Stress is a pain.
It causes real-life health issues. It decreases mental focus. It destroys productivity. It eliminates morale and engagement. It is often ignored.
I’ve personally taken a few rides on the stress carousel. While in the middle of the ride, it felt like all of the problems were my own and I was bringing it all on myself. Once I finally broke through, I could see how much of the stress was from misaligned expectations and lack of communication (quite a bit on my part).
For me, the mental anguish brought on by stress is the worst part. Stress makes you feel like the worst person in the world. You have all of these obligations you are trying to live up to but, because of the stress they are causing, you are unable to perform them. It’s the ultimate ironic Catch-22. You get the obligations because you’ve done good work but then you can’t do further good work because you don’t have the skills to handle this suddenly overwhelming workload.
Most people I know have simply tried to work through it. The logic is that eventually the workload will stabilize and the stress will go away. Stress doesn’t work like that, it’s not a logic-based condition.
What am I trying to say? Good question.
Self-reflection and honesty with others is the only sure-fire cure for stress that I’ve found. Everyone has gone through it, so sympathy is often plentiful.