Discovering the Cause of Stress in You

Posted by admin on Wednesday, August 18th 2010     

It may take some investigation, but discovering the cause of stress is the first step to learning how to handle it better. Once you can identify, as specifically as possible, the various causes of major stress in your life you can begin the healing process and learn to process the stressors in a better, healthier way. Many people are not only unaware of how to deal with the stress in their lives properly, but they are unaware of designating the cause of stress that leads them down a path of personal destruction while trying to relieve the stress.

It is important to become as informed as you can about your body and the different things it reacts to. This is because your cause of stress manifests itself physically and, in turn, affects all of the systems of the body in its own way. Stress can spread like a virus or a disease and cause a lot of problems in your body, turning a simple situation into a dangerous circumstance that could even end up being life threatening. The best way to prevent this is to stop it from occurring in the first place.

Good Stress Vs. Bad Stress

Doctors will often discuss good stress and bad stress. Good stress is what leads you to make good decisions, for example. It provides the body with an adequate reaction time for danger, raises the temperature of the body when cold, and performs all sorts of biochemical and physiological tasks that help the body cope with the physical stressors of the situation you find yourself in. This is important because it serves to be one of the very basic survival mechanisms of the human body and is responsible for our successful evolution.

Bad stress, however, is when the cause of stress is internal. If you are bringing the stress to yourself through your actions or thoughts, you are experiencing a negative form of stress; which is unhealthy. This does not help your body react or develop mechanisms; instead, it internalizes the various feelings and emotions to unleash them through the systems of the body suddenly and, often, drastically. This cause of stress is generally psychological and, ultimately, preventable through altering your mindset.

The basic way to prevent bad stress is through invoking good feelings and good emotions to your body and mind. Surround yourself with positive people and positive situations, and you will likely experience the same in your internal stress register, helping you ensure that your cause of stress is a natural, healthy one.

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Things That Cause Stress: Identifying and Eliminating Stress

Posted by admin on Friday, August 13th 2010     

When it comes to stress, some of us are such slaves to it that it tends to control us.  We can’t seem to do anything about it.  Some of us are stressed at work, and everyday we go to work just to get more stressed until we dread going to work.  Some people are stressed out at home or even stressed by their social lives.  Whatever happens to make you stressed, the key to relieving that stress is identifying what it is that makes you stressed, finding out what it is about that situation that makes you stressed, and facing it so that you are no longer a slave to the power of stress.

Not Easy

Identifying and eliminating stressors in our life may sound easy, but it is nothing of the sort.  Many things cause stress, and whatever the stressor is, you have to identify it. For instance, if you dread going to work everyday, there must be something at work that causes you stress.  Maybe you’re a salesperson and you have a pressure to perform, or maybe you’re a doctor and you feel as though you’re not good enough to help anyone.  Whatever the stress may be, you have to find out what it is.  Pinpoint the stressor as best you can, because only by identifying the thing that may cause stress can you hope to eliminate it.

When you find out what it is that may cause stress in your life, you have succeeded in half the battle.  Let’s go back to the example of the salesperson who feels pressured about getting sales.  That person has identified the stressor, and now they can work on eliminating it.  To eliminate the stress of not getting enough sales, the salesperson must focus on that stressor.  That person must be reminded that he or she is doing the best they can and that’s all they can do.  If they’re truly doing the best they can do and they’re still not getting sales, then maybe there’s something else at work that’s preventing that person from selling.  By focusing on that idea, they can just fix it, or at least they won’t waste time stressing about it.

Separate Yourself from the Situation

It sounds easy but it can be difficult when you’re the one feeling stressed.  When something tends to cause stress in your life, you have to focus on it.  Separate yourself from the situation and think of possible ways to solve your particular problem.  The important thing to do is to relax and think of the situation in a calm manner, only then can you hope to relieve that stressor.

When something tends to cause stress in our lives, we tend to try and avoid that situation.  That is not how you get rid of the stress, it’s merely a way to avoid it.  If it can’t be avoided, then it causes us more stress and it turns into a vicious cycle.  Next time you feel stressed, identify what is causing you stress and then try and eliminate it.  In no time, you’ll feel better and you’ll be more prepared to tackle any problem that comes your way.

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The Devastating Effects of Chronic Stress

Posted by admin on Tuesday, August 3rd 2010     

Chronic stress takes a serious toll on your body – it wears down your defense systems, diminishes your immunity, and damages your internal organs.

Chronic Stress and the Stress Response

When you face a threat, your hypothalamus initiates a cascade of chemicals that ultimately stimulate your adrenal glands, which release adrenergic chemicals and glucorticosteroids.

The adrenergic substances, like adrenaline, prepare your body to meet the threat.  They cause your heart to speed up and beat harder, raise your blood pressure, and make you more alert.  These powerful chemicals also divert the blood flow away from your skin, so you may feel cool and clammy, and from your digestive system. Glucorticosteroids cause your muscles to release stored energy.

Normally, when the threat is gone, the excess adrenergic hormones trigger the parasympathetic nervous system to release hormones that counteract the effects of stress hormones.  Blood is diverted back to your skin and digestive system, and you can “rest and digest.”

When you are chronically stressed, however, your stress response remains ramped up, and the stress hormones overwhelm the relaxation response.  Stress hormones are beneficial in the short term because they give us the extra boost we need to meet an emergency; however, in the long run, they are harmful.

Anabolic and Catabolic Steroids

We’ve heard a lot about steroid abuse recently, especially among athletes.  Most of the steroids they abuse are anabolic steroids, primarily testosterone, which builds muscle tissue.

Catabolic steroids, on the other hand, tear down muscle tissue.  Stress steroids are catabolic, and they make your muscles tense and use more energy and oxygen.  Stress hormones interfere with digestion, so you aren’t sending fresh energy supplies to the muscles.  They use up stored energy reserves first, and then they start breaking down the muscle cells themselves to create more energy.  Chronic stress literally “eats at you.”

Other Effects of Chronic Stress

Chronic stress ultimate injures all the organs that it stimulates.  Your heart may become excessively excitable, and you may have an irregular heart rhythm as a result.  It may be a minor irregularity, or it may be life threatening.

Chronic stress injures your arteries and contributes to the build up of cholesterol.  This can lead to heart attack or stroke.

Chronic stress affects your immune system, which makes you more susceptible to illness.  This may also increase your chance of getting certain types of cancer.

Chronic stress wears your body out.  It makes you old before your time, makes you susceptible to many serious health problems, and it shortens your life.

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