# What are your signs of stress? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 9, 2005, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811 "2005-09-09T13:52:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![sleeepy2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@sleeepy2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeepy2)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/41 "2005-09-09T23:11:59Z")
Serious back pain. Fortunately I found [this](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0446675156/qid=1126308069/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-1771428-6056704?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) book and it helped me quite a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Campion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@Campion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campion)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/42 "2005-09-09T23:38:23Z")
I have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, and waking up. I grind my teeth and clench my jaw more. I twirl my hair, or put it up in buns or ponytails because I believe that if any of my hair is touching my face it will take away my ability to think. I get a dull pain in my left side, and a ball of stress in my stomach. I have difficulty taking deep breaths. I get dizzy easily. I get ocular migraines. I OD on caffeine. Good thing I like my job. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/43 "2005-09-09T23:52:01Z")
Trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. Trouble waking up in the morning, sometimes sleeping through the alarm. Chewing on my tongue or the inside of my cheeks. Overeating. During acute stress like before a job interview I sometimes get the irritable bowel thing. Fatigue. Yeah, common stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Stinkum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Stinkum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stinkum)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/44 "2005-09-10T00:23:23Z")
I feel “tight” all over – muscles won’t relax. Leg cramps at night. Vivid dreams (not necessarily nightmares). Old whiplash neck injury will come back. I stop eating when I’m in a full-blown stress situation. I get so preoccupied with the situation that I really forget to eat. When my mother was in the ICU dying from a staph infection, I lost 15 lbs. in 3 weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/45 "2005-09-10T00:27:17Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > Rash or flakey skin. I just was told that my skin problem last school year was probably related to my stress at my teaching job. My eyelids peeled, I kid you not. The skin could come off in strips sometimes. They’re still overly wrinkled, really. I wonder if they’ll ever recover. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/46 "2005-09-10T02:27:55Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Is it curly? Nope, it’s the straightest hair possible with the least amount of body imaginable. It could be that I’d actually look better with short hair, but with my chubby round face I’ll never convince myself of it. 😉 I’m almost at the point where I’m willing to discuss it with the hair guy my friend swears by, though, because I’m really tired of this. (My officemate winces whenever she hears me brushing out the knots I’ve caused, which happens several times a day.) > [@](#): > > I of course am against cutting hair…mine is pretty long and I’m in the process of growing it longer! The part that’s damaged (the back) doesn’t grow anymore. The front and sides grow normally, but whenever I go to a salon and tell them to make it all the same length they wind up taking at least 2" off most of it. And they chastise me about my bad habit. ☹ I don’t go to salons very often (I trim my own bangs). ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/47 "2005-09-10T02:51:21Z")
If it’s generic stress, kind of like “work-is-hard-all-the-bills-are-due-we-have-no-money” stress, I tend to become overly emotional and very sleepy. I want to sleep all the time when I’m stressed out. Sometimes I’ll get a flare-up of eczma on my hands as well. But if it’s more situational stress, for example being caught in a crowded place with lots of people (who are touching me. GOD I wish they wouldn’t TOUCH me!), then I start to “wash” my hands, rubbing them together. Or I fidget with whatever’s in reach, and become really restless. ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/48 "2005-09-10T03:19:37Z")
I stop sleeping for more than four or five hours a night, talk way way too rapidly, get ridiculously short tempered and lose the override between brain and mouth (which means I say things that my co-workers find hilarious but that would be more tactful to hold in) and get the occasional bout of shakes if it happens to be a really bad high stress day. Also I frequently wish I smoked so I’d have a deadly nervous habit. I get a bit self-destructive and it takes all my discipline to eat relatively right and not OD on caffeine. ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/49 "2005-09-10T04:27:41Z")
I’ve had some success deliberately changing my stress-actions, such as, instead of biting my fingernails I press my tongue upwards on my palate. Haven’t succeeded in changing the physical-symptom thing, like getting a sore stomach. In fact I think muttering to myself, “Oh my aching ulcer!” made the sore stomach worse. Funny how your body starts damaging itself even when **you** aren’t consciously aware of stress, as **Anaamika** said. And why doesn’t your bod realize it just adds to the stress? Why do you need to add stomach or skin or sleep disorders or whatever, to what you’re coping with? Phooey! ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/50 "2005-09-10T04:32:39Z")
Can’t believe I’m the first person to say **I get the shits**. I have them right now, because I’ve spent the last three days on a jury in a trial involving a violent crime. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/51 "2005-09-10T07:28:13Z")
Another thing I forgot – I draw. Geometric patterns. On any available piece of paper (including the page in my notebook where I’m **trying** to sumarize the ongoing meeting :eek: )… By the time I’m finished, and if I’m really stressed, Mondrian has nothing on me. > [@Tracy Lord](#): > > My right eyes twitches. Huh, yes… I forgot that one. Happens to me, too. Out of curiosity, did you injure your eyelid as a child? I wonder if it might have something to do with it. > [@Misnomer](#): > > Funny how all humans experience stress, but we all manifest/deal with it differently … except for the junk food thing. I’ve yet to hear of anyone who comforts themselves with carrots and radishes when stressed. 😉 Carrots and Radishes have their use during stressful periods… at least if they’re good and crunchy. They make _great_ projectile weapons for throwing at unsuspecting victims who piss you off… No, I don’t really do that. mostly. **Anaamika** , do you repeat yourself a lot when you’re under stress? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/52 "2005-09-10T17:09:13Z")
> [@Noone Special](#): > > **Anaamika** , do you repeat yourself a lot when you’re under stress? 😃 Am I repeating myself? Am I repeating myself? I also get the eye-twitch thing and positively hate it. ---
**Author:** ![flamingbananas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f4b2a3/32.png) [@flamingbananas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flamingbananas)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/53 "2005-09-10T23:47:08Z")
I gnaw on my knuckles and index finger when I get stressed. Sometimes I’m not even aware I’m doing it till one of my friends yell at me for it. My mouth gets really, really dry when I get nervous like before a speech in school or something, which makes me get even more nervous because I can’t talk right. I also talk too fast and start to stutter quite a bit. Blah. ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Side_of_the_Floyd)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/54 "2005-09-11T05:15:28Z")
I stutter, draw skulls on my paper like Traddles from _David Copperfield_, get twitchy hands, bite my nails very far down, grind my teeth and talk in my sleep, and peel the skin off my fingers until they bleed messily. Once I peeled off all of the skin from the bottom of the nail to the first joint on all the fingers on my right hand. It was like a horror film. ---
**Author:** ![Amaranta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Amaranta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amaranta)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/55 "2005-09-11T06:08:35Z")
I have horrible, horrible nightmares. My hair falls out. The skin on my face doesn’t break out (anymore than usual, anyway), but I’ll get zits on my scalp. No biggie, since no one else can see them. I’ll scratch my ears a lot. I have to watch this one and keep my nails short and smooth, or else nasty scabby ears. I also wring my hands. I get ridiculously horny, and not getting any just adds to the stress I was dealing with in the fist place. ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/56 "2005-09-11T06:20:49Z")
I stutter, and I bite my knuckles and my fingernails, and pace (when I can) drumming my fists on my hips. If I’m at work and can’t move, I drum my knuckles violently (but rhythymically) against the nearest hard surface. I wind up looking like I’ve been in a bar fight, with horrible bruises on my hips. Yuck. ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/57 "2005-09-11T06:27:17Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > Can’t believe I’m the first person to say **I get the shits**. Yeah, me too. I’ll go and then immediately feel like I need to go again. And when I make time for it, I don’t have to, but when I convince myself that it’s all in my head and I should just relax, then I have to _right away_. The rest of mine are pretty common: - can’t get to sleep - once I am asleep, have bolt-upright-in-bed nightmares - can’t wake up, entire sleep schedule gets out of whack - can’t concentrate on anything I’m supposed to be doing - have imaginary arguments in the shower - have lapses of concentration in the middle of conversations Plus, since I’m a girly man, I start crying for little or no reason. ---
**Author:** ![Greenback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/2bfe46/32.png) [@Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greenback)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811/58 "2005-09-11T06:54:45Z")
I hate to say it but I pick my nose to the point that it bleeds. Then it gets all crusty inside which only makes me pick it more. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-signs-of-stress/320811.md?page=2)