Expat Stress And Anxiety (What Triggers It And How To Cope)<\/h1>

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Stress. Just hearing this word can already trigger unpleasant feelings or anxious thoughts.<\/p>

The aim of this article is to explain what it is, what are the triggers of expat stress specifically, how it works and what are some techniques you can use to decrease its levels significantly.<\/p>

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This is the moment where your body gives you signals to notice the stressor and deal with it, even though you don\u2019t think you have enough skills or resources to do so. Your hands may be sweaty, your heart beats faster, hormones like adrenaline or cortisol are released, maybe you just freeze and are not able to do anything or try to run away.<\/p>

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Resistance<\/strong><\/h4>

Once you have dealt with that stress, no matter which strategy you used, your mind and body learn. They learn about whether this particular reaction to the stressor was successful or not, necessary or not, whether the reaction worked or not. If the reaction was successful, your resistance to a given stressor increases and all the body functions go back to normal.<\/p>

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Exhaustion<\/strong><\/h4>

If you are under chronic, long-lasting stress conditions (eg. a long illness of yourself or someone close, a huge amount of pressure at work, unsatisfying relationship etc.), your body is in a constant state of mobilization, with \u201cstress hormones\u201d always present. It is getting tired of being in that state without ever coming back to normal. Long-lasting stress might lead to a number of disorders and health issues, including but not limited to heart illness, depression, sleep and eating disorders or addictions.<\/p>

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Strategies for reacting to stress<\/h3>

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One of the very popular and illustrative descriptions of stress reaction types is the distinction between three: freeze, flight and fight responses.<\/p>

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Freeze<\/strong><\/h4>

You might have had or have heard about such moments where you were just about to give a speech or a presentation; you are going up on the stage and... nothing. A complete black hole, no words in your brain, no ability to move, think of anything, it\u2019s sort of like feeling paralyzed. That is how your body decided to deal with stress at this given moment. And this strategy was probably not the best one for that situation as it likely caused even more stress as a result.<\/p>

Freeze response is a rather passive one, where you rely on the outside factors to sort themselves out. Common accompanying thoughts are along the lines of \u201cLet\u2019s just see what happens\u201d, \u201cWhat will be, will be.\u201d, \u201cI don\u2019t think I actually need to do it.\u201d,\u201cThat\u2019s life! Nothing you can do about it\u201d.<\/p>

Example strategies: Writing a journal; Self-reflecting on emotions and underlying reasons for feeling stressed; Staying positive .<\/p>

Pros:<\/strong> \u201cFreezing\u201d lets you stay in a given moment and reflect, without making any rushed or not well-thought decisions. It\u2019s not a sustainable strategy on its own though.<\/p>

Cons:<\/strong> This strategy does not move you forward and does not allow for adjusting in the long-term.<\/p>

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Flight<\/strong><\/h4>

So you have arrived in a new country and now need to go to the bank and set up your account, sign up for the doctors\u2019 and do all those other administrative things. Instead, you are doing online shopping for house decorations, flowers, candles... What\u2019s happening there?<\/p>

You might potentially be rationalizing your online shopping by saying \u201cI need to settle in the house first\u201d, \u201cI miss home and I want to feel comfortable in the new place first\u201d. It\u2019s not rationalizing if you genuinely prioritized this on your To-Do list and it is planned to only take a couple of hours. If, however, you are doing this to avoid the other items on your To-Do list, you might want to consider taking other actions instead.<\/p>

Example strategies: Focusing on doing things we like instead of what would be more beneficial at the moment; Learning about the new location or adaptation strategies without implementing them; Avoiding doing the things we don\u2019t feel comfortable doing.<\/p>

Pros: <\/strong><\/p>

Helps to reduce stress instantly by doing something you like and enjoy and puts you back in a more positive mindset.<\/p>

Cons: <\/strong><\/p>

Often has only a short-lasting effect as the thing you are avoiding will still be there and will need to be dealt with at some point.<\/p>

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Fight<\/strong><\/h4>

Fight strategies are the most dynamic ones, where there is a lot of action involved. Action is often good, because it changes your reality and creates new opportunities.<\/p>

When you choose to fight the stress by facing it and acting regardless of it, you force your brain to rewire and learn new techniques. If given techniques have worked, this in turn makes you feel more confident and comfortable. If you ever face a similar stressor in the future, you then know that you can use this technique to reduce the stress you will be experiencing.<\/p>

Examples: Going out of your comfort zone and trying new things (new hobby, language course, going to meet ups etc); Learning and putting the new knowledge into practice; Actively reaching out to friends and family; Seeking help from someone with an outside perspective when needed.<\/p>

Pros:<\/strong><\/p>

Action changes your reality and creates new opportunities. You won\u2019t know until you try!<\/p>

Cons:<\/strong><\/p>

If taking action and crossing one to-do after another off your list is the only strategy, there might not be enough space for reflection or winding down. This constant flow of to-dos might in turn increase the stress instead of reducing it.<\/p>

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None of the above is the right response to stressors. Each has its own functions, its own pros and cons. It\u2019s important to identify situations where you freeze, flight or fight and reflect on whether that acts in your favour or not. In some situations, the most positive way of reacting would be to escape. In others, you will need to take some action. It\u2019s always a mix-and-match approach.<\/p>

By observing what works and what doesn\u2019t work for you, you can help yourself understand what your triggers are. Once you identify them, you can start thinking about which strategies would be best to use in given situations and start working on actively choosing how you react to stress.<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[219],"class_list":["post-27188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-in-germany","tag-expat-stress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/liveworkgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/liveworkgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/liveworkgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liveworkgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liveworkgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27188"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/liveworkgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47998,"href":"https:\/\/liveworkgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27188\/revisions\/47998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liveworkgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/liveworkgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liveworkgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liveworkgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}