Stress and Its Effects on Our Health - Coursework Example

Stress and its effects on our health Stress is considered to be the body’s reaction to any change that calls for body’s adjustment, reaction or response. However, stress is considered as a normal reaction, which is part of life. The reaction of the body to stress requires physical, mental, and emotional responses. The contemporary life entails hustles, deadlines, frustrations and many demanding issues. Stress has become common to many people and takes it as part of life. However, stress is not always bad as it also helps people react in a positive way to correct situations. For instance, a past stressful encounter can help people develop mechanisms of always being alert in order to fight back in case a similar issue takes place in the future (Sharafkhaneh 1405). Effects of stress One of the evident things about stress is that it can cause the affected individual to indulge in alcohol and drugs. Studies have documented that many people turn to drugs to relieve themselves when confronted with stressful situations. The soothing effect of drugs has also been documented to attract many people as a way of running away from facing the problem (Fay 12). However, the problem of drugs is the issue of suppressing the problem for a little while, and then the individual finds himself in the same problem once more. Probably, this time the problem appears bigger and scarily since some problems require immediate attention, which might have been lost when one resorted to drugs. In another dimension, drugs have been documented to cause different health problems in the body. For instance, alcohol is known to cause depression, therefore, it is correct to argue that stress can cause different health problems especially when the victim indulges in drugs. Additionally, most drugs are addictive. This means that there are high chances of individuals indulging in drugs as a way of running away from stress to become addicted to drugs. This has been found to be the leading cause of poverty and loss of self esteem to many people. In fact, according to Weinstein (32), addiction is a psychological problem that affects people’s way of life and can only be corrected by subjecting the victims to some therapy and other rehabilitation measures. Depression When people experience continued instances of stress, there is a possibility of developing depression. This is a state of extensive mood state that goes beyond the normal temporally feeling of sadness. Depression has been documented to affect ones feelings, work performance, behavior including physical health. Hesson (29) argues that depression is known to cause several other mood disorders, insomnia, and fatigue and to the extreme, depression can cause individuals committing suicide. Other body health issues caused by stress Stress causes headache to many victims. Due to intensified thoughts and sadness, many people experience headaches. As a result, people go for pain killers although the problem carries on as long as the individuals continue being stressed. Headache is known to cause the victims become unproductive since they are not able to concentrate on what they are doing especially in work places. The problem of stress is also noted by upset stomach (Hesson 30). Many people experience this problem whenever they are stressed although not many of them understand the connection between stress and upset stomach. High blood pressure is also one of the complications of stress. When some people are stressed, their heart beats faster than usual. This causes high blood pressure, which in turn has got its own complications attached to it. For instance, high blood pressure causes coronary artery disease. This is the condition in which the arteries are blocked thus blocking or preventing normal flow of blood through them. This is what causes chest pain and irregular heartbeats (Weinstein 93). Similarly, its known that high blood pressure causes heart failure. This is caused by the straining of the heart which makes the heart muscle to weaken thus less efficiency. Gradually, the heart become weak and can even fail to function leading to death. In another dimension, when people are stressed and unable to manage stress, high blood pressure causes stroke. In this condition, the part of the brain is deprived of oxygen and other critical nutrients leading to death of brain cells. Brain vessels can also be damaged by high blood pressure making them narrow or even rapture (Hesson 35). Dementia This is a condition that results from problems related with thinking, memory, reasoning as well as vision and movement. Therefore, when victims of stress find themselves in situations that require deep thoughts or vigorous movement, there is a risk of developing dementia. However, blood pressure is also highly connected to causing dementia. This is all the issue of complexity of stress (Weinstein 99). Anxiety Stress causes victims to be anxious. Situations that make people anxious can develop several other complexities related to anxiety. This is what is categorized as different types of anxiety disorder. For instance, people under stress can experience panic. This is a condition where individuals experience the feeling of terror in frequent occasions. This makes such people to sweat including related fear symptoms (Weinstein 94). Post traumatic stress disorder People who experience terrifying events can develop this kind of disorder. For instance, people who undergo unexpected ordeals such as rape, death of loved ones or even natural disasters have always got a problem in their future as these frightening evens keeps on recurring fresh in their memories. An individual that had once experienced fire accident would always fear coming near fire (Weinstein 92). In fact, sometimes fire reminds them of the bad event and this causes a serious problem. This condition affects the victims greatly. Some end up developing other complications that would require psychological and medical attention. It is also evident that stressed people experience weight loss. Some develop stomach ulcers as a result of acid released when people are stressed. This also leads to other stomach related problems (Fay 19). Low self esteem According to Sharafkhaneh (1408), people with numerous stressful moments tend to have low self esteem. This is attributable to many thoughts of why the ordeal only happens to them and not other people. Some people believe that misfortunes are part of life and as such inevitable. This can also lead to self denial where the effect of such thoughts can lead to anger. When people are overwhelmed with anger, they act in strange ways just to release the bad feeling. Additionally, stress makes individuals to view things only in a negative way. This is also connected to poor judgment of situations. Even when a problem is minute, some people see such a problem a very big one that cannot have solutions. There is also a record of people having memory problems because much of their attention is on the current situation. The feeling of being overwhelmed is recorded on many people. When people have such a feeling, they are incapable of finding possible solutions to their problems. Some think of using shortcuts to solve the problem. Others accept the situation and do not bother to find solutions since they believe that is their end. They lack the ability to concentrate on what they are doing. Most of them end up indulging in bad behaviors, unfinished tasks, or fail to attend to their tasks completely (Fay 19). Behavior With many thoughts and unfruitful efforts, many people feel overwhelmed with the stressful moments. This can make them resort to aggressive behaviors. Such people exhibit the behavior of kicking out objects around them, breaking utensils and other queer behaviors. Some people change the way they relate or socialize with other people. If most of their friends do not face the problem they face, the victim may decide to disassociate themselves with them. They isolate themselves and can even start blaming other people for their misfortunes. This can lead to misunderstandings between them and their friends and can affect their long-term relationships (Weiten189). Sleeping problem Many people when stressed decide to sleep. Some can sleep for long hours. This acts as a way of lessening the stressful conditions. However, stress can cause different problems of sleep. While some would comfortably sleep for long hours, others find it difficult to sleep and might spend more time just lying in the bed with their eyes wide open. However, other group of stressed people would have very uncomfortable sleep. They have interrupted sleep where they wake up more often in the course of their sleep. These problems of sleep have adverse effect on individual performance (Hesson 32). Eating habit Most people when confronted with stressful moments, they resort to different eating habits. Some people have the feeling of taking drinks only. They develop bad attitude towards sold foods. However, others develop liking of solid foods and find pleasure in chewing. That is why some people resort to chewing gum. Some chew at a very high speed. The issue of eating also comes in the line of eating too much or little. When some people are stressed, they eat too much and can go on and on without satisfaction. Nevertheless, others have difficulties in eating and prefer just eating little food. This, however, has been attributable to the feeling of throat blockage which causes difficulty in swallowing (Weiten 191). Sex drive People with stress experience decreased sex drive. Sex is highly connected to brain. When one is stressed, it becomes difficult to concentrate on sex. In fact, lack of satisfaction is high in people stressed. This has more adverse effect on relationships because when couples fail to satisfy their partners, there is a possibility of the break of the relationship. This can lead to additional stress that can lead to depression and other related psychological and mental disorders (Weinstein 95). Conclusion With many deliberations on the issue of stress, it is apparent that people cannot be able to avoid it completely. However, some stressful moments have been found to be beneficial to the victim. They help them to develop mechanisms that help them cope with the situation. Additionally, they can also develop ways of finding solution whenever similar instances of stress strike. However, stress causes different effects on one’s health. This includes, physical, emotional and behavioral. It is indispensable for people to understand different ways of coping or dealing with stress. For instance, some people are best in facing the stressful situation there and then. Others are better off when they run away from the stressful situation for a moment and then deliberate on the course of action later. Whichever way one faces or deals with stress, the fact is that stress is a serious condition that can have different health complications if not well managed. Works Cited Fay, Evans. Emotion and stress. New York: Chelsea House, 2007. Print. Hesson, Margie and Olpin,Michael .Stress management for life : a research-based experiential approach. Belmont, CA : Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.2010.Print. Sharafkhaneh, Amir, et al. VHA outpatient clinic file or patient treatment file records: Association of Psychiatric Disorders and Sleep Apnea in a Large Cohort. Sleep 28. (2005), 11: 1405-1411. Print. Weinstein, Richard. The stress effect: discover the connection between stress and illness and reclaim your health. New York: Avery, 2004. Print. Weiten, Wayne. Psychology: themes & variations. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.2010. Print. Read More