30 Signs that You Are Addicted to Stress

A stress addiction slowly takes the life out of you by harming your mental and physical wellbeing. Here are 30 signs that you are addicted to stress! 

List of Signs that You Are Addicted to Stress

1.    You feel guilty when you’re not working 

One of the first signs that you are addicted to stress is feeling guilty when you try to relax. 

You barely have time to sit down and unwind or have fun because you feel like you’re wasting precious time idling around when you could be doing something productive.

2.    You feel “alive” only when working

When you’re doing something productive like school or work, you feel like you’re alive and ‘living’! But when you’re not, you feel depressed and useless.

High levels of stress bring out our body’s fight or flight response including tense muscles, increased body temperature, raised blood pressure and fired up central nervous system that makes people feel extra alive. 

Long term exposure to this increases the body’s tolerance to stress hormones which makes people seek out more stressful situations to get that same high. This becomes destructive to your health.

3.    You spend your days off thinking about school or work

The little time you do get to not work, you spend most of it restless and always thinking about work – pending tasks and future projects. 

4.    Your relationships suffer 

Friends and family barely get to spend time with you because you’re too busy. This makes you grow apart from them and they, you.

5.    You crave the feeling of accomplishment 

The euphoric sensation or ‘high’ you get after completing a task is what you crave. You keep working and doing things to try and get that feeling again and again.

6.    You overwork believing that one day it’ll pay off 

Are you someone who works even when you’re not needed? You stay around trying to get things done because you believe that your current misery will pay off and give you a stress-free future. 

7.    You don’t know how to enjoy yourself

You have a difficult time genuinely enjoying yourself when you have time off. You don’t know how to have fun engaging in leisure activities and it makes you uncomfortable because you feel you’d rather be productive working.

8.    You struggle to sleep 

Workaholics tend to have a hard time falling asleep because they’re thinking about the next deadline or awaiting assignment. Even when they do go to sleep, all they dream about is work/school.

9.    You give yourself tight deadlines 

Even when you have a long time to finish a project, you set a very tight deadline and put yourself under pressure by trying to complete things in an almost impossible span of time.

10. You get irritated very easily

You have a very short fuse, little things being out of order irritate you and you can have an outburst at the very slightest inconvenience.

11. That rush or stress of work gets you going

Another one of the signs that you are addicted to stress is that you love having something to do all the time. You love the stressful moments of the day. They get you going and feeling useful and productive. That’s why you spend time looking for that high at work or school in hectic or challenging activities.

12. You tend to enjoy last-minute pressure

You tend to leave things for last-minute. The pressure build-up from tight deadlines makes you energized and excited.  

13. You pile up your workload 

You put a lot more than you can handle or is necessary on your plate. You take on too many responsibilities and tasks when you don’t have to. 

14. You have no free time 

You are so overloaded with work that you simply don’t find the free time to take a break, engage in hobbies or catch up with family or friends. 

15. So much to do, so little time 

You have so many things to do but there’s not enough time to complete them all! You find yourself on the go all the time, rushing to get things done because your schedule is loaded. 

16. There’s a lot of drama around you

As you go through your overburdened and fast-paced life filled with activity, you are bound to meet at cross roads with several people around you. You feel you have so many problems and often face tense situations with friends or co-workers, your boss, your spouse and your family.

17. You complain a lot 

Let’s face it – if you have so much to do all the time, there are high chances you’ll have a lot to say when things don’t go right. 

You like telling others especially your family, how busy you are, how hard everything is and how much you’re suffering in life. 

18. You have a lot of anxiety

As someone who is always rushing, ever busy and has to work all the time and do a proper job at it, you’ll find yourself having many symptoms of anxiety including heart palpitations, restless leg syndrome, derealization and dissociation, among others.

Here’s an article for more details: How to Tell if you Have Anxiety with 45 Symptoms and how they feel like

19. You do not know how to enjoy 

When you get free time or on holiday, you don’t know how to enjoy it to the fullest. Your mind is just thinking about work or school related things. Instead of enjoying, you’re thinking about how to make more money or how to get even better grades. 

20. You celebrate struggle 

You take pride in your ability to handle an overworked and high-paced life full of responsibilities and burdens. It makes you feel like you are useful and worth it only when you are juggling a lot of tasks in your life. You also love it when people compliment you for being able to do or handle so much. Struggling like this makes you feel powerful like a superhuman.

21. You don’t have time for personal care 

One of the signs that you are addicted to stress is that you barely have time to take care of your individual self. Whether it’s clipping your fingernails or making yourself a healthy meal, you are too busy working or taking care of something that you forget to care for own your mind, body and soul. 

22. You’re have little to no patience 

Having a lot to do and with limited time, you become impatient with others.

You tend to want things to be done faster than normal, you tend to finish other people’s conversations and you hate waiting. 

You even have no patience with yourself like delaying going to the restroom before finishing a task or eating lunch hurriedly while standing or skipping it entirely so you can complete an assignment.

23. You suffer from FOMO 

FOMO is Fear of Missing Out. You’re constantly checking up on things like your email, your agenda or your schedule because you feel you may have missed to do something. 

You may be hooked on your mobile phone so you don’t miss any calls, notifications of events or emails.

Even on your days off, you keep checking to see if there’s any message for you.

24. You don’t know how to sit still and do nothing 

When you’re not busy with work and you actually have free time, you feel a sense of emptiness. You simply can’t sit still and do nothing. You get very bored easily when it seems there’s nothing to do. 

Tasks that require you to wait such as standing in a queue or sitting in the bus or plane makes you twitchy and irritated like you are wasting time.

25. You don’t live in the present moment

Another one of the signs that you are addicted to stress is you are not enjoying or living in the moment right now. 

You live for the future when everything will be better, as you tell yourself. You feel that struggling now, even if it means you will be overburdened and miserable, will bring greater rewards in the future. 

26. You push yourself too much 

You feel like you could have done better and been more successful. If you get good grades, it’s not enough – you feel that you should have got even better grades. You keep pushing yourself and don’t appreciate your achievements so far. 

27. You ‘save’ your happiness for later 

All you know is work, struggle and more work which makes you forget your passions, what makes you happy and things that are enjoyable to you. 

Even when you are doing happy things like relaxing or engaging in a hobby you like, you don’t ‘feel’ it because you are busy thinking about how you are only allowed to be happy when you achieve more or get certain things. 

28. You’re overwhelmed most of the time

It’s clear that anyone can get overwhelmed when they have a mountain of duties to carry out. When you’re addicted to stress, you feel overwhelmed by everything you need to do. Some people become used to having this overwhelming feeling all the time. When they don’t have that feeling, they feel like something is missing. 

29.  You rely on stimulants 

Working so much makes you get burned out easily. You need to keep up your energy and focus so you turn to stimulants like energy drinks, coffee and smoking to get back on track. 

Prolonged stress increases the risk of addiction as people look for coping mechanisms just to get through the tedious work they have to do all day.  

30. You may develop a weak immune system

Last but not least on this list of signs that you are addicted to stress is you’re immune system becomes weak.

Excessive stress can cause a whole list of symptoms including headaches, frequent colds, rashes, pain in different parts of your body, disordered eating and more. 

The constant release of stress hormones makes your whole body go out of balance, affecting your muscles, skin, brain as well as your immune, circulatory, reproductive, digestive and nervous systems.

It’s best you recognize the signs that you are addicted to stress and find ways to reduce them. You deserve to enjoy life and live stress-free in the current moment!