How Does Stress Affect Health?
Two thirds of all medical issues may be related to stress. Stress affects, cognitive functions, behavior, emotions, and physical health. Does this story sound familiar to you?
How does Stress Affect Health: Cognitive
How does stress affect health? This happens every day at work: meetings, deadlines, screaming bosses, quotas...and your body just wants to punch someone or run away to the beach. Instead, you stay. You can hardly think, because your thoughts are running a million miles per hour...
...you can't remember your birthday and you are supposed to give a presentation in five minutes! ...Even worse, you get all pumped and "ready" for the big show...and then the boss postpones the meeting indefinitely...GREAT!
Now you have all this extra time to worry about how things will work out...and all you can do is focus on the negative.
How does Stress Affect Health: Behavioral
So, your meeting was canceled by the boss...and even though your are annoyed, at least your current emergency is over for the moment...
...then you realize that you are starving, need a cigarette, and could go for another cup of coffee...You decide to prioritize! Cigarette...food with coffee...
The food should have been something light, but you really had a terrible morning, so you decide to "treat" yourself with a breakfast burrito with potatoes, sour cream, extra cheese, eggs and bacons...nummy!
The coffee is a Venti BOLD red eye with lots of cream and lots of sugar...you hardly slept at all last night fretting about this big meeting...
"GREAT!!" You think, "Now I have another sleepless week to look forward to thinking about this damn presentation!"
At least you think that you now have plenty of time to really prepare for the presentation...it seemed like you just never found time to work on it...but now you have a whole week to finish it, so you decide you can put it on the back burner for a couple of days.
So the rest of the day, you spend on the move, pacing the mouse maze hiding out from everyone involved in the presentation...because you just can't deal with that right now.
You feel a little stressed and wonder, "How does stress affect health?"...hmmm.How does Stress Affect Health: Emotional
Finally, the work day is over...GREAT! Now I have to deal with TRAFFIC!!!
My mood was already in the toilet and now I have to deal with all the idiots on the freeway...
So, as usual, you honk, scream, display gestures of dismay towards your fellow commuters on your drive home...this hardly improves your mood...which was a little agitated, to say the least.
You arrive home and oh great...the spouse...all they want to do is talk...I just need a few moments alone to collect my thoughts...but that will never happen! You have your normal welcome home shouting match and then each retreat behind slammed doors...
Then you decide you will have a little nap...and sleep for 3 hours...just in time to eat dinner at 10:00 pm...at least you got some sleep... Then as you head for bed at 1:30 am and set the alarm for 6:30 am...you start to feel overwhelmed with the presentation again...
You toss and turn all night thinking about how bad things will go...
When the alarm goes off...you dread getting up...you feel alone and a little depressed...hmmm, what will motivate me today...a HOT SHOWER?...hmmm...A cigarette and some coffee??? Now you are speaking my language!!! You drag your body out of bed and fumble around for your cigs in the dark...
How does Stress Affect Health: Physical
WOW! You really FEEL like utter crapola...getting out bed caused a lot of body aches...but that was nothing compared to your headache...and then there was that wave of dizziness after you got up from the toilet...you have diarrhea again, but that's better than the constipation from three weeks ago...
After you get out of the shower, you sneeze...HARD...and you feel that little tickle in the back of your throat...GREAT!!! Another cold...just what you need!
On the bright side, the spouse will leave me alone about sex when I have a cold, so at least I don't have to deal with that...sorta of a silver lining I guess..
hmmm...I'm getting sick again and I am feeling stressed...and again you wonder "How does stress affect health?"
SourceHow to Deal with Stress
How to deal with stress...stress is cause by hormones that build up due to a fear trigger fight or flight response...learn to deal with stress by changing your exercise, diet, meditation, breathing and your beliefs.
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