Stress Management and the Effects of Stress on the Mind and Body

Abstract

Stress is known as one of the most common topics discussed between friends, family and co-workers. Most of us understand that stress can effect our health, but do you really understand the effects stress has, if left unchecked? Did you know stress cause issues with your mind and even your body? When you are finished reading this paper, my goal is for you, the reader, to have a better, more clear understanding of how stress affects the body and mind, and how to manage your stress so your can reduce these effects.

Introduction

You look over at your alarm and you realize you are late for work again, you get up and realize your favorite coffee is all gone, the car will not start, you have a flat tire and the day just gets worse from there. These are just some of the things that can cause stress, if not handled properly through stress management. Stress is defined as a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse event or very demanding circumstances. There are several things which can cause stress in your life and the events which cause stress vary from person to person.

It is true, if you manage stress you can avoid the negative effects stress may have on your mind and body. Stress that is left unchecked can contribute to health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes.

Sources of stress

There are many different sources of stress and most of them you experience in your everyday life. For example, being out of your favorite coffee, no more milk, a rough day at the office and more are common example of everyday things which can cause stress. When you're at home, there are multiple things that can cause stress. For instance, you wake up because the lights went out and you go to the basement, all you see is water because your sump pump quit working in the middle of the night. When you start thinking about the cost of repairs, cleaning the mess up and the loss of personal property, this can result in higher than normal stress levels because you start to feel overwhelmed. In your work life, there are many different experiences which may cause a stressful environment in the workplace. Monday morning, you come into work ready to tackle all the projects you have, just to find out your boss needs you to complete a last minute project that another co-worker was required to have the project done last week, but now you need to have it completed today and before you start to complete your normal work. In your mind, you starting thinking about how it isn't fair that you need to complete the work, when someone else was tasked to do it, how all of your other projects are going to suffer, how you never get credit. These thought can be stressful. Even everyday life can start to become stressful if you think about it. Watch the news for a few minutes and there is news of Terrorism, war, lack of clean food, water and global warming, just to name a few and to the right person this can cause a whole world of stress, that is not needed. No matter where you turn there is a situation when thought about or dwelled upon, can cause stress, it all depends on the person and how they handle stress.

Impact of Stress

Did you know Stress can have a great impact on your life? If you become are stressed all the time, also known as chronic stress, you might end up taking the frustrations out on your family, your friends and even your co-workers. This can hurt and even end those important relationships. When you're at work and cannot concentrate, your performance at work will start to suffer. If your boss starts to notices that your work is suffering, then you might end up losing your job. When you lose your job, you will not have the money to pay your bills, buy food, have gas for your car in order to look for a job and all of these issues adds more stress to your life and things just start snow balling from there, getting worse with each issue. The impact that stress has on your life can keep adding up, if you don't have a way to manage it or know how to control it.

Stress on the Mind

While the body can handle stress and sometimes the stress is good for the body, it cannot handle stress when there is not a break and has reached a point of being chronic stress. So the body reacts in ways that are negative to our health. Some of the effects of stress can be self inflected like when a person starts to smoke, drink or taking illegal drugs. But some of the effects to the body, are just the bodies' ways of reacting to chronic stress. Stress can raise your blood pressure, heart problems, skin conditions, overweight, diabetes, and headaches to name a few. Even OSHA has declared stress a hazard of the workplace (“Hospital e Tool: Healthcare Wide Hazards - Stress").

Managing Stress

While the stress in life can overwhelming there is good news, stress can be controlled and managed, if you take the time to learn. If you make changes to your diet, certain foods can raise serotonin levels in the brain, which has a calming effect. There are other foods that can decrease the amount of cortisol and adrenaline, which in certain amounts can be bad for the body. Exercising can be great for the body and stress levels because it makes you feel good and in turn reduces your blood pressure and furthermore, exercise will increase the level of endorphins, which is known as a natural painkiller. There are also readily available classes in which you can take to learn how you manage stress. These classes can be in groups or you can even see a specialist that will work with you, one on one, to manage how you handle stress. Finding a person to talk to is a great way to let some of the stress go, whether they are a professional or not.. You never want to hold it in as this can make the effects of stress worse.

All things considered, while there is a lot of stress in the world, there are ways to manage it. You will need to manage it, in order to prevent the negative affects stress may have on your mind and body. Stress that is left unchecked can contribute to health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.

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