Stress Overview
Stress is a normal reaction the body has when negative changes occur, resulting in physical, emotional and intellectual responses. It is a natural feeling of not being able to cope with specific demands and events. It is the feeling of being overwhelmed or unable to cope with mental or emotional pressure.
These demands can come from work, relationships, financial pressures, and other situations, but anything that poses a real or perceived challenge or threat to a person’s well-being can cause stress.
Stress can be a motivator, and it can even be essential to survival. The body’s fight-or-flight mechanism tells a person when and how to respond to danger.
However, when the body becomes triggered too easily, or there are too many stressors at one time, it can undermine a person’s mental and physical health and become harmful.
What is Stress?
Stress is the body’s natural defense against predators and danger. It causes the body to flood with hormones that prepare its systems to evade or confront danger. People commonly refer to this as the fight-or-flight mechanism.
When humans face a challenge or threat, they have a partly physical response. The body activates resources that help people either stay and confront the challenge or get to safety as fast as possible.
Chemical Reaction
The body produces larger quantities of the chemicals cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. These trigger the following physical reactions:
- increased blood pressure
- heightened muscle preparedness
- sweating
- alertness
These factors all improve a person’s ability to respond to a potentially hazardous or challenging situation. Norepinephrine and epinephrine also cause a faster heart rate.
Environmental Factors
Environmental factors that trigger this reaction are called stressors. Examples include noises, aggressive behavior, a speeding car, scary moments in movies, or even going out on a first date. Feelings of stress tend to increase in tandem with the number of stressors.
According to the American Psychological Association (APA)’s annual stress survey in 2018, average stress levels in the United States were 4.9 on a scale from 1 to 10. The survey found that the most common stressors were employment and money.
Signs and Symptoms of Stress
Following are the common signs and symptoms of stress:
- Headaches: Stress can trigger and intensify tension headaches
- Increased Depression: Chronic stress can wear you down emotionally and lead to depression
- Heartburn: Stress increases the production of stomach acid which can lead to heartburn or make it worse
- High Blood Pressure: Stress hormones tightens blood vessels which results in raise in blood pressure.
- Rapid Breathing: When a person is stressed, the muscles that help you breath tense up, which can lead to shortness of breath
- Risk of Heart Attack: Increased heart rate and high blood pressure damage the arteries over time, which can lead to a heart attack.
- Stomachache: Stress affects the body’s digestive system, which can lead to stomachache (abdominal pain), nausea and other stomach problems
- Insomnia: Stress makes it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep, which can lead to insomnia
Other Symptoms
- Low Sex Drive: Stress and fatigue that often comes with it, can take a toll on your libido
- Erectile Dysfunction: The brain plays and important part in the process of getting an erection. Stress can interfere with this process
- Missed Periods: Fluctuating hormones can throw your normal menstrual cycle off, or in severe cases stop it altogether
- Fertility Problems: Stress interferes with the reproductive system in both men and women, and may make it harder to conceive.
- Anger or aggressive behavior
- Weakened Immune system: Long-term stress weakens your immune system’s defenses, leaving the person more vulnerable to infections
- Tense Muscles: Stress makes muscles tense up, and chronic stress can lead to tension related headaches and backaches
If the stress response doesn’t stop firing, and these stress levels stay elevated far longer than is necessary for survival, it can take a toll on your health.
Chronic stress can cause a variety of symptoms and affect persons overall well-being.
Common Symptoms of Chronic Stress
Following are some of the common symptoms of chronic stress:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Frustration
- Fear
- Headaches
- Insomnia
- Irritability
- Panic attacks
- Sadness
Unhealthy Behavior
Often, individuals with chronic stress try to manage it with unhealthy behaviors, including:
- Drinking too much or too often
- Gambling
- Overeating or developing an eating disorder
- Participating compulsively in sex, shopping or internet browsing
- Smoking
- Using drugs
Types of Stress
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) recognize two types of stress:
- Acute Stress
- Chronic Stress
These require different levels of management.
The NIMH also identify three examples of types of stressor:
- Routine stress, such as childcare, homework, or financial responsibilities
- Sudden, disruptive changes, such as a family bereavement or finding out about a job loss
- Traumatic stress, which can occur due to extreme trauma as a result of a severe accident, an assault, an environmental disaster, or war
Acute Stress
This type of stress is short-term and usually the more common form of stress. Acute stress often develops when people consider the pressures of events that have recently occurred or face upcoming challenges in the near future.
For example, a person may feel stressed about a recent argument or an upcoming deadline. However, the stress will reduce or disappear once a person resolves the argument or meets the deadline.
Acute stressors are often new and tend to have a clear and immediate solution. Even with the more difficult challenges that people face, there are possible ways to get out of the situation.
Acute stress does not cause the same amount of damage as long-term, chronic stress. Short-term effects include tension headaches and an upset stomach, as well as a moderate amount of distress.
However, repeated instances of acute stress over an extended period can become chronic and harmful.
Chronic Stress
This type of stress develops over a long period and is more harmful.
Ongoing poverty, a dysfunctional family, or an unhappy marriage are examples of situations that can cause chronic stress. It occurs when a person can see no way to avoid their stressors and stops seeking solutions. A traumatic experience early in life may also contribute to chronic stress.
Chronic stress makes it difficult for the body to return to a normal level of stress hormone activity, which can contribute to problems in the following systems:
- Cardiovascular
- Respiratory
- Sleep
- Immune
- Reproductive
Stress Increases Risk of Other Diseases
A constant state of stress can also increase a person’s risk of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD),, can develop when stress becomes chronic.
Chronic stress can continue unnoticed, as people can become used to feeling agitated and hopeless. It can become part of an individual’s personality, making them constantly prone to the effects of stress regardless of the scenarios that they encounter.
People with chronic stress are at risk of having a final breakdown that can lead to suicide, violent actions, a heart attack, or stroke.
Causes of Stress
People react differently to stressful situations. What is stressful for one person may not be stressful for another, and almost any event can potentially cause stress. For some people, just thinking about a trigger or several smaller triggers can cause stress.
There is no identifiable reason why one person may feel less stressed than another when facing the same stressor. Mental health conditions, such as depression, or a building sense of frustration, injustice, and anxiety can make some people feel stressed more easily than others.
Previous experiences may affect how a person reacts to stressors.
Triggers
Common major life events that can trigger stress include:
- Job issues or retirement
- Bereavement
- Family problems
- Illness
- Lack of time or money
- Moving home
- Relationships, marriage, and divorce
Other Common Causes
Following are some of the sther commonly reported causes of stress:
- Abortion or pregnancy loss
- Driving in heavy traffic or fear of an accident
- Excessive noise, overcrowding, and pollution
- Fear of crime or problems with neighbors
- Pregnancy and becoming a parent
- Uncertainty or waiting for an important outcome
Some people experience ongoing stress after a traumatic event, such as an accident or some kind of abuse. Doctors will diagnose this as PTSD.
Those who work in stressful jobs, such as the military or the emergency services, will have a debriefing session following a major incident, and occupational healthcare services will monitor them for PTSD.
Diagnosis of Stress
Stress is subjective and cannot be measured by tests. Only the person experiencing it can determine whether is it present and how severe it feels. A doctor may use questionnaires to understand your stress and how it affects your life. If you have chronic stress, your healthcare provider can evaluate symptoms that result from stress. For example, high blood pressure can be diagnosed and treated.
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