Are you concerned with the long-term effects of stress on the body? If so, it is probably a good idea to know how your body is dealing with stress. There are many ways stress can affect you. There are emotional and physical, as well as behavioral signs of stress.
Here is a list of some of the forms stress takes in your body.
Emotional Signs of Stress
It is important to understand that stress can have an impact on your emotions.
Some of the more common emotional displays of stress include the following:
- You can feel overwhelmed.
- Perhaps you feel irritable at the slightest challenge.
- You get angry sometimes for no reason at all.
- You feel sad or depressed all the time.
- Are you having mood swings a lot of the time?
- And, you seem to worry and be anxious a lot.
Experts say that when we are stressed a lot, we tend to react in a big way to small things. This means that our problems can seem larger than they really are.
Each issue or challenge in our lives that we have to deal with, no matter how small, can end up being the straw that breaks the camel’s back!
Physical Signs of Stress
We are becoming to understand just how much stress can affect the whole body. We may end up experiencing digestive problems, weight gain, headaches, and even hair loss.
Here are some of the more common physical displays of stress:
- You may begin to experience digestive disorders. This can range from having diarrhea to abdominal pain and problems digesting food.
- As well you might start to see the scale creeping up when dealing with stress. As well we seem to crave more sugar and simple carbohydrates. People often experience fat around the abdominal areas as a result of stress.
- You may experience tension-type headaches as a result of stress. Medical professionals say that this is a result of muscle tension and circulatory fluctuations in the body.
- Also, many people experience hair loss that is a result of being under stress all the time.
- The heart and our circulatory system can be affected by stress. In fact, heart disease has been linked to too much stress in the body.
- If you are having trouble sleeping, you may find that insomnia is something you are dealing with as a result of stress.
- Do you find that you have a lot of illness? Do you seem to get a lot of colds? This can all be due to an exhausted immune system as a result of chronic stress.
- Pain in the body is another result of too much stress. If you seem to have a lot of neck and back pain, along with joint pain, this may also be a result of dealing with stress.
Behavioral Signs of Stress
Stress is often exhibited through behavioral changes in both adults and children.
Here is a list of some of the more common behavioral examples of stress:
- Using anger to lash out at people and pets either physically to verbally.
- Spending money you don’t really have on things you don’t really need.
- Drinking alcohol or using drugs or even smoking too much.
- Bad habits such as gambling, sleeping too much or staying up too late.
- Not participating in activities you once really enjoyed.
- Finding you are withdrawing from life in general.
Healthy Stress versus Unhealthy Stress
Yes, there is such a thing as healthy stress. Unfortunately, we can not escape having stress in our lives.
We all have to deal with stress at some point during our lifetime.
Our bodies can handle a certain amount and types of stress. In fact, we may even be able to benefit from stress.
However, there is a big difference between what is healthy stress and what is unhealthy stress.
Here is a list of stress that is considered healthy and what benefit it is to our life:
Healthy Stress Can be a Great Motivator
If we didn’t have any stress in our life we likely would never get anything done.
In fact, stress can drive you to teach your children how to show proper behavior.
Stress can cause you to earn money and be able to pay your bills.
Stress can even help you to drive safely so you don’t end up in a traffic accident.
Healthy Stress Can Cause a Proper Reaction Time
Have you ever been cut off in traffic and found yourself automatically apply pressure to the brakes! That is healthy stress causing a quick reaction time.
As well, a quick reaction when stressed could possibly save your life. When we are stressed out as in an emergency, the stress hormone adrenaline will kick in.
This allows you to act quickly and even sometimes with remarkable strength. Remember the story of the mother who moved a heavy item to get to her child?
Healthy Stress Can Stimulate Endorphins
The feel-good hormone called endorphins is there when we have pain in the body as a result of being under stress. It is a natural pain reliever.
As well, exercise is a healthy way to produce endorphin-releasing stress in your body.
While you don’t want to exercise to the point of too much pain, you can exercise by pushing yourself a little.
Also, acupuncture and massage therapy are able to stimulate the release of endorphins.
What Are Some Other Health Benefits of Stress?
Experts have found that healthy stress can actually stimulate the immune system.
They actually found anti-tumor activity in people who have healthy stress in their lives.
Here is a list of stress that is considered unhealthy and offers no benefit to our life:
Unhealthy Stress is Constant
When you experience unhealthy stress your body is not able to return to a normal energy level once the stress has passed.
In fact, when you are dealing with depression, exhaustion, and constant worry, your body sees that as unhealthy stress.
Unfortunately, unhealthy stress can take a toll on the body. In fact, it activates the stress hormone called cortisol, and you will probably see a weight gain.
When we find ways to reduce the effects of stress on the body, our health will be better.
Unhealthy Stress Weakens the Immune System
When we have to deal with stress on a constant basis, the immune system is weakened.
This can lead your body to be receptive to illnesses such as cold, but also more serious problems such as cancer.
This reason alone is why you should try to reduce the effects of stress on the body.
Unhealthy Stress Causes Worry
If you are constantly stressed out about things you don’t have control over, your body never gets time to recover.
There are certain types of stress such as paying the bills or your job, that are never going to go away.
Does it seem that one worry gets tackled and then another one pops up!
You might want to consider just accepting these little annoyances as part of your life.
Once you accept these annoyances it will go a long way to you being able to cope with the amount of unhealthy stress in your life.
Chronic Stress Can Damage Your Health Video:
Final Thoughts:
Stress is a part of our lives and it is never going to go away completely. However, there is a difference between dealing with healthy stress and unhealthy stress.
If you are having to deal with a lot of unhealthy stress you may want to consider finding some relief by taking an art class or doing a guided meditation.
Another thing to consider is having a healthy perspective. Yes, we get overwhelmed when things are going right in our lives.
However, it is very important that you take a look at what you can handle and what can be put off for a bit.
Keeping a healthy perspective by reminding yourself that some decisions can wait. Also, you can create the life you want to live by asking the question: will this really matter in five years?
Another thing you can do is to be kind to yourself. By being kind to yourself you can reduce the effects of stress on the body.
