A little story about stress

Your body speaks to you always. Don’t ignore the signs.

It was mental health day on October 10th, and on that same day, I got steroid injections done to my face — where a patch of facial hair stopped growing for a while — to stimulate growth.

This condition is called Alopecia Areata and relatively common (happy to share more if you have any questions).

How is this linked?

Losing a patch of hair is not a big deal in the big scheme of things, and I lucked out with this one, but it can be an issue directly related to one of our modern times' biggest killer: STRESS! That’s what the dermatologist said, and I believe her, of course.

However, here’s the strange thing — I don’t recall going through any significant stress. She reminded me that with COVID and its detrimental consequences, the world has an unbelievable amount of pressure.

It’s no secret the last 7 months have been extremely difficult

She even said that I captured this early and mentioned the consequences of stress from the last few months, and the influx of patients coming to see her over the past few weeks (skin issues only) have grown substantially.

The lag effect of stress is widely prevalent.

The obvious question is, how many of us have brushed off their mental health and have silently been suffering without really knowing or having that awareness? All because of how we are “supposed” to be over the course of this pandemic or what we “should” be like and act.

What happened to me was a wake-up call. I lead a good life, I’m grateful and generally happy. Despite being a mental health awareness advocate, I still couldn’t recognize what I may have been going through, which was more than I thought it was.

I feel very fortunate that this didn’t manifest in a bigger way than it did. I’m sharing my experience to shed light on how stress can affect people differently; sometimes, it can be more severe or even unfortunately tragic.

I recognize it was the best way I knew how to deal with stress — which was simply getting on with it, no matter what. Is that the most ideal “best” way? I’m not sure yet, but I’m learning.

It’s the best that I could do for what I knew.

Let’s ask some important questions.

If you could look back and be aware of how you handled the last few months, ask yourself:

• What are you proud of?
• What would you do differently?
• What advice would you have given yourself at the beginning of the pandemic?
• How can you help others?
• What are some early signs of stress?

Let’s start a dialogue.

Let resilience happen.