to make your loved ones healthy, happy and safe. If you have children, it will be essential to provide your child with a good study and help them to enjoy sports or extracurricular activities.
When the breadwinner constantly struggles to make ends meet, stress can become more profound. That is a vicious cycle that leads to disappointment and depression[4]. If you can not find a way out, there is a chance of divorce, family violence, and more severe results.
2. Conjugal Infidelity
Some people are unfaithful and they cheat on their spouses, loving and seeking the attention from someone else. This conjugal infidelity leads to the loss of belief and an increase in the risk of family stress. Furthermore, it can break down a family system and relationship[5].
3. Addiction To Alcohol, Drug, Smoking Or Something Harmful
An addiction to something harmful and unhealthy will cause a lot of stress in a family[6]. When a family’s member is addicted to alcohol, smoking and something else, he or she will lose his job, steal money and belongings of his or her family. The addict affects the whole family. He needs to accept help or leave his family.
4. Domestic Violence And Abuse
The domestic violence and abuse act out physically or verbally against the victim. This family problem destroys human’s dignity, pride, value, and self-esteem. It hurts anyone in the family.
For example, children who grow up in a family with violence may have some problems in their behavior and characters[7] [8] [9]. Therefore, this issue isn’t allowed to happen between family members. The victim has to seek help from other people if violence constantly occurs.
5. Moving
When a family moves to a different place, it also causes family stress. Some members are excited while others may not be happy about the relocation.
Moreover, there are a lot of things you have to prepare before the move and you also experience changes including the interrupted routine. That can be difficult for someone within the family to deal with.
Moving to another state or city is more stressful for the entire family as each person has to figure out how to make new friends and get familiar with the new life. You need to choose a new job or a new school to go to. The difference in culture and weather is also a challenge.
III – Signs Of Family Stress
How can we know our family is experiencing stress? We can observe the behaviors and actions of each family’s members. It is often addressed by revealing these following warning signs of family stress to watch out.
1. No One Want To Sleep
When you experience a high level of stress at all times, sleeplessness is one of the first signs of family stress to watch out. It is called insomnia[10]. This lack of rest and sleep can make you more anxious, crankier and stressed, which worsens stress and anxiety.
Therefore, when your family feels difficult to shut eyes, put everyone to bed a half-hour earlier. Do not forget to turn off all electronic devices before that.
2. Everyone Yell At Each Other
If you use your ears to listen, you will easily found out that when the family is getting strained, they tend to yell and fuss at each other.
However, yelling increases pressure and makes everyone more stressed. Therefore, it is recommended that softening your voice and lowering down your volume as well as spending time out together.
3. Do Not Eat Family Dinners
When a member is cranky or stress-out, dinner will be less delicious and the atmosphere is full of pressure. Furthermore, they tend to skip the mealtime to avoid talking with other family members[11].
To make family dinner more enjoyable, you should not talk about unhappy things during the mealtime. Instead, tell fun stories happening during the day and provide good compliments on each other around the table.
Let’s play a small game called “compliment basket”. In the game, you write down some positive things and good points you observed about another family member and put the paper in a basket in the middle of the table. During the family meals, take out the paper and read the observations and compliments aloud.
4. Child Is Withdrawing
Living in a family with a high level of stress, some older children go to their room, closing the door and shutting themselves off from their family and friends while the younger ones prefer to play alone, not asking to hang out.
This is one of the familiar signs of family stress in most family. A check-in is a must and should be kept in order. You should talk to your kids. Make the conversation open. When your kids begin to talk about their problem, just listen.
When you have stress, make sure that you make a good model for your children. Let your child know how you solve the problem and handle stress. Try building healthy habits like mindfulness, deep breathing, and regular exercise, instead of drinking, overeating or oversleeping.
5. You Are Struggling At Work
Miss deadline? Forget the meeting schedule? Do not think of any new ideas for work? If stress is a culprit that makes your work strained and you lose your ability to stay organized and concentrate.
So, if you experience stress at work, sleep early instead of going to bed late. If you can, take a few days off to relax and restore your energy before coming back to work.
6. Everyone In The Family Is Under The Weather
No matter how old you are, stress will affect your body. Younger children get nightmares and stomach aches. Teens experience headaches while adults complain about the pain and stress in their shoulders, neck, and back. Furthermore, they also have sleep issues.
The family stress weakens your immune system[12] [13] and increases the chances of getting the illness[14]. Therefore, to improve your health and reduce stress, you should care about your health and build a healthier habit like exercising, washing your hands and eating healthy.
7. Constantly Run Around All The Time
Rushing to school to pick up your child, taking them to the extra classes, letting them enjoy outdoor activities, meeting and going to the yoga center can make you and your partner feel more anxious and stressed. That also results in muscle tension.
The overwhelming, busy schedule causes stomach aches, headaches, and other unpleasant issues.
So, if you find yourself stressed at the moment, press the pause button and try relaxing. Stop what you are doing and take a deep breathe when you experience a hard time.
IV – How Can Stress Affect Your Family
Family stress has varying degrees and affects both yourself and your family. Here are the bad impacts of family stress.
1. Influence Of Family Health
Chronic stress has both mental and physical issues[15] [16]. The physical side-effects of stress could be skin rashes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stomach ailments, and cancer. It also boosts the speed of the aging process[17].
Stress also leads to mental disorders such as alcohol and drug abuse, anxiety, and depression. The chronic stressful situation will double the risk of depression.
2. Strain Family Relationships
Whatever causes stress and anxiety, if a family gets strained, it can weaken the family relationships[18]. During times of stress, you are easy to get angry and often yell at other people around you. It affects your family, including your partner.
3. Negatively Affect Kids
The family stress comes with negative behaviors such as rushing, yelling and even abuse before the one who gets stressed leave the house.
It negatively affects your kids[19] [20]. For example, they are late for school, forget their homework and skip dinners. The stress also adds tension kids feel. Furthermore, there are some long-term problems such as negative growing up for kids.
V – Tips To Reduce Family Stress
All families suffer varying degrees of stress at different times and for various reasons. To solve the problem, you have to know the triggers of family stress. You should also find out the solutions to deal with these triggers and reduce the overall tension in your family.
Here are different strategies you can do:
- Set realistic expectations for your family: Encourage everyone to put all their wishes and daily obligations on a wall calendar and discuss them together. To enjoy time with the family,.each member has to give up one activity.
- Practice relaxation activities such as listening to music, exercising, meditating, writing your notebook, doing yoga, taking a walk, reading, planting a garden.
- Express your appreciation: Let’s praise and give each other good compliments to reduce family tension and boost everyone relationship.
- Touch often: Touching will increase love and strengthen a relationship. Furthermore, when a couple often touches each other, it creates more romance and positive effect on their mood.
- Develop your humor skills: Healthy humor skills helps entertainment, tension relief and positive conservation in the family.
I hope that you will find useful information about signs of family stress in this article. Any questions can be left in the comment section and we will answer them as soon as we can. Thank you for reading.
If you want to ask any questions about the article, please leave a comment in the comment box. For other informative articles, visit our Parenting cate!
