Are you stressed? How to identify and treat stress?

Good thoughts, life which flows just like your mind and thoughts, good behaviour from others – all these form a part of positive attitude which bring positivity to our lives and people around us. Bursting anger, sadness, doubts, complaints with self and others and blaming others – all these negative things can bring hell to our lives. Both are two sides of the same coin, quite contrasting but form an integral part of human lives. Sometime negativity creeps into our minds without our knowledge. Slowly it leads to stress and tensions.

Before you say to yourself, “No, Why should I have stress?” ask these questions also.

1. Does joint pain affect you occasionally?

2. Do you postpone your tasks?

3. Are you less interested in sex now?

4. Do you have mood swings more often?

5. Frequent problems with stomach and digestion?

If you get ‘Yes’ answer for more than two questions above, you need to be careful. An invisible ghost has become your companion most recently. Stress may be in intense form for a short period because of some situation and it will change. You need not worry too much about this stress also known as acute stress. It’s only a trick of human body to induce pituitary gland to release adrenaline so that your mind can withstand the situation. But Chronic stress is not so.

What is chronic stress?

There are many reasons for chronic stress. It happens when one gets affected emotionally, physically or through food habits. Dissatisfaction in life, unfilled desires, anxiety, restlessness, despairs etc find space in your mind, and get deposited there like fats, giving rise to emotional stress. Physical stress is related to life style and how you sit, walk, sleep etc and their defects. Nutritional or chemical stress occurs due to poisonous substances in food. All these factors can put our mind and body in stress, which we may fail to notice.

It’s possible to detect acute stress easily, but not the case of chronic stress. We may detect it only when our life turns restless leading to diseases.

Do you have stress?

It’s not possible to detect stress in a few moments, needs a minute examination and self-assessment. Some of the common symptoms are lack of concentration, confusion, memory loss and bad response to everything. Some changes may occur in your daily habits and behaviour too. Change in food style, biting nails, lack of interest in dressing, interest in smoking and liquor are among those.

Stress can affect you emotionally too. You turn impatient. You get anxious over silly things easily and cry easily. Emotional outbursts and disturbing thoughts for even silly things are other symptoms. When a simple thing can emotionally disturb you, you lose your peace easily. You can get physically affected through headache, grey hair, aging, lack of energy, fibromyalgia and auto immune diseases as a result of stress.

The above told symptoms form the first phase of stress only. When it moves upwards to next stages, that’s not the case. Many researches have concluded that stress is a key factor leading to many dreadful diseases. Frequent stress can risk your health and cause damage your body, definitely.

Stress paves way to pain without our knowledge

Due to joint pain and muscle pain, if you approach a doctor, he may prescribe you painkillers without detecting the correct disorder such as stress and tensions. It may bring down the pain for a short time, but not giving permanent relief. You may detect the real reason years later, when you might have suffered so much for this. Yes, stress can pave way to pain without our knowledge.

How can stress turn so cruel? In the case of acute stress, adrenaline is released by body, while in the case of chronic stress, it is corticosteroid. Though this cortisol functions similar to adrenaline and alerts our body, it has some negative effects too. From anxiety to depression and from digestion issues to heart diseases, side effects are many.

Can stress lead to obesity?

Stress can lead to many diseases including obesity. Here are a few of them.

Atherothrombosis – Frequent presence of cortisol leads to this condition. Brain stroke, heart attack and peripheral arterial disease are among the end results. Due to stress also, cardiac arrest can happen. It may not due to fat deposits and block in coronary arteries. Stimulation in sympathetic nervous system (SNS) which controls many subconscious functions is the reason.

Obesity – It happens in two ways. Cortisol induces hunger which prompts the person to eat more. To overcome emptiness due to stress also, some people eat fat food more. It gives them a little bit relief. Thus they fill emptiness and loneliness of their lives with fat food leading to overweight issues.

In second case, belly is affected most. If you are prone to frequent stress, your brain makes certain precautions. In the fear of famine (dated back to the social life of our ancestors where famine was the main cause of worry), brain gives message to deposit fat around stomach. In short, your belly and surrounding areas turn fat, and it’s not fat, but actually stress.

Insomnia or sleeplessness – Cortisol keeps our body vigilant always, and keeps it awake. When you are in frequent stress, cortisol is also released frequently which affects sleep.

Depression – Frequent stress can slowly slip into depression. Cortisol can influence those portions of your brain which controls your mood.

From where does this stress come from?

There are three things in common – personal life, professional life and time management.

Personal life – In a research survey conducted by Hayward university, it was concluded that more than diabetics, blood pressure and cholesterol, relations in life influence the health of a person. The relations include family relationships, friends and social life. It’s good to have healthy relations in life, which can relieve our tensions and problems. But how can relations affect our life?

When expectations from a loving person never meet reality, it puts us in pressure. Infidelity and insecurity in relations and our pretention /acting before others to impress others or behaving before others what we are really not can all lead to these issues.

In reality, though relations can give us stress, they form an inseparable part of our lives. Best thing is to do experiments with the relations and change a few perspectives of ours. Never expect too much from others, or expect the same from others which you give. You should be certain in your relations and take clear cut decisions, rather than staying in confusions. It frees your mind from emotions a lot.

Professional life – Even if you are getting income, you may feel bored over repeated tasks. If your job is highly dissatisfying, it can also lead to stress. Target pressure can kill all your happiness. You should clearly give preference to your personal tastes while choosing a career. Then only you find pleasure in the job with which you are associated with. Money and social status just follows.

Time management – Time management is the key to success, and if you fail in this matter, stress is the after effect. When you didn’t get sufficient time to complete a task, it gives stress, and you may not able to complete the task perfectly even if you are an expert.

Never postpone tasks, and give preference to key tasks during your active working hours. Never take too many responsibilities on your shoulders if you are not confident to complete it in the stipulated time. Stress will diminish automatically. Try to wake up early. It gives you a feel that you have plenty of time, enough to cool your mind.

How to get rid of stress?

Exercises: You can choose physical exercises of any type. It can relief your stress a lot. Yoga, meditation and breathing exercises give easy results.

Vagus nerve activation: Vagus nerves are present on either sides of neck. To induce these nerves, take breath with stomach, instead of chest. Your mind finds peace. You can do it in both sitting and laying posture.

Production of oxytocin: The love hormone – Oxytocin is the enemy of stress. Food with eggs, banana and black pepper together or a hot embrace can improve the production of oxytocin. Yes, an embrace can relief stress a lot.

Good relations: Always choose relations which give positivity and keep negative people with negative thoughts at bay. Try to mingle with family members and friends in a better way, and develop healthy social relations. Also give a helping hand for others. It gives you happiness and satisfaction in life too. It improves health and longevity.

Image source: Pixabay

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