Stress

For many high achievers (i.e. lawyers, doctors, nurses, bankers, traders, entrepreneurs, executives, grad-students, etc.), stress feels like a constant companion.  It is there from the moment you wake, to and throughout your sleep.  Stress can feel so dominating that the moments of lower or no stress feel so foreign that the unfamiliarity sometimes breeds even more.  You might find yourself thinking: “This is too good/calm/quiet.  When is the other shoe going to drop?”

This kind of dominating stress is the problematic kind – “Chronic Stress.”  However, it is not the only kind.  There is another kind, called “Optimum Stress”, which is kind of that helps you perform.  As many high achievers have probably already noticed, there are certain stressful moments in which we are able to focus and perform at our best; these are times of Optimum Stress.  Unfortunately, these are usually few and far between.

Psychotherapy tailored to the high achiever helps manage your experience so that you can thrive under stressful situations.  It sets high achievers like you up for success by training your brain to spend more time in the beneficial “Optimum Stress” range, and less time in the problematic “Chronic Stress” zone.

Unhealthy stress can be tough for the high achiever to identify because it can easily become the norm rather than the exception. Does this sound like you? If it does, take a moment our of your busy day and reach out to set up an appointment.

Unhealthy Stress Symptoms

• Are you dreading opening your emails or avoiding them all together?
• Is your voicemail full consecutive days at a time?
• Do you find yourself stating at the computer/phone screen or page and wonder what you were just reading?
• Do you have trouble falling asleep at night without pharmaceutical help?
• Do you have difficulty falling back to sleep at night after waking because you are stuck in a thought loop?
• Do you forget to eat?
• Do you regulalry eat to relax?
• Do you regularly eat/drink/shop to help you focus?
• Do you lash out at your loved ones at least a few times per week?
• Do you avoid your loved ones because you “need to focus on work?”