Stress and How Our Body Responds

Dr. Purushothaman
January 17, 2014

Stress. This is a common term these days. We learn about remedies for stress, reasons for stress, first hand experiences from people who suffer from, and we probably experience stress ourselves. However stress is more than a word, it is physical and emotional reaction to danger, anxiety, and difficult situations. As you can see, stress isn't just a word, it is a reason for concern.

Stress creates different of issues in our lives. Stress can cause several different physical and mental health problems. We might demonstrate our stress by getting upset or being cross a few days. But it can be possible that stress can cause a significant breakdown of our emotional or physical health. Most of the time it isn't one specific event that brings on stress induced health issues, it is caused by a build up of stress over time. Is it possible to stop allowing stress to take over our lives? If we are able to understand why we suffer from stress we can learn how to deal with it more productively.

Physical Stressors

Our bodies are made to react to immediate physical threats, which is a cause of stress. An encounter with an animal, discovering someone in your home, being in an accident; all of these things are stressful conditions. We are programmed to respond to these threats by increasing adrenaline production to help us be ready for fight or flight.

These threats can even create stress when we aren't experiencing them. If a person has a fear of a danger it can create emotional stress. Someone who is frightened of dogs may have a fear of passing by a neighbor's home who has a dog, perhaps going as far as changing their route to stay away from it. A lot people become physically ill before flying on a plane because of a fear of flying.

Environmental Stressors

Life in itself can be a reason for of stress in our lives. We aren't living in the peaceful world of yesterday. In our time we are continually subjected to intense sound: cell phones, traffic, TV, etc. We have bright lights, which help ensure our safety at night but make it hard for our bodies to fully rest. In time our bodies and minds crave peace, quiet and darkness to rejuvenate. But many times we just can't seem to block out the noise and light to create quiet time in our lives.

Emotional Stressors

Everyone at some time or another is faced with relationship problems. It could be a romantic relationship, a friendship, or a family problem. Regardless of the type of relationship, issues between people are a cause of stress in our lives. Life changes, even positive ones can disrupt the body's natural rhythm and create stress.

There can be several reasons we have stress in our lives, we need to determine the causes of the stress we have and learn to overcome it. By using stress management procedures we can create an inner peace that will bring us better emotional and physical well being.

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