How does stress harm both the body and the mind?

For many years now, medical doctors have been warning people of the dangers of poor stress management.

Many people still believe that stress doesn’t affect the body and it’s “just a state of mind”. What the majority of stress individuals do not know is that the body’s natural stress response is mainly a physiological event.

This means that the effects of stress have never been limited to our minds. When a person is stressed, his whole body experiences it, too. So the idea that stress is essentially harmless because it’s somehow limited to our imagination is actually a dangerous belief.

Why? Because a person who experiences chronic stress for many, many years has a much higher risk of making health conditions such as high blood pressure worse. So if you want to be physically healthier, you have to understand how stress actually affects the body.

How does stress come about?

The modern stress model gives us a simple and clear explanation of how physiological stress is roused:

1^st Phase: Mental and Emotional Triggers are Engaged. A person perceives an event, situation, action or idea as negative and stressful.

2^nd Phase: Psychological Stress Engaged. If a person does not arrest his emotions and negative thinking, the present situation causes psychological stress.

3^rd Phase: Physiological Stress or “Fight or Flight” Response: Unmitigated psychological stress often leads to actual, physiological stress.

When the instinctual “fight or flight” response comes into play, a person feels an immediate surge of adrenaline, which temporarily increases a person’s speed, strength and stamina.

A person’s breathing rate and pulse rate also increase in preparation for sudden, intense physical activity (e.g. running away from a real, physical danger).

***

Stress normally abates when the perceived threat or danger finally passes. Thousands of years ago, the instinctual “fight or flight” response was extremely useful for our hunter-gatherer ancestors as they had to battle wild animals and each other in pre-modern society.

Scientists believe that the stress adaptation came about because our ancestors were almost always exposed to threatening or dangerous situations.

 What are the signs that a person is experiencing stress?

Below are some common physical symptoms that a person is experiencing stress:

1. Inexplicable exhaustion or fatigue
2. Acute headaches that have a tendency to disrupt work or chores at home
3. Shallow chest breathing
4. Increased heart rate even when the person is not performing strenuous or challenging physical activities
5. Minor muscular pain
6. Twitches
7. Facial tics
8. Hand and arm tremors
9. A general feeling of nervousness and anxiety
10. Insomnia
11. Oversleeping
12. Inexplicable perspiring of the hands and feet
13. Turning to different substances such as caffeine, alcohol, nicotine and even recreational drugs

The list of symptoms doesn’t stop there. Here is a breakdown of the mental symptoms associated with moderate to extreme stress:

1. Short temper
2. Feeling angry all the time
3. Inexplicable mood swings
4. Feeling of isolation and helplessness
5. Short term memory problems
6. General decrease in work productivity
7. Lowered sexual desire
8. Distracted thinking

Why do people experience psychological stress?

The psychological signs of stress often manifest when a person has been under stress for a long period of time. These signs come about because the mind is trying to escape the stressful situation however it can.

This is one of the main reasons why stressed individuals are often less productive in the office.

Their minds are so sick of the prolonged stress response that their own thought patterns are preventing them from focusing on the things they have to do.

The same thing happens to university students who are overwhelmed with the nature and volume of work they have to complete to pass different course subjects.

How severe are stress-related symptoms in the general population?

In the United States alone, it is estimated that 90% of all physician visits are associated with symptoms related to chronic stress. It has also been estimated that on a monthly basis, 400 million people take medication to ease these symptoms.

Of course, we know now that medicating a stress-related symptom is a futile effort because you’re not addressing the main cause of the symptom – you’re just padding the symptom itself.

Now, it should be noted that the symptoms we discussed earlier may also be genuine signs of other health conditions (and not just stress). Consulting with your physician is still your best option if you experience symptoms such as racing heart rate or persistent headaches.

A few years back, I was fortunate to be at a conference in Sydney, “Happiness and It`s Causes” at which Martin Seligman spoke, in fact he was the keynote speaker. I was familiar with Martin`s work, having read a number of his books and completed an online course.  Mind stuff is  about how positive psychology helps to dramatically deepen faith and personal belief. It builds personal strength, personal power and ‘happiness’!

As a school teacher, Principal and Life Coach and now business entrepreneur, I have always been inspired by people of Martin`s ilk. But Martin Seligman added a significant new viewpoint about how positive psychology fits into the education system, the business world and into everyday people`s lives.

Optimism rather than pessimism! How my days became so much richer when I have an ‘intention’ at the beginning of the day to filter experiences in such a positive way!

“The inside stuff” is calmer, less volatile, better perspective is added to problems .. the day is just better!

Indeed the name of the conference “Happiness and It`s Causes” got quite a few laughs from my colleagues and friends as I remember! Smirks and cynical comments were common place! “you`re going to a conference on HAPPINESS!”

In the conference, there was a brief but significant discussion on what might have been an alternative conference title. Suggestions included, as I remember … ‘Suicide Prevention’, ‘Depression Causes and What to Do About It and “Fear From Poor Parenting”.

I`ve made up these titles, since I can`t remember the exact ones. My point however is this!  Would these titles have been met with smirks and cynical comments?  Or would there have been almost total acceptance? Because that was the world …then!

Copyright: <a href=’http://www.123rf.com/profile_dolgachov’>dolgachov / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

Martin Seligman’s recasting of psychology opened up a flourishing new field that focused on optimism rather than helplessness, signature strengths rather than pathology, and growth in happiness rather than depression.

How positive psychology can help is obvious now to many. Being optimistic and being around optimistic people is such a nice experience. And it`s so good for us … physically, emotionally, how we think, spiritually.

>>> Our consciousness is at a different level!  We interact with our world   …. better?

We, the human race, have come a long way in a short time, but still have a long way to go!!

About this blog …. til recent days was titled “Personal Development Buzz”.

I reckon “It`s The Inside Stuff” is far more appropriate title?  What do you say?

After all it is what`s inside us, mind and thinking, heart and emotions, physical well-being that so contributes to who we are on a day to day basis?  And so much more!

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Question:  So what is real happiness? How can you experience it?

How can you live it? Every thoughtful person asks such questions.

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Resource:  http://mindspirit.com/the-gospel-of-happiness-how-positive-psychology-can-help-deepen-your-faith/