Stress & Burnout Awareness: Impact, Signs, and How Therapy Can Help

Learn more about Anxiety and Stress Therapy.

In This Blog, You’ll Learn:

✅ What stress is defined as and how it affects your body and mind
✅ How stress can cause eating disorders and depression
✅ Why stress is a silent killer and how to manage it early
✅ Tools for coping with stress with school, work, or chest pain
✅ Myths and facts about stress, including stress for success
✅ How therapy can support those struggling with stress with diabetes or high blood pressure

Why Stress Awareness Month Matters

April is Stress Awareness Month, a time to pause and reflect on how stress touches every aspect of our lives. At Mountains Therapy in Montclair, NJ, we help clients explore the emotional and physical toll of stress and develop personalized strategies for healing.

Many of us feel stress for no reason, without knowing what’s triggering it. Others feel intense pressure to perform or succeed, leading to the “stress to impress” mindset. Whether it’s stress with school, stress with chest pain, or just feeling stuck, therapy can help you understand where stress comes from and what to do about it.

What Stress Really Is. Let’s start with the basics.

Stress is defined as the body’s natural response to any demand or change. While not all stress is bad—think of it like a signal, it becomes harmful when it's constant, overwhelming, or ignored.

Stress therapists often describe chronic stress using terms like:

Stress is best defined as a physical and emotional reaction to pressure
Stress is a silent killer when left unmanaged over time
Stress is killing me is more than a phrase—it’s a warning sign that support is needed

How to Know I'm Stressed? How to know I'm burnt out?

If you’ve been feeling “off” lately but can’t quite explain why, this checklist may help. Check any that resonate with you:

1. Physical Signs of Stress & Burnout

☐ I feel tired no matter how much I sleep
☐ I get frequent headaches, tension, or body aches
☐ I’ve had changes in appetite or digestion
☐ I’m experiencing chest pain, tightness, or rapid heartbeat
☐ I get sick more often or take longer to recover

2. Emotional Signs of Stress & Burnout

☐ I feel overwhelmed by even small tasks
☐ I’m more irritable, anxious, or sad than usual
☐ I’ve been crying more or feeling emotionally flat
☐ I feel disconnected from joy or excitement
☐ I feel guilty for resting or saying no

3. Mental Signs of Stress & Burnout

☐ I can’t concentrate or focus
☐ I forget things easily
☐ I’m constantly worrying or overthinking
☐ I feel stuck in negative thoughts
☐ I’ve been procrastinating or avoiding responsibilities

4. Behavioral Signs of Stress & Burnout

☐ I’m withdrawing from friends or family
☐ I rely on caffeine, food, or alcohol to cope
☐ I zone out with scrolling, TV, or sleep
☐ I’m skipping meals, exercise, or self-care routines
☐ I feel like I’m “just going through the motions”

If you checked off several of these, you may be dealing with stress, burnout, or even emotional exhaustion. Therapy can help you reset, re-center, and reclaim your energy.

What Stress Can Cause

You may be wondering, stress can cause what? The answer isn’t simple, because stress touches everything.

Here’s how stress shows up in the real world:

Stress can make you sick by weakening the immune system
Stress can cause eating disorders and depression, especially in teens and young adults
Stress can affect your driving by slowing reaction time or causing distraction
Chronic stress can cause cancer by contributing to inflammation, though more research is needed
It creates stress to the body, including headaches, muscle pain, and fatigue

Even if you feel like you’re functioning, stress without distress is still stress. There are ways to experience pressure (like deadlines or goals) without harm but that requires awareness and balance.

Myths and Facts About Stress

Myth: Stress only affects your emotions.

✅ Fact: Stress affects your body too,, stress to strain formula applies not just in physics, but metaphorically in how emotional tension strains your physical health.

Myth: Stress is always bad.

✅ Fact: Sometimes there’s stress for success, it can motivate you to study, perform, or meet a goal. But unmanaged, that same stress can lead to burnout.

Myth: If I’m not crying or panicking, I’m not stressed.

✅ Fact: Many people live with stress without feeling stressed. It’s quiet but still damaging, showing up as fatigue, restlessness, or even stress with high blood pressure.

Who Feels Stress and Why We Feel Stress

Everyone. Adults, kids, and teens experience stress in different ways.

Stress for kids can come from school, peer pressure, or home dynamics.
Stress for Teens with school, jobs, or relationships.
Stress for Adults with work, jobs, relationships, parenting, and more.
Chronic conditions like stress with diabetes or stress with chest pain need to be addressed seriously.
Even athletes and high achievers deal with stress for success commonly answers like perfectionism, fear of failure, or comparison.

And sometimes, we don’t even know what’s wrong, just that stress without knowing is taking over. Therapy helps uncover those layers and create clarity.

When You’re Ready to Talk: Therapy Can Help

If you’ve been Googling stress near me, stress ball near me, or even stress test near me, your body may be trying to tell you something. You don’t have to wait for a breaking point. Therapy provides a safe, supportive space to talk about what’s going on, whether it’s obvious or not. We help you manage:

Stress to force and high expectations
Long-term effects of stress with diabetes
Triggers related to stress with high blood pressure
The emotional toll of stress without distress pdf topics, which suggest chronic stress even when you're functioning well
Or niche stress topics like stress near the crack tip (engineers and medical professionals, we see you!)

What Makes Mountains Therapy Different

We understand that stress to the body is real, and the emotional load can’t be separated from your daily life. Whether you're dealing with performance anxiety, family stress, relationship challenges, or chronic illness, we help you find your footing again. And if you’ve ever felt like, “stress is mine, happiness is yours,” let’s change that narrative

Stress and Trauma: When the Past Feels Like the Present

Stress isn’t always about daily hassles—it can stem from deeper wounds. For some, especially those who’ve experienced betrayal, such as infidelity, the emotional toll can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Yes, PTSD after infidelity is real. While people often associate post-traumatic stress disorder with military or life-threatening events, emotional betrayals can also leave lasting psychological scars. The brain processes emotional pain in similar ways to physical trauma, making recovery incredibly difficult without support. Learn more about therapy for relationship issues near me.
Some signs of PTSD after infidelity include:
Intrusive thoughts about the betrayal
Hypervigilance or checking your partner’s phone, location, or behavior
Intense anxiety or panic when reminded of the event
Avoidance of intimacy or fear of future relationships
Difficulty trusting even when your partner is trying to rebuild
Learn more about the best couples therapy near me.
Learn more about the best marriage counseling near me.

At Mountains Therapy, we offer compassionate, trauma-informed care to help individuals and couples process betrayal, manage triggers, and rebuild a sense of safety—within themselves and in their relationships. Remember: You don’t have to stay stuck in the past. Therapy can help you process trauma and take back control from the lingering effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.. Learn more about Trauma and PTSD Therapy near me.

Get Help with Stress - You don't have to deal with it alone!

This Stress Awareness Month, give yourself the gift of support. Therapy isn't just for breakdowns, it's for breakthroughs. Whether you're stressed for success, feeling overwhelmed for no reason, or just carrying too much without knowing it, we're here to help. Ready to manage stress in a healthy way? Reach out to Mountains Therapy in Montclair, NJ today to start your journey toward emotional balance and lasting wellness.