Stress Symptoms

Medically reviewed by:

Dr Dan Bunstone - Medical Officer

Updated: Aug 18, 2021

Next review: Aug 18, 2022

Stress affects everyone in different ways. This means that there are lots of potential symptoms.

You don’t have to experience every single one to be suffering from too much stress. Just one or two are enough for a doctor to make a diagnosis when testing for stress.

If you’re feeling stressed, or know you have a potentially stressful situation coming up, look out for any of these responses.

Stress can cause you to act in a way that you wouldn’t normally. It affects your emotional responses and is often more obvious to people around you. Someone who knows you very well may notice the change in your behaviour long before you do.

Behavioural symptoms to look out for include:

Constant bad mood or short temper
Bad habits, e.g. nail biting
Alcohol or drug abuse
Taking up smoking, or smoking more than you usually would
Restlessness, difficulty relaxing or concentrating
Crying for no apparent reason
Avoiding stressful situations, such as calling in sick to work
Unable to make decisions
Not seeing the humour in anything
Feeling low or depressed
A sense of dread

As you’d expect, stress affects how you think. You may find it difficult to control your thoughts, or often find yourself worrying about the worst case scenario. Look out for symptoms such as:

Worrying all the time
Unfounded concerns about your health, work or personal life
Loneliness
Night terrors
acing thoughts you can’t switch off from

If left untreated, stress can lead to serious mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression, so it’s important to speak to a doctor if you’re finding it hard to cope.

Like most mental health conditions, stress can cause a range of physical symptoms that affect your body. These can include:

Weight loss
Weight gain
Poor immune system (stressed people may be more likely to come down with a cold or other common virus)
Skin problems, e.g. acne
Headaches
Digestive issues such as diarrhoea, constipation or indigestion
Muscle tension or pain
Dizzy spells
Insomnia
Tiredness
Sweating
Fast heart rate
Hyperventilating
Hair loss

Stress can also increase your risk of heart disease, stroke or high blood pressure. This is one of many reasons why it’s important to get treatment as soon as you realise stress is having a negative impact on your day-to-day life.

While most symptoms of stress can affect both men and women, some are specific to (or more common in) a particular gender.

Here are a few of the issues stress could cause for men:

Erectile dysfunction
Low quality and quantity of sperm
While stress doesn’t cause prostate cancer, some studies suggest that it could speed up the progress of the disease once you’ve been diagnosed

As with many mental health issues, men may be hesitant about sharing their feelings with a doctor. This is often due to long-held stereotypes that men should be strong and untouchable.

However, if you’re experiencing any of the symptoms of stress, you should see a doctor for confidential advice as soon as possible.

There are also some stress symptoms that are associated only with women. These include:

Irregular or painful periods
Low sex drive
Hair loss - while this can affect men too, it’s often a much more distressing experience for women

There are also a lot of myths around how stress can affect pregnancy, so it’s important to find correct information.

As we’ve mentioned, different people deal with stress in different ways. In fact, something that causes one person a lot of stress might not be an issue at all for someone else.

How you perceive situations can have a big impact on how you deal with it. For example, imagine you have a big interview coming up for a promotion at work. If you’re confident you can do your job well, you’ll probably be more relaxed than if you worry you’re not doing enough in your job.

Low-self esteem, negative past experiences or your outlook on life can all have an impact on how you deal with stress.

Now that you’ve identified the symptoms that are contributing to your stress, and you’re finding it difficult to cope, it’s recommended that you see a doctor.

They’ll listen to you and get a good understanding of your situation. They’ll be able to provide an expert diagnosis that will take you a step closer to getting the correct treatment.

Dr Dan Bunstone - Medical Officer

Do stress symptoms affect everyone the same way?

Behavioural symptoms

Psychological symptoms

Physical symptoms

Signs of stress in men

Signs of stress in women

Stress affects everyone differently

What happens next?

Articles on Stress