Why You Need to Avoid Chronic Stress in Your Life
Are you in a constant state of stress? Do you feel like you're losing control?
Do you often feel agitated or helpless?
Do you regularly experience fatigue or feel like your burning out?
Have you experienced a life changing event or trauma that's causing you distress?
What is Chronic Stress?
The most serious type of stress is ‘chronic stress’ as it can lead to serious health complications and even death. It's also important to understand the various types of chronic stress and where it can escalate from. For instance, you may be experiencing emotional stress' whereby you may have difficulty in controlling emotions such as anger, sadness, or even frustration.
Another chronic stress type can be triggered by the environment in which you either live or work, with the latter being attributed to pressures or demands from your daily job routine. Lets not ignore another trigger for chronic stress - this being relationship stress', which is connected to how you relate to those close by, such as family friends, partners or your co-workers.
Symptoms of Chronic Stress
If chronic stress build-up cannot be reduced or mitigated, then it can become troublesome to your personal health status. For instance, it can lead to high blood pressure or heart disease and contribute to asthma, digestive disorders, cancer, and other health problems. Research is showing that chronic stress’ can impact people differently – both good and bad. Interestingly, some research studies state that high levels of stress somehow speed up the aging process.
Yet, in considering a global survey study conducted by well respected Harvard Business Review in the U.S.A. it concluded a differing story. Of the 740 leaders involved in their study it surfaced that 84% or more than half the participants said stress had a negative effect on their performance. Whilst 45% commented that their leadership wasn’t impacted, and their stress had a positive effect – with 25% or more stating stress improved their effectiveness. [1]
In considering another high-end research study conducted by Harvard Medical School’s Psychiatry Experts Professor Kerry Ressler, who also acts as chief scientific officer at McLean Hospital and fellow colleague, Professor Jill Goldstein who also points out that stress can affect men and women differently. Their research – conducted both within real-life stress situations and laboratory research settings, has clearly shown that chronic stress’ seems to interfere with brain functioning – particularly in the areas of cognition, attention, and memory.
Similarly, the Harvard Medical School’s uptake on the symptoms of chronic stress, highlighted that it can dampen the immune system (thus, make you susceptible to common colds or infection) increase blood pressure, and increase the risk of heart disease or cancer. [2]
Furthermore, other expert studies have stated that bedsides altering mood and promoting anxiety - chronic stress also has another underlying physiological problem. That being ‘inflammation’. Bearing in mind also, that inflammation is a major contributor to many chronic diseases of the brain and heart. [3, 4]
A Simple Way to Combat Chronic Stress
If your unfortunate enough to experience some of these symptoms in your daily life, then I want to pass on a few simple tips to help you manage and even fix chronic stress. Firstly, you don't want any ongoing stressors escalating into a full-blown burnout situation, because this can become serious and lead onto physical and mental health issues.
Yet, you can start to rebuild yourself by giving yourself some grace or time out from the routines or circumstances that may be triggering your stress levels. In short, focus your attention on what you can change first and try to avoid self-isolation.
It's also a wise move if you can develop and adopt some initial short-term stress reducing strategies, and particularly activities that can be performed anywhere and don't take up too much time or skill to master. Personally, I like the word' free' and this may relate to activities such as walking which can also help you to gain some immediate relief.
Other well proven and trusted antidotes for chronic stress is physical activity and relaxation exercises such as meditation. Believe it or not, there are certain foods and drinks that can help relieve your stress levels too, as they can assist in reducing the cortisol levels within your body.
Therefore, it's beneficial if you can digest Magnesium-rich foods - such as avocados, bananas, broccoli, spinach and lets not miss out dark chocolate. Additionally, drinking more water and tea each day can help to calm things down.
Talking' should not be underestimated in terms of a beneficial stress reliever. Hence the need to openly admit that there's a problem and then find others close by or seek professional help in order to gain support or practical help.
Refs
1. Caillet, A., Hirshberg, J., & Petti, S. (2016). 'A simple way to combat chronic stress. 'Harvard Business Review. Health. April 15, 2016.
2. Harvard Health Publishing. (2021),'Stress'. Harvard Medical School. Article cited online at https://www.health. harvard.edu/topics /stress 16 February, 2021.
3. Harvard Health Publishing. (2018). 'Protect your brain from stress.' Online article cited at https://www.health.harvard. edu/mind-and-mood/protect-your-brain-from-stress. Harvard Medical School. Published August 2018.
4. Mayo Clinic Staff. (2016, April 21). ‘Chronic stress puts your health at risk.’ Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org /healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037?pg=1.
Image Credits
[1] Pexels-Kat-Smith [2] Pexels-Nathan Cowley [3] Pexels-Inzmam Khan
