Stress Awareness Month 2026 – How Stress can Impact the Family Unit and How to ‘Be the Change’

We all face stress from time to time and sometimes this is a good thing – it can help motivate us, hone our focus and drive us to achieve. But when stress becomes too much, it can not only affect us as individuals, but also the people around us, often creating a ripple effect across the family unit. High levels of stress frequently come hand in hand with issues such as financial pressures, mental health difficulties, parenting challenges, sleep struggles and addiction.

Stress can impact families in many ways – it can lead to breakdowns in communication, cause instability and a lack of routine and pass feelings of tension to children, impacting their mental health, confidence, behaviour and emotional security.

Tips to reduce stress for you and your family

• Focus on open communication

• Separate work life from home life as much as possible

• Establish predictable routines around bedtime, mealtimes and family time

• Balance responsibilities to avoid burnout

• Make time for downtime as a family

• Avoid turning to unhealthy coping mechanisms

Fake Dopamine vs Real Dopamine

Dopamine is the neurochemical associated with motivation, focus and reward. It is responsible for giving us feelings of excitement and gratification. Real dopamine comes from effort-driven rewards, promoting sustained and stable motivation and pleasure, boosting motor control and healthy cognitive function. We can all get a dose of real dopamine through activities such as meditation, volunteering, reading, exercise, good sleep hygiene, getting outside and eating well. It takes some effort but it’s meaningful.

Fake dopamine however provides intense hits from artificial, high stimulation activities such as alcohol, sugar, social media, nicotine, all-night gaming and gambling. Now, the buzz we get from this kind of dopamine is immediate and effortless. BUT importantly it is always short-lived, causing us to chase that feeling which can in some cases lead to addiction.

Modern life is stressful – work is demanding, family life is a balancing act, and it can feel all too often that we are stretched beyond our means. The urge to reward ourselves with fake dopamine through unhealthy coping mechanisms is understandable but to manage stress and avoid a path to addiction for us and our families, we need to act.

Stress Awareness Month 2026 – ‘Be the Change’

April is Stress Awareness Month and this year’s theme is ‘Be the Change’. It’s all about taking action to reduce our own stress and take active steps to improve our wellbeing.

Steps you can take to reduce stress include:

• Do one de-stress activity per day

• Move your body

• Prioritise sleep

• Talk to friends and family about your worries

• Reframe negative thoughts

• Take a break from social media

• Take time to rest and recharge

• Do something you enjoy

• Seek out financial advice

• Ask for help if you need it

Stress Awareness Month is particularly relevant to the work we do at CADAS. We have dedicated family support teams in East and West Cumbria and many of the families we support experience high levels of stress linked to addiction. We help them to develop healthier coping strategies, improve sleep routines, strengthen emotional wellbeing and build resilience.

We would like to thank our wonderful funders who make the work we do possible.

If you feel you need support, know you are not alone. CADAS are here to help.

For support please call our helpline on 0800 254 56 58