Live Life Team
Stress is an individual’s response or feeling when he is placed under pressure. Although pressure to an extent can be constructive and motivational, prolonged and excessive pressure can become counter-productive as it can lead to harmful stress. Each individual has a different reaction to a pressure situation depending on their stress threshold. However, it is a fact that extreme stress can affect mind and body leading to mental, emotional and physical problems.
Stress chemicals
In a stressful situation, the body releases certain chemicals like adrenaline, non-adrenaline and cortisol which evoke the feelings of either facing or escaping the situation to manage the situation. However, if the situation does not offer options of “fighting or flighting” these chemicals do not get used up. These chemicals get accumulated and have harmful effects on the body. Amassing of non-adrenaline and adrenaline leads to hypertension, increased heart rate and excessive sweating. Accumulation of cortisol releases sugar and fat into the bloodstream and adversely affects the functioning of the body’s immune system.
Symptoms of stress
Different individuals have subjective ways of acting and reacting to stress. There are various mental and physical signs which show up due to the building up of stress chemicals in the body, these are outlined in the below list:
Mental and emotional symptoms:
- Lack of focus
- Problems with sleep (mental)
- Behavioural changes
- Feeling of exhaustion and fatigue
- Nervousness
- Loss of appetite
- Feeling of anger and dejection
- Craving for food
- Feeling of crying
- Physical symptoms
- Digestive disorders like diarrhoea or constipation
- Muscular spasms or cramps
- Pain in chest
- Giddiness
- Spells of fainting or collapsing
- Nervous convulsions
- Biting of nails
- Restlessness
- Numbness and prickling
- Difficulty in sleeping (physical)
- Increased sweating
- Shortness of breath
- Muscle pains and aches
- Sex-related disorders like erectile dysfunction or lack of desire
- Anxiety and depression
- Prolonged experience of these symptoms can increase risks of developing hypertension which can progress into strokes and heart attacks.
When one is undergoing these symptoms, one feels frustrated and depressed and wants to get out of the phase. However, a feeling of crying and convulsions can exert more pressure on one’s mental state, leading to further mounting of the situation, thus making it like a vicious circle.
Causes of stress
Each individual has a unique reaction to a stressful situation. What might be a cause of stress for one might not be stressful to another. Therefore, there can be a gamut of causes and triggers which lead to stress. In some cases, it could be a thought that creates stress and in other cases, it could be an accumulation of pent up feelings which have an outcome in stress.
In some people, there may not be any triggers or causes for stress, but they still feel stressful. The reason is that it is innate to them to get more depressed, anxious and frustrated than other people.
A few common causes that lead to stress are listed below:
- Financial matters
- Job-related problems
- Social and family issues
- Relationships
- Grief or sorrow
- Shifting house
