“Impact of Stress on Relationship?”

 

“Impact of Stress on Relationship?”
 


Research can help understand how stress can wreak havoc on relationships. Something substantial can cause stress like a new move, a health concern, or a toxic relationship. But it is usually something minor like a hectic week at work, a day full of meetings, the rush after school/work, a last minute request from bosses/clients. These minor inconveniences can accumulate over time and have significant consequences on relationships. Personal relationships suffer as a result of stress in other areas of life. Work-life conflict is a major source of stress in today’s world, and research has repeatedly proven that people bring stress and tension from work and other areas of life, home, causing harm to personal relationships.

External stressors affect relationships

In many ways, stress seeps into daily lives of people, altering the quality of interpersonal connections. People become more detached and preoccupied, as well as less affectionate, when they are stressed. They also have less time for leisure activities, resulting in partner alienation. People’s worst tendencies are brought out by stress, which may cause the relationships to distance as well. With time, the relationship becomes more shallow, and couple become even more disengaged, leading to increased conflict, sorrow, and enstrangement. People become depleted as a result of stress, and their cognitive resources are drained. It also boosts alertness. This means that when a person is stressed, they are more likely to notice undesirable behaviours and less able to control how they react to such behaviours. It also implies that the person will have less patience and less willing to give his/her partner the benefit of the doubt when they misbehave.

People become more irritable and aggressive as a result of stress, which raises the risk of fights. When couples fight, the tension might make them less able to listen, exhibit interest, or to empathise. In other words, stress converts non-issues into problems and inhibits one from dealing with the problem effectively.

Stress has an impact on the physical and mental health, as well as adding to the strain in relationships. Couples in difficult relationships are more likely to be affected by daily stressors than couples in more stable relationships, hence stress can be particularly damaging. However, stress can cause people to see flaws in their relationships that are not actually there, even in healthy and stable relationships.

Couples that normally communicate effectively may perceive the communication breakdown after a particularly stressful week, as a result of the stress and depleted resources, they may believe that their relationships have communication problems. Similarly, couples  who are normally affectionate may show minimal affection when they are worried, leading them to assume they have a problem with affection and spending time together, rather than realising it is simply the stress. These misunderstandings can lead to unhappiness in otherwise healthy relationships, causing people to focus on the wrong problem rather than identifying and resolving the root of the problem that is, stress.

Negative impact of stress on relationships

Stress is common in relationships, but it can also be detrimental. People frequently bottle up their feelings or tend to keep their stress to themselves, making it difficult for their partners to understand and support them. Ineffective stress management can lead to a vicious cycle in which partners catch or share each other’s stress. This occurs because stress is contagious, when one partner is stressed, the other gets stressed as well. Couples can get caught in a negative cycle and become too stressed to address the root problem or problems.

Stress has very contagious effects and it will eventually affect those around you, wreaking havoc on their life as well. When it relationships, stress can produce big rifts that would otherwise be completely avoidable. It will eventually break both partners down, feeding negative emotions in each other and causing unnecessary issues. There are stress indicators that may help you reevaluate your behaviour, and save the relationship.

·   People tend to vent at the most inappropriate times when they are stressed. It is easy to get confused since saying the wrong thing at the wrong time can hurt the other person. When life gets busy and stress levels rise, it can be difficult to talk about problems in a productive manner, leading a person to speak angrily or sarcastically. Changing how one thinks and views the world, as well as how one responds to stressful situations, can be accomplished by addressing these thoughts and beliefs.

·   People who are under a lot of stress are more likely to make mistakes because they are unable to focus on the task at hand. Under stress, one can make mistakes at work, in personal life and relationships. These mistakes can and will have an impact on those around you, and they can be one of the major detrimental health repercussions of stress.

·   Relationships that have been subjected to high levels of stress for an extended period of time are always bound to fail. When stressed, the perception of everything changes and one becomes more sensitive, which leads to increased conflict and communication problems.

Stress can be Beneficial

Yes, there are two sides of the coin; and as much as stress negatively impacts relationships, it can also prove to be quite beneficial. Stress does not automatically imply that the relationship will suffer. Rather, how people perceive stress is essential, such as perceiving as a challenge to overcome. Relationships get stronger as partners learn to navigate stress and create resources to better deal with future stress by perceiving stress as a chance to share and open up with one another. Partners learn what they require from one another on an emotional and psychological level and convey to one another that they are cherished, care for, and understood. Having a partner is there and responds to one’s needs helps the body cope with stress more effectively and reduces the intensity of stress.

How couples should manage stress

Couples must recognise and discuss the sources of their stress, as well as what they require when they are stressed. Although it may be tough to discuss what is causing stress, especially if it is due to something within the relationship, it is effective for partners to discuss their needs and provide support. Couples that are the most successful at dealing with stress do so as a team. They give off the impression that they are ‘all in’ together as a team.

Learn how to manage stress in a healthy, effective way to avoid the harmful impact of stress hampering relationships. Accept the fact that life occurs for you rather than to you. Also, it is important to remind oneself that everyone has ups and downs, but a momentary setback should not be a huge impediment in the relationship’s progress.

Admitting that one might benefit from the assistance of medical professionals to help get out of a depressive state has a lot of power. Breathing and mindfulness exercises, understanding the sources of stress, and choosing to build empowered daily routines are all ways for reducing stress and allowing both partners to thrive. It is essential to find the appropriate combination for oneself to be on the way to a more positive sense of self. In a relationship, effective communication is possibly the most important skill for dealing with conflict and stress. Couples counselling may be beneficial if one is having trouble in developing this skill or if the relationships is in severe conflict.

 

Sources:
https://www.unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2018/atp-relationship-stress
https://www.relate.org.uk/relationship-help/help-relationships/mental-health/stress-relationships
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6340998/
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/could_stress_be_causing_your_relationship_problems

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