Stress is experienced on various levels and manifests itself as symptoms on a physical, emotional, mental and behavioral level. In this article we will see specifically how stress manifests itself as symptoms on an emotional level.

Stress can be experienced in different ways. These are some of the common emotional effects of stress.

1. Psychological tension and irritability: Hand in hand with physical stress goes psychological stress that will affect your ability to manage your emotions. You may feel moody, be emotionally more reactive, have mood swings, break down, lose your temper, or cry for no apparent reason.

2. Self-esteem and self-confidence: Obviously, your self-image will be strongly affected by all the symptoms, especially because you feel different from the way you normally experience yourself.

3. Feeling depressed: You may feel overwhelmed, overly anxious, experience a lack of patience, and generally feel depressed most of the time.

4. Depression: As an extension of the previous point, you may experience feelings of depression and helplessness on a regular basis. General unhappiness without understanding why is a common emotional symptom.

5. Decreased enthusiasm and interest: You may not enjoy activities, situations, and people the way you used to, as your interest and enthusiasm wanes.

6. Changes in the way you know yourself: You may feel that you have changed and that you no longer know yourself. Your personality traits that you felt made up who you were could be lost.

7. Feeling lonely: You may prefer to stay home and socialize less, which could lead to isolation and feeling lonely, even when you’re with others.

8. Responsibilities: You may feel unable or uninterested in taking on your responsibilities. An ‘I don’t care’ attitude is often a common emotional expression of stress.

9. Cynicism: You may feel cynical towards the people around you, which comes with less patience.

10. Suicidal thoughts: if stress is not controlled and the emotional effect worsens, it can lead to suicidal tendencies and suicide threats may be made.

The above symptoms can appear in any order, but very often they will be subtle at first and become more intense and include multiple symptoms when stress is not controlled or the causes are not addressed.

Remember that stress can only be successfully managed over a period of time. Once you address the causes of stress, your emotional symptoms will lessen and lessen over time.

For other stress symptoms, check out my following articles:

• mental symptoms of stress
• Physical symptoms of stress
• Behavioral symptoms of stress