Physical Effects of Stress

[reohn2]

I think stress has many sources and isn't always easy to either recognise,cure or cope with.
IMO the worst thing the OP can do to cope with stress is to set goals on the bike,measuring one's performance if you're stressed is a recipe for more stress,that leads to even more stress and so the vicious circle begins.
Flinders has it right IMO by saying that the act of cycling and the concentration just of cycling is a great help,it's one of the many forms of Mindfulness,the non thought within thought if that's not an obscure concept,it's the being in the now excluding all else,but whatever it is we're doing.
Let the future take care of itself,equally so let what's past remain there,now is all we have and itself is transient.
Sorry if that seems 'new agey' but it's the truth and a truth we aren't always consciously aware of,bringing thinking into the now relieves the mind of other things which overload it,and can be left until they're reached,I find this 'now' relieves 'then'.

[djnotts]

Stress, depressed and (clinical) depression are very different things. "Stressed" covers a multitude of situations - and can be a positive force. "Depressed" can include a perfectly rational reaction to events, personal (e.g. not being able to ride) or wholly external (e.g. the rise of the far right). "Depression" is an illness which at the extreme is totally debilitating or even fatal. I often feel "depressed" but living for 46 years with someone who has suffered from chronic acute depression since her early teens - 10 years before I knew her - means I never confuse the two.

[landsurfer]

I become extremely tired.
For the past 12 months i have been leading a major rail project. On at least half a dozen occasions i have returned home, sat down and "passed out " with fatigue. My wife has had to wake me to go to bed ...
Alex , my software engineer has also had the same symptoms.
Our days are not physically taxing, but mentally.
Never happened before .....

[reohn2]

I become extremely tired.
For the past 12 months i have been leading a major rail project. On at least half a dozen occasions i have returned home, sat down and "passed out " with fatigue. My wife has had to wake me to go to bed ...
Alex , my software engineer has also had the same symptoms.
Our days are not physically taxing, but mentally.
Never happened before .....

I think that's fatigue pure and simple but IME can lead to burn out if you can't see an end to it.