Living with one or more disabilities often comes with unique stress-inducing challenges that affect your life in substantial ways. According to the CDC, people with disabilities experience more mental distress than non-disabled people.
If you’re not managing your stress levels and coping in healthy ways, you could find it harder to achieve and maintain a good quality of life. This is why stress management is so important.
In this article, we’ll cover stress management for people with disabilities and stress reduction techniques you can implement starting today.
Signs You May Be Overly Stressed
Believe it or not, mild to moderate stress isn’t necessarily bad. In fact, it can help motivate you to succeed and strive for more. But there’s a fine line between healthy stress and unhealthy stress. When stress becomes severe and debilitating, you need to take action.
Some of the most common physical signs of stress in people with disabilities include running away, drinking, rocking, yelling/screaming, throwing, and rocking. Mental stress signs include confusion, depression, slow thinking, talkativeness, distraction, and withdrawal. It’s important to know that everyone may process stress a bit differently, regardless of disability status.
What is Stress Management, and How Can It Help Individuals with Disabilities?
Stress management tactics don’t seek to eliminate all types of stress – that’d be unrealistic, considering the inherent issues people with disabilities deal with. But what stress management can do is make it easier to cope with stress. With ongoing effort, you could improve your mood, build resilience, strengthen relationships, boost your productivity, and even enhance your physical health.
Top At-Home Stress Reduction Techniques for People with Disabilities
Now that you’ve got a solid understanding of what stress is, how it presents, and more. Now, it’s time to get into some at-home stress reduction techniques:
- Increase your activity levels under the supervision of your physician.
- Practice mindfulness exercises deep breathing, meditation, and counting to foster awareness and better manage emotions.
- Devote more time to a hobby you enjoy, whether it be painting, singing, or playing an instrument.
- Take self-care more seriously – get enough rest, eat well, etc.
- Ask for help when needed, and don’t be afraid to say “no.”
- Limit alcohol and drug use.
- Join a virtual or in-person disability group and talk to someone in a similar situation.
- Consider speaking with a mental health professional if the stress becomes too much to manage on your own.
We chose the above techniques because they can be adapted to most people’s physical or mental limitations. Feel free to tweak any of these activities/techniques to accommodate your disability.
Get Stress Management Help Through Support Coordination
The stress reduction techniques we’ve mentioned in this article could improve your life. But it’s not uncommon to run into issues on your road to better mental health. Remember that you can turn to Medicaid support coordination agencies and team members when stress becomes a persistent issue. They are your advocates in the healthcare sphere and have the resources to help you obtain the additional support you need.
