The Effects of Stress..
Modern life: full of hassles, deadlines, frustrations, and demands. A majority of those worries or problems can lead to something known as stress. Stress is a part of normal physical response to events that make you feel threatened or upset. It’s also the body’s way of rising to a challenge and preparing to meet a tough situation.
Stress can either be good or bad, but there are many different types and causes of stress. The effects of stress can be short or long term, and can hurt a person physically or mentally. The consequences of stress can lead to depression, anxiety, and addictive disorders. Stress is not something to be taken lightly because the effects can have a huge impact on one’s life. Depression is very common and affects as many as one in eight people in their teen years (Depression).
It can happen to people of every color, race, or age. There is no single cause for depression, life events such as death, a break-up, or an over load of stress can lead to depression. Stressful or unhappy environments can affect a person’s self-esteem as well. Depression is a strong mood involving sadness, discouragement, despair, or hopelessness that lasts for weeks, moths, or even longer (Depression-Symptoms,Causes,Tests). Change in mood, tiredness, pains, weight loss or gain, appetite, and anxiety are all symptoms of depression.
Clues such as those listed above should be a signal to get a loved one help because depression is a serious issue and could make a difference in one’s life. Anxiety is perfectly normal to some degree. Everyone experiences situations that make us feel fearful and apprehensive. Stress is a major cause of anxiety. Anxiety usually becomes overwhelming and may interfere with day to day functioning (Stress Anxiety and Depression). It is a disorder characterized by excessive, long lasting worry about life events.
Victims often feel afraid and worried, but they have trouble both identifying the specific fear and controlling the worries. Their fear is usually unrealistic or out of proportion with what may be expected in their situation (What is Anxiety?). Stress over load can be a cause of this and heart rate, rapid breathing, sweating, dizziness, etc. are all symptoms. Anxiety takes a toll on people day to day and is more serious then people perceive.
People experiment with drugs for many different reasons. Many first try drugs out of curiosity or to have a good time. Others use it to ease a problem such as stress, anxiety, or depression (Drug Abuse and Addiction). Drug abuse can come about when a person experiences a load of problems or to fill a void in their life. This creates an addictive disorder for those who are using it to “solve” problems. The abuse of drugs is less about the amount of substance consumed or the frequency, and more to do with the consequences of the drug (Drug Abuse and addiction).
No matter how often or how little a person is consuming, if drugs are causing problems in their life or used to feel at ease with other issues, it is likely that person has a drug abuse problem. Drug abuse is just another harsh consequence of stress. It causes good people to do crazy things. Stress isn’t always bad. A little stress can help keep people on their toes.
How much stress is too much though? Long-term stressful situations can produce a lasting, low-level stress that is hard on people. The nervous system senses continued pressure and may remain slightly activated and continue to pump out extra stress hormones over an extended period. This can leave a person feeling tired, overwhelmed, weaken the immune system, and cause other problems in life (Stress). A big stress load can overwhelm the body’s ability to cope if they continue for a long time. Reasons such as relationships, death, on going problems, etc.
can cause this (Stress). The most helpful method of dealing with stress is learning how to manage the stress that comes with the obstacle. Stress-management skills work best when they’re used regularly, not just when the pressure is on. Knowing how to “de-stress” and doing it when things are calm can help people get through challenging circumstances that may arise. Things that can help keep stress under control are: not over scheduling, be realistic, get good nights sleep, treat your body well, solve the little problems, and learn to relax! Stress can cause major damage to a person’s health, mood and quality of life. Too much stress is never good and really takes a toll on the person in all aspects of their life.
It’s important to recognize stress levels before they get out of control.
