Stress is anything that poses a challenge or a threat to our well being. Some stresses are good for you when they get you going. Many say our lives would be boring and would likely feel pointless in the absence of stress. Stresses are said to be bad when they undermine both our mental as well as physical health. We shall be focusing on stress that is bad for us.
Flight response
You can get a particular type of stress due to your response to a challenge. Part of your response to a challenge is physiological. This affects your physical health. Your body activates resources in order to protect you - to either get away as fast as you can or fight when you are faced with a challenge or a threat.
When you are faced with a problem that requires you to run more than you could run on a normal situation so as to save your life, you will need components in your body to be activated to give you that extra strength to run faster than you could run on a normal situation.
Your flight response is your body sympathetic nervous system reacting to event that is stressful. Your body produces large quantities of the chemical cortisol, noradrenaline and adrenaline which set off a higher heart rate, heightened muscle preparedness, sweating and alertness. All these above help you protect yourself in a challenging or dangerous situation.
When you are in flight response mode, non - essential body functions slow down such as immune and digestive systems. This is as a result of all resources concentrating on rapid breathing, alertness, blood flow and muscle use.
The following happen when you are stressed
1. Your breathing becomes very fast than normal
2. Blood pressure rises
3. Immune and digestive systems slow down
4. Heart rate rises
5. Your muscle become tense
6. There will be heightened state of alertness
At times in life you are faced with stress when you want to achieve something and what you have are not enough to achieve what you want. This situation may lead to stress especially when you are disturbed on what to do in order to achieve what you want. If what you have are more than enough to deal with the situation, it is seen as not stressful.
Some situations which are not negative may be perceived as stressful. This is because we are not completely prepared to cope with the situation. For instance if you are to have a baby in which you are not prepared for, it will definitely be a stress to you.
The possible effects of stress on your thought and feelings:
1. Sadness
2. Forgetfulness
3. Problem of concentration
4. Depression
5. Fatigue,
6. Feeling of insecurity
7. Irritability
8. Anger
Effects of stress on the body
`1. Headache
2. Tendency to sweat
3. Chest pain
4. Back pain
5. Fainting spells
6. Muscle spasms
7. High blood pressure
8. Stomach upset
9. Difficulties in sleeping
10. Loss of libido
11. Nail biting
12. Nervous twitches
13. Muscle aches
Effect of stress on human behavior
1. Alcoholic abuse
2. Frequent crying
3. Eating too much
4. Relationship problems
5. Social withdrawal
6. Drug abuse
7. Eating less
8. Higher tobacco consumption.
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