Respond and Resolve
December 10, 2012
Stress won’t go away? Maybe you’re suffering from chronic stress. Chronic stress is a crippling psychological and physical disease that is constant and persists over an extended period of time. Factors relating to chronic stress are internal and external and occur in everyday routines and situations. Some external factors encompass an individual’s physical environment, such as a job, a relationship with others, a person’s home-life, and all the scenarios, challenges, troubles, and expectations that an individual can be faced with every day. Examples of internal factors that decide on an individual’s ability to respond to, and handle stress include nutritional status, emotional well-being, overall health and fitness levels, and the amount of sleep and rest acquired. Sometimes stress can be a good thing though. It can provide the necessary boost that drives determination to get through situations like exams or work deadlines. Because there is typically so much stress in an individual’s daily life, some people consider stress as a negative experience however, from a biological stand point stress can be a neutral, negative, or positive experience.
Too much stress can have serious health consequences and have a contrary effect on the immune, cardiovascular, neuroendocrine and central nervous systems. (1) Chronic stress left untreated can result in serious health conditions such as muscular pain, insomnia, anxiety, high blood pressure and a weakened immune system. (2) Research shows that major illnesses, such as heart disease, depression and obesity are a direct result of chronic stress. (3) Nervousness, anxiety, poor eating habits, loss of enthusiasm or energy, and mood changes, like irritability and depression are examples of emotional and behavioral symptoms that are caused by excessive stress. Engagement in unhealthy behaviors such as abuse of alcohol and drugs, cigarette smoking, and making poor exercise