No More Stress Monthly
June, 2005
The No More Stress Monthly is a newsletter that provides featured articles on depression prevention, proper anxiety treatment techniques, reviews of natural depression treatments, interviews with psychologists, and information on both adult depression and teen depression, stress, and anxiety. The No More Stress Monthly is brought to you by Stress-Anxiety-Depression.org.
Stress
By Dr. Edward F. Group III, DC, ND, DACBN
Stress is everywhere. From taking a test to dealing with the loss of a loved one, stress is impossible to avoid. It can be acute, such as the stress that occurs in the face of immediate danger, or it can be chronic when a person is dealing with a long-term stressful situation.
The Three Stages of Stress
An endocrinologist named Dr. Hans Selye outlined a three stage model of the body's response to stress. He called his model the General Adaptation Syndrome. Understanding these three stages will give you a better idea as to the symptoms that occur with stress and how to manage them.
General Adaptation Syndrome:
1. Alarm
2. Resistance or Adaptation
3. Exhaustion
The Alarm Stage:
This is also known as the "fight or flight" reaction. It may occur as a response to imminent danger or to hearing stressful news. In this stage, your body physically reacts to stress by releasing adrenaline and another hormone called corticotropin to increase your heat and breathing rates and help you move more quickly in a dangerous situation. Other physical responses to stress during this stage include "butterflies" in your stomach, an elevation in blood pressure, dilation in the eyes, dry mouth, tensing of muscles, and difficulty concentrating.
The Resistance or Adaptation Stage:
During this stage, your body is still on alert for imminent danger. If this stage of stress becomes prolonged, such as when dealing with a long-term stressful situation, your body will eventually grow taxed by the physical responses. Over time, your immune system may be compromised, leaving you even more susceptible to illness. It only takes a few days in the resistance and adaptation stage for the immune system to fall into a weakened state.
The Exhaustion Stage:
The final stage in the General Adaptation Syndrome is the exhaustion stage, in which your body returns itself back to normal. Additional hormones, called cortisols, are released to help relieve the damaging effects of stress. They are continually secreted until your body's chemistry comes back into balance. These hormones, while able to offer the body some short-term relief, ultimately suppress the immune system and have the potential to worsen biological and psychological diseases and disorders.
Diseases and Stress:
Scientists have found a direct link between stress and the development of many physical illnesses and diseases. Emotional stress can weaken the immune system, and conversely, reducing stress can help to strengthen the immune system.
Clinical studies have shown that the body's response to stress can produce the same arteriosclerosis risk that results from smoking or high cholesterol levels. This drastically increases the risk for heart disease and stroke. Physical stress has also been linked to the development and progression of cancer as it reduces the body's natural ability to seek out and destroy malignant cells. To make matters worse, mental stress makes it even more difficult to withstand the exhausting treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation, often required to treat cancer. Other diseases that have been associated with stress include type II diabetes, ulcers, respiratory dysfunction, infections, and depression.
Types of Stress:
Stressors can be either external or internal. While external stressors such as traffic jams, financial hardship, or even exposure to environmental toxins are often beyond our direct control; internal stressors usually develop as a result of our own personality traits and emotions. It's our ability to handle these internal and external stressors that determines the amount of stress we feel. Chemical substances such as drugs, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, sugar, and food additives may seem to offer a little pleasant distraction, in the end they only put further strain on the body.
Recognizing Stress:
Physical signs of stress include dryness in the throat and mouth, tightened muscles in the neck shoulders and back, chronic neck and back pain, headaches or migraines, digestive disorders, shaking, muscle tics, sleep disorders, and fatigue. Mental symptoms of stress include difficulty concentrating, depression, pessimism, anxiety, or general feelings of hopelessness. Tobacco, alcohol, and drug misuse can also be tell-tale signs of stress.
Are You Stressed?
Does stress affect your daily life? Do you think you may need help in relieving stress and its detrimental effects on you body? Ask yourself the following questions:
1. Do you become easily overwhelmed by the amount of tasks you need to accomplish each day?
2. Do you tend to blow up several times throughout the day, even in situations not requiring such drastic response?
3. Are you constantly exhausted but still unable to get a good night's sleep?
4. Do you always feel worried, even about things that are completely outside your control?
If you have answered yes to any or all of the questions, it may be time to seek help. Fortunately, there are several techniques that you can use to reduce the amount of stress in your life. Relaxation techniques, meditation, yoga, pilates, exercise, dietary changes, and group discussions are all helpful means to relieve stress, restore your overall health, and bolster your immune system.
For more information on Dr. Group, stress, depression and/or anxiety please visit our website at www.stress-anxiety-depression.org.