Understanding Stress: A Conversation with Savannah Smith, LCSW

Feeling constantly on edge, like you're waiting for the next shoe to drop? You're not alone. Stress affects everyone—but understanding it and learning to manage it can make a big difference.

Licensed clinical social worker Savannah Smith explains stress as a natural response and how to recognize it through signs like irritability, fatigue, and overwhelm. Awareness, she says, is the crucial first step to addressing it.

Smith shares simple, effective coping tools—from adult coloring books to flexible routines—and uses a helpful analogy: trying to handle every stressor at once is like carrying open boxes. Things spill. Tackle one box at a time.

She also reframes self-care as essential, not selfish: “If we don’t take care of ourselves, it’s hard to take care of anyone else.”

Whether you're facing work stress, family demands, or just the chaos of everyday life, this episode offers clear, practical guidance. Listen now—your future self will thank you. Subscribe today for more health insights.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the MedLink Health Connections
podcast.
Today we're joined by SavannahSmith, a licensed clinical
social worker and behavioralhealth clinical lead at our
Colbert office.
Savannah has been working withMedLink since 2021 and provides
therapy to patients ages fourand up.
Today we're talking all aboutstress, something that affects

(00:22):
us all.
Savannah, can you start off byexplaining what is stress and
why it happens?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
So stress is just a natural human response to
difficult situations.
You know it can be lots ofdifferent situations that can
cause it.
A lot of times it can be inregards to feeling overwhelmed
or having multiple stressors atone time, but it's basically
just a reaction to difficultsituations or things that are

(00:53):
maybe out of our normal,sometimes as well.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Okay, what are some common signs that someone is
experiencing high levels ofstress?
Experiencing high levels ofstress.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
So irritability can be a big one.
Fatigue, not wanting to dothings that you normally enjoy
doing, isolating yourself alittle bit, just kind of feeling
on edge.
Just that sense of being onedge all the time, kind of

(01:25):
feeling like you're alwayswaiting for another shoe to drop
, or that you always feel likesomething else is about to
happen because there's been somany stressors going on.
Those are some common things.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
And if someone recognizes these signs in
themselves, what are some copingskills that they can use to
manage their stress?

Speaker 2 (01:38):
So the first one is just being aware of it, which
sounds really simple, but isbeing aware of oh my goodness, I
think I'm actually morestressed than normal so that you
can then know how to helpyourself.
The next thing would be to makesure you're taking time for
yourself.
I know everybody has busy liveskids, work, other activities

(02:02):
but making sure that you havetime to just go on a walk or
take a bath or read a book orplay a video game, things you
enjoy doing that are not relatedto the stressors.
And then things like journalingcan be helpful, or drawing or
just doing things that allow youto relax a little bit.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Maybe some coloring.
I love a good coloring book.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Oh, coloring is great and they also have, obviously,
coloring books for kids, butthey also have a ton of adult
coloring books now that are alot of fun.
So those kind of things can begreat.
Things that don't require us touse the part of our brain that
has to do with the stressors ishelpful, but things that do

(02:52):
require some brain power towhere we're focusing on
something else, that can bereally helpful.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
So, with that being said, you know being aware that
you are stressed out or thatthat may be the cause.
What are some ways that we canidentify those root causes?
Because I feel like sometimeseven me personally if I'm
stressed out, it seems like somuch is going on at once that

(03:19):
you kind of lose track of maybewhat's the root cause of it all?

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Absolutely track of, maybe what's the root cause of
it all, absolutely so.
One of the things I always tellpeople is kind of paying
attention to when we feel themost stressed.
Do we feel most stressed in themorning?
Do we feel most stressed atlunchtime?
Do we feel most stressed whenwe're trying to get ready?
Do we feel most stressed whenwe're trying to go to bed and

(03:44):
feeling we can't turn our brainoff because we've got so much
stuff going on and all of ourto-do lists.
When is the time the stressseems to be the most?
That's one way of kind oftrying to figure out what the
common stressor is.
Also, is the stressor more whenyou're at a certain place or

(04:04):
around certain people, lookingat those kinds of things, of
paying attention of, hey, whenam I feeling that feeling in my
body of where I'm getting tenseand when I just feel really
stressed, and paying attentionto when that's happening and
that can help figure out, okay,what's the root of this, where

(04:26):
is it kind of coming from andwhen do I feel most stressed?

Speaker 1 (04:30):
So what are some daily habits that can help
reduce stress, like, can youknow, making sure that you kind
of have a daily routine, kind ofhelp this, or do you think it
might add more?

Speaker 2 (04:43):
stress on you.
No, I'm a huge fan of dailyroutines.
So now, with everything, youhave to be cautious about it.
You don't?
You know, if we have a dailyroutine to the point of like we
have to be doing this by 1202and then have to be doing
something else by 1217, that'sgoing to potentially cause more
stress.

(05:04):
But having routines of likeevery day I take time to read
and I go on a walk, and if youknow I exercise or I eat well,
or you know having things inthere that are healthy daily
habits that can actually berejuvenating for us or that we

(05:24):
can enjoy that's not just allabout addressing stressors can
actually be really, reallyhelpful and it's really
important to be consistent withthose routines.
So if we're, you know, if weknow we enjoy, you know,
watching television, allowingourselves to do that, but does
that mean we're not going to doour other things that we need to
do, but allowing us to havetime to do those things we enjoy

(05:47):
doing?

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yeah, I personally lately have noticed that around
eight o'clock I'm like, ok, it'stime for me to play my video
games, right, that's what I am.
Anything I'm doing.
I'm like I'm, I'm gonna justtake a moment and I'm gonna do
this specifically, at least foran hour, just because I know I
enjoy it and I feel better frommy day when I do that well, that

(06:10):
also allows people, whenthey're doing it at night, to
have a wind down time.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
So that's also another really helpful thing.
So when you're having, let'ssay, video games or reading or
whatever, that thing of choiceis right.
It allows your body to know ohokay, when I start playing video
games, that means I'm startingto wind down, we're not working
on the stressor step anymore,we're allowing ourself to wind
down and that lets our body knowokay, we're heading towards

(06:37):
time to go to sleep.
When we're dealing withstressors right up until the
time to go to bed, it can makeit harder to go to sleep because
our brain doesn't know when toturn off.
If that, makes sense.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
No, that makes perfect sense.
Now, that makes me feel lessguilty for being like okay, I'm
going to do this because I wantto do this.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
But also remembering too.
I think sometimes people thinkit's selfish to like have
self-care.
It's actually not.
It's actually really important,um, because if we're not having
our self-care, then people aremore likely to be more stressed
and eventually for it to lead toburnout, um, and it makes it
harder to care for other people.

(07:17):
So I always tell people, caringfor yourself is actually
ultimately caring for otherpeople as well, because if we
don't take care of ourselves,it's hard to take care of anyone
else.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
Um?
So, all of this being said, howcan someone benefit from
talking to you about theirstress?

Speaker 2 (07:35):
So sometimes it's just really helpful to have a
person that is not involved umin someone's personal life.
So therapists are objective.
We don't um know our patientspersonally.
So having an objective personto just be able to talk to and
know that you're not going toget judged or have outside

(08:01):
feelings about it, because we'reable to look at it from
objective point of view anddon't have personal emotions in
it since we're not personallyinvolved I think that can be
really helpful.
My last question for you is whatis one piece of advice you wish
everyone knew about managingstress, to try to do one thing

(08:21):
at a time.
I know that that's a hard thingto do, but I always give the
analogy to people of thinking oflike boxes when you're moving.
Give the analogy to people ofthinking of like boxes when
you're moving.
If you have all the boxes openand try to put them on the
little dolly thing that you useto move stuff all those boxes

(08:42):
everything's going to fall outright If they're not taped close
, right.
So if we have all of our lifestressor boxers open at the same
time so like work bills, familycar care, finances all of those
things are open all at the sametime Then it's really hard to
focus on one thing, and it's ittends to be more overwhelming.

(09:03):
So trying to focus on onestressor as much as we can, so
like okay, I'm going to pay mybills and then I'll look at the
next thing, right?
So trying to break it down alittle bit tends to be helpful
as opposed to like trying tohandle a bunch of them all at
once.
I know with our lives sometimesit's hard to do one thing at a

(09:26):
time, but just trying to bemindful of it.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Awesome.
Well, thank you so much forjoining me today.
I think you gave a lot ofadvice and great insights on
stress.
I know personally I'm like okay, noted.
But thank you so much forjoining me and thank you so much
for doing this for me.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Thank you for tuning in to the MedLink Health
Connections podcast.
We hope you found today'sepisode informative and
inspiring.
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Remember, the informationshared in this podcast is for
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medical advice.

(10:12):
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Until next time, stay healthyand take care.