Negative physical and mental impacts of stress
Let me begin by painting a picture of what most people would classify as a stressful day. As you read along, try to imagine yourself in the shoes of this hypothetical person.
Samantha is employed as a salesperson cold-calling strangers all day long, attempting to sell them a variety of products for a company that under appreciates and over works their staff. Her boss notoriously has unrealistic deadlines and goals for her to meet and since she’s been scatter-brained lately, her performance has fallen behind.
Finally after a long week at work, she’s done, and is excited for the barbecue she’s planned at her house that evening.
Samantha leaves the office, gets into her vehicle to drive to the grocery store, and out of nowhere she’s hit with a debilitating headache that returns day after day. She knows she should see the doctor, but between her family and work, there’s just no time.
After a little while she makes it to the grocery store. While shopping she settles for steak since they’re out of the chicken that was on sale in the flyer. Samantha heads on home feeling guilty for purchasing steak after her doctor specifically told her not to eat it because of her high blood pressure. She throws the meat on the grill and now it’s time to relax.
In order to loosen up around her friends, she has a few glasses of wine and whoops! The meat is now burnt. What began as a rather stressful day has now turned into a ‘disaster.’
Through all of these frustrating events, Samantha’s body has been activating a cascade reaction, creating what is known as a ‘Stress Response.’
So what is stress?
Stress comes as two different packages, acute and chronic. Stress is the body’s response to a real or perceived threat and in some cases can be extremely useful and in other cases it has the potential to be extremely harmful.
Acute stress is the most common kind of stress, manifesting from short-term, individual events i.e: car accident, job interview or possibly an unfriendly encounter. These stresses usually fade away after the incident is over, however with symptoms ranging anywhere from excess sweating, heart palpitations, and shortness of breath, these feelings of stress can seem to last a lifetime.
On the other hand, chronic stress is created by many days, months, or years of repeated exposure to unresolved stresses. This form of stress can be devastating, causing many long-term health problems, some of which we’ll delve into.
Negative physical impacts
1. Weight gain
Cortisol is one of the many hormones released in quick succession during a stressful event. When your body perceives an incoming threat, parts of your brain release various hormones that then tell your adrenal glands to produce a hormone called Cortisol.
All of this linear communication in your brain contributes to a necessary and beneficial response to stresses. This was especially useful when we were hunter gatherers and faced with constant threats. However, ideally you would deal with the stress and move on. Unfortunately some of us are unable to do so, and tend to ruminate on our problems which then leads to an over abundance of Cortisol built up in our system, causing a myriad of physical problems. One of said problems is weight-gain.
In the short-term, your body utilizes the adrenaline in order to fuel your muscles to respond to “fight or flight,” which in turn acts as a hunger suppressant. Afterwards, Cortisol is released and signals your body to begin replenishing your food supply, thus returning your appetite. If the compound stresses are not dealt with properly, a build up of Cortisol causes your body to continue increasing your appetite. Seconds lead to thirds, and so on and so forth.
Not only is the weight gain a detriment, but where you store the fat also poses problems. Elevated cortisol levels have been shown to cause weight gain in the abdominal area, known as “toxic fat” due to its correlation with cardiovascular disease.
This is something to think about when making a New Years Resolution to lose weight, where an even better resolution would be to decrease stress!
2. Linked to promoting diseases.
Stress can lead to folks over or under eating, drinking in excess, and either beginning or continuing to smoke. All of these are known negative consequences of stress.
Now, I know it seems like we’re harping on Cortisol here, but an over production of this hormone really can produce bodily issues. Your system can become desensitized to the presence of Cortisol, which causes chronic inflammation. Inflammation over extended periods of time damages blood vessels and brain cells, and can promote joint diseases that are extremely painful.
An excess of Cortisol also works as a detriment to the functioning of your immune system. Studies have shown that people who have a steady support group during stressful times tend to heal faster from physical ailments compared to those that lack support systems such as family or friends.
3. Can literally make you older!
We’ve all heard parents lament about how their children are giving them gray hair, or how a stressful event caused someone to “age ten years.” This isn’t entirely rubbish, and contrary to popular belief that stress only causes someone to appear older, it can actually age your genetic material, making you literally age faster.
Research has been able to show a link between prolonged stress and premature aging by looking at the types and levels of stress regularly endured, and the blood samples given by test patients. There is a strong correlation between people who suffer from high levels of phobia, and a shortening of their Telomeres (protective caps on the ends of cell chromosomes). The shortening of your Telomeres causes your cells to age faster, and it’s there that you will find evidence of premature aging.
You may not have to entirely ditch the anti-aging cream, but incorporating an anti-stress regiment could seriously prevent not only the appearance of aging, but on a physiological level as well.
Mental impacts
1. Chronic stress leading to depression
I’m sure most of us that have gone through a stressful event have noticed what happens to our emotions after the ordeal. You can start to feel fatigued or maybe even pangs of sadness. Well, stress in fact leads to an increase in Cortisol as we now know, and this in turn reduces “happy hormones” such as Serotonin and Dopamine, both of which have been linked to depression.
When these chemicals work the way they should and your chemical balances are in check, they are excellent at regulating your sleep schedule, appetite, and sex drive. However, when the aforementioned chemicals are not at their optimal levels, stress responses remain high or even increase, which can then manifest as depression.
Of course, grieving or stressing over an outcome for a certain amount of time is normal, but if it goes on for too long it can become depression. Depression is in itself is a chronic stressor and requires serious attention.
2. Cognitive functioning
Stress can even alter aspects of your nervous system. Have you ever been frantically looking for your keys, stressed out about getting to your children’s school on time, only to have the keys sitting directly in front of you on the table where you had left them? I know I have.
Your body reduces cognitive functioning during stressful times and you experience what feels like a “foggy” brain. Stress decreases the functioning of neurons (brain cells) in certain parts of your brain responsible for long-term memory storage, attentitiveness, and judgment. This is where the feeling of fogginess comes from, and is definitely not a beneficial response to stress.
3. Personality changes
It goes without saying that people vary dramatically in their tolerance to the plot twists one can experience in life. Some people have a higher tolerance to stress, while others suffer greatly from a comparatively small stressor.
Genetics have a large role in our ability to cope with stressful situations. However, environmental factors such as traumatic experiences leading to the development of phobia and anxiety, can pose as a major factor in advancing chronic stress. Someone who claims to be a ‘Stress Ball’ may in fact have a genetic disposition that leads them to have a heightened level of stimulus in the central nervous system, causing a more excited reaction than someone who on the contrary, may refer to themselves as ‘chill’.
Chronic stress can lead to otherwise relaxed individuals to start establishing a more irritable, delusional, and disorganized personality. One of the most obvious changes in personality are drastic changes in mood that include periods of extreme elation (mania) or on the opposite end of the spectrum, extreme periods of depression.
Certain changes in personality are possibly counteracted with a more moderate approach, where as other changes tend to cause serious limitations to one’s quality of life.
Solutions for reducing stress
1. Meditation
The practice of meditation appears to many non-Buddhists to be shrouded in mysticism and reserved only for those who are devoted to practicing the Dharma. However, daily, intentional mindfulness practice is beneficial to anyone wishing to decrease mental anguish caused by stress. The practice of becoming mindful, which translates into being present-minded, is shown to reduce stress because the nature of being present minded requires one to cease worrying about the future and whatever negative occurrences may lie ahead.
Starting with five minutes whenever possible, find a place where you can support your back and place your feet flat on the floor. Preferably, this place will be one in which you won’t be disturbed (maybe not the living room where your kids like to play).
Focus on deepening your breathes, inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth. In a few moments, you can softly shut your eyes and continue to focus on the sensations you’re feeling. Some sensations and thoughts that arise may be uncomfortable, but focus on letting them come and go naturally.
From here, there are many kinds of meditations you can incorporate into your practice such as body-scanning, analytical, or single-pointed focus meditation. There are incredible resources online that you can tune into for more in depth guides on how to meditate.
2. De-clutter
Many of us feel as though we can do everything and be everywhere 100% of the time. But, let’s leave that to the crime fighting, cape wearing, super heroes. It’s important to prioritize your daily tasks. What takes precedent? What things could you do without? If there are things that seem outrightly unimportant, writing a list will bring those to the forefront.
Working to declutter your life will bring about a significant decrease in stress as you find out what is truly possible to achieve without draining your mental, and physical health. In fact, eliminating extraneous tasks doesn’t make you any less productive and may increase productivity while decreasing disorganization and poor time management.
3. Natural Remedies
Check out our earlier post on natural remedies that may help reduce stress and anxiety.
Hopefully this information has helped either identify the new feelings of stress you may be feeling, or issues you may already be experiencing. Now, happy de-stressing!
