Who is this slow killer who penetrates everywhere and produces a devastating effect on the modern human being’s mental condition?
You will learn from this article of what stress is, why it is needed, and the way it affects our daily life.
How may you notice you're under the stress and what is the best way to deal with it?
Stress is a type of emotional condition characterized by increasing mental activity, which results in overloading of the nervous system and prevents the full recovery of human forces.
We recognize three forms of stress defined as a solitary stress, an acute stress and a chronic one.
A solitary stress is an emotional and mental strain which makes no severe impact on our body and passes as we adapt to the situation.
An acute stress occurs when you get information that contradicts your perceptions of the world or yourself. This form of stress manifests itself in the form of shock. You don 't realize what 's going on and start acting mechanically. Your emotions are turned off, sometimes you even fall into hysteria. Here are some examples of factors causing this form of stress: adultery, physical violence, car accidents, severe illness (yours or a relative’s one), and other force majeure circumstances.
The fact is that our psyche is a holistic structure, and any perception of information of such kind grossly invades it and causes it to shock. We need time to make sense of the event and insert it into the chain of our experiences of perceptions of the world.
A chronic stress may be lasting for month and even years. It has a cumulative effect. It is a certain state of the body, in which all reserves of the individual are involved. Factors causing this type of stress can be different. Here are some examples of it:
A constantly changing temperature of our environment (it is hot outside and cold in the room with air conditioning);
You are not satisfied with the team you have to work with (gossips, envy, scandals);
You are in a toxic relationship with your partner, and your partner uses violence against you (beats, insults, humiliates you)
You have a misunderstanding with your superiors; you do a job you don 't like; you experience constant mental or physical overexploitation; you don 't have any professional or personal growth, etc...
This stress gets accumulated day by day, and it seems to the person that he will not be able to change anything and in no way influence what is happening. This reminds me of a well-known example of "the frog in boiling water syndrome," which is based on a real experiment. The essence of it is that if throw a frog into hot water (50 degrees Celsius), it will jump out of the water immediately. But if a frog is placed into cold water, which is heated very slowly and does not pose an obvious threat to life, the frog will not even try to jump out of the pan. Without experiencing visible discomfort, the frog adapts to heated water, and starts changing its body temperature while wasting its powers. But when temperatures exceed the permissible norm and a visible danger to life appears, the frog can no longer jump out because it has already wasted all its might. It is dying...
A frog in boiling water is a metaphorical image of a person who keeps on existing in uncomfortable living conditions and still hopes that these conditions will change, that the situation will become better, although there is no objective reason for positive changes to take place.
You will be able to cope with such stress if you begin to act and change something. Nothing will change on its own! This stress grows and becomes more significant from day to day. You won’t be able to notice the moment when you will lose sensitivity, the situation will become indifferent to you, as well as your life.
So, how can you understand from external and internal manifestations that you are under stress?
What are its symptoms? I will cite some of them here:
It is difficult for you to focus on anything;
Your sleep is broken (you experience difficulties with falling asleep and you wake up broken);
You feel the desire to eat sweet, calorie, harmful food;
You feel physical weakness (lack of strength until the end of the working day);
You have headaches;
You constantly feel tired;
You have problems with concentration of attention, memory, speed of thought process;
You feel nervous, fuss, desire to control everything;
An objective “impossibility to relax” seems to be real to you;
You have found a decrease in immunity;
The internal organs’ diseases get exacerbated.
What will help you cope with stress?
Meditations (try to start with simple breathing and concentration on it. Or - just sit alone in silence, listening to your body).
Yoga (you divert attention from hard thoughts through concentration on movements). Psychotherapy. It 's not just paying money to someone who listens to your problems. This is your "User's Manual" devoted to yourself. It means taking into your own hands what you are used to let go relying on cases and combinations of circumstances. For someone it is an extra burden, and for someone it means obtaining new opportunities.
Doing any sports. During sports, hormones of happiness - endorphins are produced.
Competent and balanced nutrition.
Sleeping well. Immune cells (lymphocytes) are produced while you sleep.
It is important to remember: if there is a feeling of inability to overcome stressful situations, it is necessary to seek advice from a specialist - a psychologist, or - a neurologist or a psychotherapist.
And, of course, you need to understand when to stop the process of stress development, which has already been launched and has been destroying you from the inside.
by Mary Bohan
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