The symptoms of stress and lower resilience

When you have low levels of resilience, find it difficult to navigate or recover from challenges or are in a state of prolonged and chronic stress you may experience symptoms, which if they continue, might indicate you need to take action. The likely symptoms of stress and lower resilience are shown below.

Possible symptoms of stress and lower resilience

You May:

– find it hard to sleep
– change your eating habits
– smoke or drink more
– avoid colleagues, friends and family
– over react to problems

Emotionally you are likely to:

– become more irritable or angry
– have greater mood swings
– be more anxious
– feel numb
– feel disappointed with yourself
– be more tearful or aggressive
– feel less motivated or committed
– feel drained and listless

Physical symptoms you experience might include:

– tiredness
– indigestion and nausea headaches
– changes in bowel habits
– aching or painful muscles, back or neck pain
– palpitations

Mentally you May:

– be more indecisive
– find it hard to concentrate
– suffer loss of memory
– feel more confused than usual
– have feelings of inadequacy or low self-esteem

While all these are indicators of those with lower levels of resilience and who are experiencing stress, they may also be indicative of other conditions. If you are concerned about yourself please seek advice from your line manager, principal or trusted friend. If you are concerned about a colleague, speak to them or their line manager.

Top Tip

Stress can affect different people in different ways. What causes stress in one person may not affect another at all. If you are a manager you need to be mindful that things that don’t cause you to be stressed could have significant impact on others.

It’s about getting to know your team, their tolerance levels and behaviours. If there is low resilience or high stress across a larger group of people within your school or department, you may see:

– more regular instances of disputes and disaffection within the team
– an increase in staff turnover
– an increase in complaints and grievances
– an increase in sickness and absence
– poorer team performance
– an increase in parent dissatisfaction or complaints