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Zuzanna Kościuk Stress: The Disease of Body and Mind

Many people treat stress as a regular part of their livesregular part of their lives [regular part of one’s life]regular part of their lives. After all, isn’t it perfectly normal to feel stressed about work, school, personal relationships, and many other things? To some extentto some extentTo some extent, it is, of course, but the abundance of stressabundance of stressabundance of stress, or as it’s often called, chronic stresschronic stresschronic stress, has a detrimental effect onhas a detrimental effect on [have a detrimental effect on]has a detrimental effect on one’s health. There’s a reason experts, from psychologists to physicians, encourage stress‑management techniquesstress‑management techniques [stress‑management technique]stress‑management techniques to protect our psycheprotect our psyche [protect one’s psyche]protect our psyche and body. Why is stress management such a pivotal point ofpivotal point ofpivotal point of mental health and beyond discussion?

While small doses of stress (think of the nervousness you feel before a big exam) are not only normal but often instrumental ininstrumental ininstrumental in helping us to do our best, the issues start when the feeling takes over our lives. In terms of the psyche, long‑term stress can make it difficult to control our emotions which, in turn, impairs our ability toimpairs our ability to [impair one’s ability to]impairs our ability to control fear and anxiety. That is, however, only a smart part of the havocwreak havoc onhavoc that chronic stress can wreak onwreak havoc onwreak on a person.

Prolonged mental strainprolonged mental strainProlonged mental strain weakens our immune systemweakens our immune system [weaken one’s immune system]weakens our immune system which leaves the door open for many different diseases. Have you ever noticed that when under chronic stress, you get sick more often? While this is one of the concerning effects of stress, the health problems run deeper. The cardiovascular systemcardiovascular systemcardiovascular system, for example, suffers greatly from repeated bouts of fear and anxietyrepeated bouts of fear and anxietyrepeated bouts of fear and anxiety. The studies show that the risk of heart and circulatory diseasesheart and circulatory diseases [heart and circulatory disease]heart and circulatory diseases increases greatly in those suffering from long‑term stress.

What about the gastrointestinal systemgastrointestinal systemgastrointestinal system? You may not be aware that the bacteria in your gut are often responsible for your mood, and stress is strongly associated withassociated with sthassociated with what’s going on in our bowels. As such, the longer you experience stressful conditions, the bigger chance of not only having your mood soured, but also your intestinal health being left in a shambles.being left in shambles [be left in shambles]being left in a shambles.

In truth, should one want to list all of the health effects of chronic stress, it would take hours if not days. There’s a lack of focus, difficulties with managing personal relationships, premature ageingpremature ageingpremature ageing, respiratory problemsrespiratory problemsrespiratory problems, and even long‑term disabilitylong‑term disabilitylong‑term disability (due to conditions such as high blood pressure). That is to say, stress is a silent killer, and managing it is the only way to prevent our mental and physical health from deterioratingdeteriorating [deteriorate]deteriorating.

But how to go about it? Psychologists identified a plethora of strategiesplethora of strategiesplethora of strategies that help reduce stress in our lives. The big one is maintaining a healthy social support networksocial support networksocial support network that can aid us in times of mentalmental turmoilmental and physical turmoilphysical turmoilphysical turmoil. Another one is regular physical exercise which has been proven to have an overwhelmingly positive effect on both mental and physical health. Finally, there’s something to be said about getting an adequate amount of sleepgetting an adequate amount of sleep [get an adequate amount of sleep]getting an adequate amount of sleep every night which greatly improves the functioning of our body and mind.

Of course, leading a healthy and stress‑conscious lifestyle can aid us greatly inaid us greatly in [aid sb in doing sth]aid us greatly in being our healthiest selves, but sometimes we cannot manage stress without professional help. If you know that you suffer from chronic stress and you can’t improve by the above methods alone, do not hesitate to find a licensed psychologistlicensed psychologistlicensed psychologist to help you!

1 Źródło: Zuzanna Kościuk, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.