How the Body Responds to Stress - Essay Example

Stress Stress can be defined as the body’s reaction to any challenge or a danger. Animals, humans included have bodies that are naturally designed to respond to stress basically as a means of survival. When faced with a challenge, the body shifts to the fight-or-fight mode in an attempt to help the person to overcome the challenge. However, the body can only stay in this mode for a limited period of time. This paper is going to articulate on pathogenesis, signs and symptoms, clinical testing, how the body responds to stress and treatment in relation to stress. Stress Pathogenesis As described in the definition, it is clear that stress is important for survival. All people regardless of economic class, status or even race face some challenges in life. Whether it s the challenge to deal with presenting a presentation to the managers at work, or the lecturers at school, or the challenge of having to contend with traffic on the way to work, the body interprets this as danger and the stress mechanism kicks in. This stress mechanism gives the person the vigor, the agility or the energy to deal with the situation (Moses, 2014). However, while this stress may be useful for survive, prolonged stress becomes a challenge to the body can lead to both mental/psychological and even physical/physiological harm. In other words, stress is diagnosed at the point where the body can no longer handle it and thus it becomes a problem (Morris, 2014). Signs and symptoms Depending on the level and stage of stress, the symptoms can be very divergent. Some people are completely unable to do anything, becoming dysfunctional. This is called the foot-on-the-brakes status and is compared to someone stepping on the brake pedal of a vehicle so that the car cannot move. The person may be unable to achieve even the most mundane tasks such as taking a bath. The stressed person may also find it hard to sleep (insomnia) or may always feel like sleeping. The levels of energy in such a person will be depleted to the point where they always feel fatigued and they feel that they cannot be able to achieve anything. The person becomes withdrawn and they do not want to have any interactions with other human beings. Some individuals may enter a state of anxiety, or being hyperactive (Earnest, 2012). Instead of being in the foot-on-the-brake state, they enter the foot-on-the-gas state and such an individual finds hard stay in one position. The person is always being busy doing something but still do not achieve anything. They lack focus and so the energy is not useful to them. In fact, they end up gaining more stress for being hyperactive. The person in this state of stress is likely to feel that anything they are doing is not satisfying them and thus they are always seeking to get satisfaction from the nest activity, only to find that even this is not as interesting. Other individual may not go into the above mentioned symptoms but have a combination of them. This combination means that the individual will be tense and that he or she will be in a status where he can neither be active nor inactive, they are in a tense state which makes it hard for them to be productive. How the body responds to stress When the body is informed that it is under stress, it responds by producing extra adrenalin and cortical. These are hormones that are helpful in making the individuals to deal with the stress. This is only in the short term. However, in the long term, stress leads to results that are devastating to the body as well as the brain. These include; Rapid ageing As the body deals with constant stress, the stress will increase the aging process and this means that a young person will look much older than his or her chronological age. Weight gain Stress can increase weight gain in a number of ways. First, it can alter the eating habits of an individual, making them always to eat more and to exercise less. This is because some people respond to stress by eating since eating, especially eating sugary food, makes them feel better. As they eat more and exercise less, they will start to gain more weight. At the same time, stress interferes with the physiological processes of a person and this leads to a natural weight gain in an individual. Risk of developing osteoporosis Stress pushes the immune systems of the body down thus making it less protected from diseases. In this case, the body is likely to be affected by many diseases including osteoporosis. High blood pressure Stress is a major cause of hypertension. Stressed people are likely to suffer from hypertension because the body response to stress by increasing and releasing hormones that constantly increases the pumping of blood. As the body increasingly faces stress, the blood pressure will continually have to be under high blood pressure which may lead to negative health impacts. Heart disease Stress is also likely to cause health diseases. This phenomenon is also related to the fact that the brain will increase the pumping of adrenalin and the constant demand for more blood in the brain may lead to heart problems in that the heart is always under stress to meet the needs of the much blood needed in the brain. Digestive and eating problems Stress can cause digestive and eating disorders including low levels of appetite. This affects the person in that they may not be able to take up the required nutrition with regard to the fact that they are unable to eat. Weight loss in this case is a major sign of stress. Treatment Treatment of stress can be approached for a number of ways. In cases where it is necessary, medication may be needed to help a stressed individual. In some cases, physiotherapy may be needed for the Treatment of the individual. Treatment of stress is not an easy thing because there are so many factors that have to be considered. However, this is becoming more important in that more people these days are suffering from stress, without even knowing it. References: Earnest, P. (2012). Clinial Stress. New York, NY: Pearson books. Morris, P. (2014). Modern Stress Mangemtn: Understnading Clinical Stress. New York, NY: Pearson. Moses, P. (2014). Stress Management and Modern Hyperactive Environment. Journal of Psychological Studies, 12 (9), 90-98. Read More