Physical Impact of Stress

Stress is a physical reality and something that affects our emotions. It is much more than the kind of “it’s all in your mind” issue we often think it might be. Stress is something that, no matter how clever, resourceful or amazing we are, will affect us in some way because it is part of being alive. But what kind of problems can stress actually cause?

The problems caused by stress all stem from the fact that our stress system was actually designed to response to short-term stress, these are actually stress symptoms. Our bodies were simply not designed to operate with the levels of these hormones becoming raised over long period of times. This is why chronic stress causes so many problems. It affects a vast array of different body systems and actions, with an impact that is often very complex and different for every individual.

Chronic stress can affect a bewildering range of physical functions and has been linked to all kinds of illnesses, syndromes, signs and symptoms.

Physical issues related to Stress

In some ways, the most serious physical results of stress are those that build up over time.

The system that is most affected is the cardiovascular system – the heart and all the arteries and veins that carry blood to and from the muscles and organs that the heart supplies with blood. Stress stimulates the body to supply more blood to major muscles, while organs – for example, those responsible for digestion – receives less blood. All this involves changes to the blood vessels themselves.

The bad news is that long-term stress simulation of this system causes our blood pressure to rise as the vessels struggle to cope with the extra blood rushing through. It triggers changes in the way the heart muscles works, meaning that there is an increased risk of unusual or irregular beats. As if that weren’t enough, chronic stress can also increase the risk of developing narrowing arteries.

Chronic stress has, therefore , been linked to an increased risk of developing cardiovascular problems such as heart attacks and stroke. Acute stress can also trigger symptoms in these areas, bringing on conditions such as angina and chest pain.

Meanwhile, of courses, as can worsen illnesses related to poor circulation such as Reynaud’s phenomenon, where people find that the blood supply to fingers and toes actually cuts of in cold weather, leaving their digits white, pale and painful.

Most of the problems stress causes in the cardiovascular system are related to constant simulation it receives. But remember that while the sympathetic system is overactive, it also effectively turns out the system that controls digestion. This means that stress very often causes some kind of digestive symptoms – from mild problems with indigestion to more serious problems that require investigation and treatment.

-Excerpt form Dr.Middleton’s book Stress

Anger Intervention Schemes

ANGER INTERVENTION SCHEMES

“How can I avoid getting angry?” asked one mother. “These kids in our neighborhood are getting on my nerves.”
Usually anger expressed either outwardly or inwardly. Psychotherapists traditionally recommend the outward ventilation of anger considering it to be the “healthy” means. If you keep it inside you would feel “sick.”

It is true that internalized anger would ultimately corrode your inner self and health—-mental, spiritual and physical. However, if you let yourself go expressing your anger freely, people will soon regard you as loony. Friendship is broken; other human relationships suffer in view uncontrolled rage. People would either avoid you totally or keep themselves at a distance from you and be cautious as they interact with you.

Sublimation. It is proper to sublimate anger ventilating it through acceptable, worthwhile activities such as gardening, jogging, tennis, house cleaning, crying, playing a musical instrument, singing, or even shouting provided nobody can hear you. You can even think of making some projects as your pastime or outlet whenever you feel upset. It is much better to burn up excess hormones by means of these activities rather than allowing them to corrode the internal system.

People who resort to drugs, alcohol, gambling, eating, and other vices whenever they are angry are compounding their problems. These are false crutches! Such vices are not only detrimental to the body and mind, but also weaken the internal control mechanism. The person’s threshold toward stress becomes shorter. He gets more stresses, and easily blows his top.

Cognitive system. Burns recommends the “cognitive” solution which transcends the outward or inward directions of anger. The third option: Stop creating your anger. You don’t have to choose between holding it in or letting it out because it won’t exist. Should you choose this option, you can (by God’s grace) control your feelings. As you gradually cease to be plagued by excessive irritability and frustration that sour your life easy and enjoyable.

Anger, like all emotions, is created by your cognitions. Before you can feel irritated by any event you must first become aware of what is occurring and have your own interpretation of it. Your feelings result from the meaning you give to the event, not from the event itself. It is illustrated as follows:

In his Rational-emotive view point, one professional believes that man’s emotional problems lie in his illogical thinking. Emotion is caused and controlled by thinking. He said: “One’s thinking often becomes one’s emotion; and emoting, under some circumstances, becomes one’s thought.”

Burns cited five kinds of distortions which occur most often when one is angry. First is labeling—seeing the other person in a totally negative way. Your anger is directed toward what the person “is”. Second is mind reading —you invent motives that explain to your satisfaction why the other person did what he did.