How do you recognize when you're stressed?

@Hope

So, I used to have a lot of trouble with this. I would "bury" the signs of stress, keep plowing on, stoic family and all that. We were famous for pushing ourselves hard and laughing off any of the troubles. Deny. Deny. Deny. Built up walls like Fortresses. Psychology was looked on as "quack" as a "soft science," not like reputable Engineering and Medicine. I'm getting around to the fact that even learning "vocabulary" for stress was something relatively new in my life. "Self care" was for Care Bears, not for humans.

Contrast to now: I'm finely attuned to when my thoughts start going in circles. This is my first sign of stress, overthinking something. I am an admirer of critical thinkers but there's a point where it's too much, and I've started to now "step back" at that time rather than wait for other signs of stress: physical discomfort, actual illness, extreme tiredness or apathy, or worse, anger and irritability and what I will generously call "snappiness."