Stress is common in our lives due to the type of society that we live in and both men and women experience it at different levels. Men and women also handle stress in different ways as well. Generally a man is going to handle a stressor on one of two different ways either it's “fight” or “flight” The fight manner is usually when they feel they need to solve the problem immediately or find some process in which it can be taken care of over time but still it's something that they must do immediately. The flight way though is for them to try and avoid the problem altogether. Either way, there are times when the stress might get to be too much and there are ways that you can help your man deal with the stress that is in his life.
A good guide is to let your man's actions guide you in how to react. Try avoid doing the same thing you might do for your best girlfriend. Instead do things that you know he will love. For instance you are going to want to nurture him and try and make him feel better with his favorite drink or his favorite homemade cookies, but he's not your girlfriend, who by the way would love the pampering, he is only going to think you are being pushy and an invasion of his privacy. This is not anything you've done wrong, it's just his way of coping and it's different than ours.
Another thing, don't force him to talk about what's eating at him. Men have problems with feeling and talking about how they feel at the same time. It's at a later time that they will feel more comfortable talking about how they felt and not at the time they are feeling it. A man's brain works in a compartmentalized fashion whereas a woman's brain operates in a tandem way. He can't tell you about how he feels because this means he would have to feel it, think it and talk about it all at once and this is difficult for men to do. If a man can't fix it right away they generally will just end up forgetting about it and when they say “Forget about it.” or “Don't worry.” This is because they may have simply forgot what they were stressed about in the first place.
One thing you can do though is try suggesting that maybe he have the guys over to watch some football or whatever sport that might be in season that they like to watch together. You might also suggest that they go out with a buddy and maybe shoot some hoops, play golf, or whatever helps them let out their aggressions.
Let him have his own time. Sometimes men will just want to sit and think things through by themselves without any comments from anyone else. This doesn't mean he doesn't love you it's just his way of dealing with the stress.
Just let him take care of himself. He doesn't want to be babied and he shouldn't be. This is only going to lead him to depend upon you every single time something goes wrong. It's important that he take care of himself and let him get his own feeling under control. If you try to offer too much help you may make him think that you feel he is not capable of taking care of himself.
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