Occasional stresses often mobilize all our reserves and help to achieve a result, quickly solve a problem. However, if the stress is very strong and drags on over time, the body begins to work for wear, the nervous system suffers, and immunity decreases. As a result, chronic diseases can occur – these are heart and thyroid diseases, diabetes, psoriasis, hypertension, bronchial asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, obesity, eczema, depression
What is stress
Stress is a normal physical reaction to events that make you feel threatened or upset your balance in some way.
Brief stress can increase mental activity. For example, it keeps you tense during a presentation at work, exacerbates your concentration when you try to win a game during a free throw, or makes you take an exam rather than watch TV. But after a certain limit, stress ceases to be useful and begins to cause major damage to your health, mood, working capacity, your attitude, and the quality of your life.
Comparing stress with a car, you can understand how you react to a tense situation:
“Foot on the brake” – suspended or depressed.
A person is closed from the surrounding space and shows very little energy and emotions.
“Foot on the gas” – angry or excited.
A person is in full swing, he is uptight, overly emotional, and unable to sit still.
“Feet on both pedals” – tense and constrained.
A person is “frozen” under the pressure of stress and cannot do anything. The man looks paralyzed, but inside is very excited.
It is important not only to learn how to properly respond to stressful situations but also to learn to recognize when physiological signs of traumatic stress. The most dangerous thing is that excessive stress can easily sneak up on you. You get used to it. It begins to feel like a familiar or even normal condition.
Stress symptoms in short-term
By its nature, stress is an adaptive response, that is, helping the body adapt to changing environmental conditions. If such stress is not constant, then it is called eustress or positive stress. It is a natural reaction of the body associated with instincts, reflexes, and emotions. Symptoms of being stressed out, in this case, is short-lived and not dangerous.
Сommon symptoms of stress are:
- Bouts of anger, irritability, hostility, impatience, anxiety or depression;
- Cases of increased pressure, heart palpitations, sweating of the palms, dry mouth, dizziness, migraine, lack of air, chest pain, cold in the palms or feet;
- A frequent sense of danger, the anticipation of failure.
Any emotional outburst can be a source of stress. At the same time, the stability of the body increases, there is a mobilization of energy resources, providing resistance to the body.
Long term stress symptoms
In the case of chronic stress, the body is forced to mobilize adaptation resources for a long time. As a result, sensitivity to infections increases accelerates cell aging, contributes to the development of the metabolic syndrome and obesity.
Overstressed symptoms include the following:
- Fatigue does not leave you, even after a vacation. In this case, fatigue is observed, both physical and psychological;
- There is no joy in communicating with loved ones, friends, or colleagues. There is no desire to see anyone and every day this feeling increases;
- You feel dissatisfaction with yourself, appearance. The feeling of hopelessness and self-doubt does not leave;
- There are health problems. It can be expressed in chronic fatigue, headaches, insomnia;
- It is difficult to concentrate on something; memory begins to deteriorate;
- There is a feeling of irritation and anger at all and at oneself.
Another hyper stress symptoms are cognitive decline: the ability to perceive and process information. It becomes difficult to concentrate on something, to learn something new – memory is disturbed, which is especially strongly reflected in the work of those who are engaged in mental work.
Distress can occur not only as a result of prolonged and negative effects on the body, but also as a result of their own negative assessment of what is happening. In this case, the person concentrates on the problem and cannot find a way out of the situation. As a result, the body is being overstressed and is not able to adequately respond to the situation.
How to increase resistance to stress
Our perception of a stressful situation depends on the level of self-esteem, general physiological and mental state, temperament. But even a melancholic can work out his early warning signs of stress, reactions to a stressful situation and learn how to react to them correctly with minimal damage to himself.
To strengthen your psycho-emotional health is enough:
- To live an active lifestyle;
- Eat foods enriched with vitamins;
- Try to find a job to your liking;
- Get enough sleep;
- Refuse alcoholic beverages, do not use drugs;
- Spend more time in the fresh air, relax in nature;
- Limit yourself to caffeine (coffee, strong black tea);
- Do not watch or listen to something that is causing trouble (films, music, news);
- To monitor his child – what he reads and watches, to limit him from the information of a violent, otherworldly and occult nature;
- Share your experiences with friends or relatives you trust;
Everyone can distinguish between short-term stress and hyper stress symptoms long-term stress. Such “shocks” pass by themselves and are easily eliminated. So such a stressful effect could well be beneficial.