There are many different ways to manage stress and while some appear to give short-term relief in the long term they may be harmful. Here’s my list of some of the easiest yet sometimes the worst stress busters around and the reasons why:

Alcohol is easy to obtain, socially acceptable and gives a quick result. A drink is also symbolic. It’s a way of separating the working day from leisure time. If that glass of wine or beer regularly increases you could end up making your stress worse. The more heavily and regularly people drink the more it contributes to anxiety, depression and other mental health problems. Getting drunk is really a form of avoidance and doesn’t deal with the issues that are causing the stress.

Sweet and salty foods can be really tempting when people are feeling stressed. Stress increases the amount of cortisol in the body, which in turn switches on our appetite for high calorie foods. Emotional eating is pretty common and nobody would want to deny a person the odd indulgence. Like alcohol, the problems set in when the pattern becomes consistent. Ironically, stress can also cause people to skip meals and this simply increases the problem and the desire to snack. So, don’t skip meals, move the comfort foods out of the way and check yourself before you snack – are you really hungry or are you dealing with stress? 

Cigarette smoking is something of an old chestnut when it comes to stress relief. Ask a smoker the reasons they smoke and you’re almost guaranteed to find stress relief on the list. In fact the relief that comes from smoking lies in the fact that it satisfies the addiction. Nicotine actually increases anxiety, so the tensions smokers feel between cigarettes is due to the reduction in the effects of nicotine.