Signs You Are Addicted To Stress Quick Tip Signs you are addicted to stress https://youtu.be/I7p8mSKUky0 HOW ADDICTED ARE YOU TO STRESS? We can agree that stress can be a bad thing. But what happens when you flip stress onto its head and say you are addicted to the very thing youre trying to get rid of? I am aware that many people do not see the connection between addiction and stress, so try to hear me out on this. Addiction is compulsive behavior. Not to downplay addiction, but for now, lets repolarize the thought of what addiction is to see the compulsive behavior. If you dont think about the stress that way, its always harder to eliminate stress from your life. I view my clients as having stress that they seem to need at the time. Also, I see them having a visceral response or a mental attraction to their stressor, forcing them to go through a self-sabotaging cycle. The compulsion: That youre addicted to is stimuli. It is the need for an energetic hit of some sort. I bring awareness that most clients are on the hunt for another hint of stimuli for whatever reason. I found four categories that Ive coined within my ecosystem. If you seem to agree with one or more of them, youre addicted to stress. I call number one The Busy Body. This person cant stop doing things. A classic sign of this is when things slow down and calm down, they instantly go and try to do something like cleaning the house or something thats going to keep their body in motion. A lot of the time, they do something right before bed. They scroll their phone, looking for stimuli or another hit. Its an external validation of external feelings. And an example of what I see in my business owners is that they have to put out fires all day. The habit sets in, so theyre always looking for something to put out or solve. Theyre saying, Im so busy, Im so busy, Im so busy, but its busy work. They could put out fires with a small amount of planning and calmness. Rather than taking the time to quiet down, theyre A BUSY BODY. Theyre always looking for that external hit. And those external stimuli hit is because they cant feel a sense of calm. Once they start to lower down, INTERNAL PRESSURE begins to percolate up, and they cant deal with that. So they do something that distracts them from the actual problem within. If you do a couple of actions in that realm, you are the busybody. Remember, this is not bad or wrong; shaming is off the table. Being in a state of busy body is just a place where youre a box that were going to hold you in for a second because youre going to get out of it shortly. Once you realize what youre doing and why youre doing it, there is a way your mind begins to create a plan. Person number two is the overthinker. The overthinker has classic signs of worry. And they cant turn off their brain. A classic symptom they have is trouble falling asleep because they wake up and their mind turns on like a light switch, running a mile a minute. The overthinker goes a lot deeper than just a busybody. And its straightforward. In my 20 years of practice, I have seen many belief systems and thought processes around Im not good enough. The over-thinker has deep roots here. So when an over-thinker calms down, they have trouble allowing themselves to be calm, and then they overthink. The over-thinker is looking for problems or different things to worry about. Thats going to get them to see situations in the future that they give power to now. Their worry gives them the thought process the strength of saying I need to build a skill, a skill set they dont have, which is powerful all on its own. But they allowed the fact that they dont have that skill set to disable them. So they worry about how theyre not ready for it by starting to prepare for it like everyone else. As you begin to see youre not good at something, you practice it, play with it, get more involved in it, and get better. But the overthinker doesnt take action on that. The overthinker sees a problem perpetuating because they overthink what they must do to solve it. The busybody cant stop moving and has to do something like scrolling because of their need for stimuli. The overthinker worries about things all the time. They cant sleep at night because theyre worried about a skill they dont have based on the belief system that tells them, I am not good enough. Number three: The jumper The jumper has anxiety written all over where the overthinker overthinks. The jumper has a skin-crawling sensation where you have to do something similar to the busybody. But its more nervous; its spikier. Theres more of an urgency that says, I need to do something right now. Go, go, go, go, go. They always have to feel like theyre doing something, perpetuated by anxiety. Like the overthinker, the jumper worries about things, but they also become very anxious and paralyzed by these worries. But they have extreme action to do something. And they need to; their compulsive nature keeps them moving. It shows up physically, where you want to do more. An ailment they often experience is a restless leg. And if youve ever had a restless leg, its like a bone-chilling feeling that runs through your body, and your legs want to crawl, and its hard. Now, meshing the mind and the body stimuli states gives you the jumper. A high level of stimuli in the body creates a busy body which shows up as the body is always active. And the overthinker is just-minded but doesnt have the body when theyre both in line. The jumper often runs to the future, is highly agitated, worried, and highly sensitive, and their skin conduits force them to do things. Number four: The problem solver I see way more often than any others: the problem solver. The problem solver is addicted to stress because they are looking for problems to solve. The compulsion stems from a more profound need to be of service, and thats the tricky part. We use these stimuli to look for problems looking for this. And it has a little bit of all three meshed in one. You try to look for more and more things to solve because you want to make life easier. Easier for your spouse, employees, people around you, and loved ones. So you look for problems to solve rather than just being present. That is the crucial component. Now the most accessible example I can give you of the problem solver in everyday life is. The masculine energy when dealing with feminine energy. Were not talking about male and female; were talking about how masculine energy has to be right or wrong, black or white. Its a give me the facts type of energy that has to mesh with the curvy feminine energy. It comes up in husband and wife issues all the time. Remember, a wife can hold the masculine energy. Its the quality of listening to your spouse speak and looking for the problem to solve for them. The problem-solve automatically sees their spouses feelings, and they want to make them feel better. The masculine needs to learn from the feminine. Once you understand both, magical stuff happens. Once you know that your spouse might not want you to fix the problem but listen to it, you start to find a solution because now youre not trying to correct it. Youre giving them the love and support they need. So, the problem solver they have all the aspects of the busybody, the overthinker, and the jumper meshed in with I need to solve a problem. But most of the time, the problem theyre trying to fix is not the root problem. Its a surface issue, just like trying to solve a problem for your wife when all she needs is to feel connected to you. That is the power that you have to start looking for. Im always looking for something to make someone happy and be of service. That is my thing. Which one is yours? How addicted to stress are you? B ecause thats what this world is all about. Its about how well you bounce back. There are multiple ways to learn how to deal with stress. There are techniques up the wazoo, but unless you agree with where you are, youll never be able to get better in the long term. So learn how to slow down to speed up. Learn how to quiet your mind, calm your body, and sit with sensations that are not always pleasant. Learn to sit with them so you can understand them and eliminate them. That is how you overcome your addiction to stress. Otherwise, youre going to divert different stimuli and manage a bunch of other tasks and duties, like juggling balls. There are only so many balls that you will be able to juggle in the air before one falls. Another place to start is looking at all the things you are doing or the multiple hats you are wearing, look at this blog post to dive into this aspect of energy drain. Which one is yours? How addicted to stress are you? Because thats what this world is all about. Its about how well you bounce back. -- Patrick Lerouge