Chronic stress and its consequences

Stress is usually called a high nervous tension or a strong emotional excitement caused by the crazy rhythm of the modern world. People permanently living in such conditions experience chronic stress. This condition can lead to a variety of negative consequences for all body systems. Can I somehow protect myself from chronic stress without giving up my goals, without changing my life priorities and habitat? According to scientists, this is quite realistic. Moreover, it turns out, there is even a vaccination against stress, which everyone can do. But does it always only bring harm? Let's try to figure it out.

Stress short-term and chronic

According to many scientists, stress is a set of adaptations of the organism developed by evolution to various environmental factors for the purpose of protection and adaptation. Since no medium can be permanent, the ability to withstand the changes taking place in it is a very useful property. But this statement is true only if the extraordinary situation is not too critical and does not last long. Stress in such cases is called short-term. Physiologists believe that small and short shakes for our psyche is a kind of gymnastics. If the uncomfortable situation drags on for an indefinitely long time, a person begins to experience chronic stress or a permanent psycho traumatic personality. Benefits in this there is no, because no living being is able to endure endlessly neither physical nor psychological loads without harming one's health.

Factors of chronic stress

There are many factors that can cause chronic stress. The reasons, or, as scientists say, "stressors", are physiological and psychological.

To physiological carry:

• pain;
• Suffered severe illness;
• Critical temperatures of a person's environment;
• Hunger and / or thirst;
• Taking medications;
• Noise and bustle of city streets;
• Fatigue, increased loads.

To psychological it is possible to carry:

• Competition, the constant desire to be better than others;
• Constant striving for perfection, and as a consequence, critical self-esteem;
• The nearest environment (for example, a team of employees);
• Information overload;
• Fear of losing their social status, staying "overboard";
• Isolation, loneliness, physical or spiritual;
• The desire to do everything in time;
• The setting of unrealistic tasks;
• Disharmony in the family.

Stages of stress

According to the theory of Canadian physiologist Hans Selye chronic stress develops in three stages:

1. An anxiety reaction. A person begins to attend annoying thoughts that something is going on in his life or should not happen, that they do not consider him, he is not understood. Depending on the type of stressor, a person can also feel discomfort from environmental conditions (noise, heat) or feel pains that are easily docked with medicines, but which cause fear. At the first stage, the sympathetic nervous system becomes excited, the hypothalamus excites the pituitary gland, which in turn produces the ACTH hormone, and the adrenal glands produce corticosteroids that enhance the body's readiness to withstand stressors.
2. Resistance. Hans Selye conditionally called her "run or fight."
3. Exhaustion. Before this stage the body comes, as a rule, under chronic stress, when negative factors act on a person for too long or there is a constant change of one factor to another. At the stage of exhaustion, the resources and possibilities of the organism are sharply reduced.

Types of stress

Short-term stress can be both negative and positive. In the second case, it is called "good", or eustress. It can be provoked by any pleasant events and states (winning the lottery, creative upsurge) and almost never harming health. Only in isolated cases, high positive emotions can cause problems, for example, a violation of cardiac activity.

Chronic stress is only negative. In medicine, it is called "bad", or distress. Provoke his various sad and unpleasant events in all aspects of human life. Distress almost always leads to a deterioration in health.

"Good" and "bad" stresses are divided into three types:

• biological;
• psychological;
• emotional.

Chronic biological stress

The theory of this type of stress was considered in detail by Hans Selye. In general, biological stress is a combination of the body's reactions to physiological adverse environmental effects, which are always real and always present a threat to life. This can be biological, chemical or physical factors (weather, illness, injuries). Selye called biological stress "salt of life", which, like ordinary salt, is good in moderation.

Biological chronic stress occurs on the basis of a long-term disease, forced living in unfavorable climatic conditions.

Often the active factor is also prolonged physical activity. If they pass against a background of constant nervous overstrain (the desire to prove something to everyone, to achieve an unattainable one), a person, other than physical, develops chronic fatigue. Stress in this case provokes a lot of health problems - diseases of the digestive system, skin, cardiovascular and nervous system, even the appearance of cancer.

Chronic psychological stress

This type of stress differs from others in that it is "triggered" not only by the negative factors that have already occurred or are occurring at a given time, but also by those that (in the opinion of the individual) can only happen and which they are afraid of. The second feature of this stress is that a person can almost always assess the degree of his ability to eliminate an unfavorable situation. No matter how severe the psychological chronic stress is, it does not inflict obvious damage on the body and does not threaten life. The causes of the emergence of psychological stress are only social relationships and / or own thoughts. Among them we can distinguish:

• Memory of past failures;
• Motivation of actions ("wrapping" themselves in the need to get everything in the highest category);
• Own life attitudes;
• Uncertainty of the situation and prolonged expectation.

Personal qualities of a person, his character and temperament have a great influence on the occurrence of psychological stress.

Chronic emotional stress

In the opinion of both physicians and physiologists, it is this type of stress that affects the increase in mortality. Emotions developed in humans in the course of evolution, as a component of their survival. The behavior of a person is guided primarily by the manifestation of joyful and pleasant feelings. However, rapid scientific and technological progress leads to disharmony of the human state of mind, which causes negative emotions. All of them have a disastrous effect on health. So, anger destroys the liver, anxiety spleen, fear and sadness of the kidney, jealousy and envy of the heart. The factors that cause emotional chronic stress are as follows:

• Inability to realize one's desires;
• Expansion of the spectra of communication in society;
• Time deficit;
• urbanization;
• An inexhaustible flow of unnecessary information;
• Violation of their own physiological biorhythms;
• High information and emotional loads at work.

In addition, many people are constantly experiencing in the soul already lived situations in which they failed to avoid misfortunes or defeats. Very often accompanied by emotional chronic stress, depression, which is the state of extreme emotional depression of the individual. The person becomes indifferent to himself and others. Life for him is losing value. WHO data say that depression today is 65% of all mental illnesses.

Signs of stress in others

How to determine if someone in your environment has chronic stress? Symptoms can be:

• Lack of interest in anything (to work, to news);
• Unexplained aggressiveness (any remark is perceived "in bayonets") or, conversely, closedness, "withdrawal into oneself";
• Inattention, misunderstanding of the tasks assigned to him, which previously were easily solved;
• Weakening memory;
• The appearance of a person's unaccustomed tearfulness, frequent complaints about his fate;
• Nervousness, fussiness, anxiety;
• Not observed earlier craving for alcohol, smoking;
• Causeless changes in mood;
• The appearance of uncontrolled movements (some begin to tap with their feet, others to nail their nails).

Signs of stress in yourself

All of the above symptoms, characterizing the state of chronic stress, can be not only among people from our environment, but also ourselves. In addition to such external manifestations, we can additionally observe the following symptoms of stress:

• Headache, migraines;
• Sleep disturbance (it is difficult to fall asleep, and if the dream does come, it does not last long);
• Lack of appetite or, conversely, constantly hungry;
• No taste of food;
• Stool disorder;
• Pain in the chest;
• dizziness;
• Lowering of immunity;
• Irritability (do not like everything, everything hinders);
• Indifference to sex;
• Indifference to close people, to beloved animals, to their hobbies;
• Increased fatigue;
• The emergence of thoughts about their uselessness, uselessness, inferiority.

Treatment

Some people do not consider chronic stress dangerous. Treatment, according to these people is not required, you just need to change the situation, allow yourself to relax. Nevertheless, if you find yourself experiencing symptoms of chronic stress, you need to pay a visit to the therapist. He will prescribe a series of tests to exclude all diseases that have stress-like symptoms. If nothing dangerous is found, the doctor prescribes, as a rule, vitamins and sedatives. Sometimes prescribed sleeping pills, tranquilizers, antidepressants. A good effect is provided by folk medicine, offering a lot of soothing teas with mint, melissa, honey.

It should not be forgotten that frequent infectious diseases are also capable of provoking chronic stress. Immunity in people in a stressful situation is always weakened, which contributes to infection. Therefore, it is desirable to introduce immunomodulators into the course of therapy. They can be synthetic - "Tsikloferon", "Viferon" and others, or natural - echinacea, dog rose, ginseng.

But all these and other medicines help only temporarily, if you do not fight stress psychologically, with the help of your mind.

Stress vaccination

The method of stress-inoculation was developed by the Canadian psychologist Meikhenbaum. It consists of three phases of psychological impact:

1. Conceptual (explanatory). The doctor helps to understand the patient that the source of negative feelings and thoughts is himself, helps to reconsider the problem, develop a strategy for solving it, increase self-esteem.
2. Formation of new skills and abilities. The doctor suggests the patient to imagine the solution of his problem, note all the obstacles that may arise, change the strategy, until the most acceptable option is reached.
3. Practical application of new skills. In this case, good results are provided by role plays.

Cope with stress can also help unconventional methods - yoga, breathing exercises, relaxation.