What is Stress

Its 7:30 am and your alarm hasn’t rung! You wake up with a start and realize that its way past your wake-up time. From that minute its stress all the way…through work, meetings, house work…..the works….A part of modern city life: Stress

Stress is the emotional and physical strain caused by pressure from the outside world. When we respond to stress, our reactions may include tension, irritability, inability to concentrate, and a variety of physical symptoms that include headache and a fast heartbeat. Stress can come from any situation or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry or anxious.

STRESS – A PART OF LIFE

Stress, if it gets out of control, can harm your health, your relationships and your enjoyment of life.

It can lead to general poor health as well as specific physical or psychological illnesses like infection, heart disease, or depression. Persistent and unrelenting stress can lead to anxiety and unhealthy behaviors like overeating and abuse of alcohol or drugs.

Emotional states like grief or depression and health conditions like an overactive thyroid, low blood sugar or heart attack can also cause stress.

WHAT ARE THE SIGNS OF STRESS?

The effects of stress are different for different people. Here are some unmistakable signs that you may be suffering from stress.

The mental symptoms are:

The physical symptoms include:

SOME CAUSES OF STRESS

Any unpleasant event in our life can be the reason behind stress.

An upcoming exam, having difficulties at home and losing a job can cause stress.  But positive changes in life too such as having a baby, preparing to get married, or buying a new house can cause stress.

Though we would like to avoid stress, we cannot and so we need to learn to control our response to those situations. We can develop techniques that will reduce the effects of stress on our mental and physical health.

Certain drugs, both recreational and medicinal, can lead to symptoms of anxiety due to either side effects or withdrawal from the drug. Such drugs include caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, bronchodilators for asthma, tricyclic antidepressants, cocaine and thyroid medications.