Recognizing Stress

STRESS – Each day you will encounter some form of stress.

Stress will cause your day to lose it’s stability for a moment or
longer. You do not need to be in a negative situation in order
to become stressed. All you need is to feel that you have lost
control of the situation that you are in.

Learn to recognize the type of stress that you are in. Not all
stress is bad.

You may be one that thrives on stress. The adrenaline rush to
finish by the deadline spurs you to action and you love it. This
is not the bad type of stress. You are typically a “Type A”
personality and you live for the moment.

The types of stress that would be considered bad are those
times when your body reacts in a negative manner. You may
be one that shuts down at the mention of stress. Your life
becomes so disrupted that you cannot function at all. You
experience headaches, nausea, stomach cramps, lack of
sleep, irritability, and the list could continue. This is the type of
stress that is not healthy and will leave a permanent mark if
you are not careful.

Constant stress can come from any area of your life. You may
have a stressful job that you do not enjoy; you may be
diagnosed with a physical illness; you may be the caregiver of
a family member; your family life is not all that it should be.
These situations are just a few that can cause you to be under
a constant attack of stress.

Your body is designed to fight back against the stress that you
are under. Your body releases a higher amount of the
hormone cortisol into your blood stream. Your body does not
know if you are in a moment of good stress or bad, all it knows
is that you are stressed. Your body will continue to release this
hormone as long as you are under stress.

The bad news is that this hormone also suppresses your
immune system. Stress brought on by a physical illness will
only cause the physical illness to worsen because your body is
producing higher levels of cortisol hormone, which will block the
healing process. This is why we believe that stress causes the
illness, when in fact, the stress is preventing the healing of the
illness.

You can take steps to manage your stress and reduce the
negative impact that stress has on your body. Take time to
exercise, use relaxation therapy in your daily routine, and eat
healthy. Find a support group for stress caused by physical
illness or caregiver situations. Joining support groups for
physical illnesses is a proven step toward healing.