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Stress Symptoms (7)
If you find that your immune system appears to be the primary target for stress in your life, you might have the following symptoms:
All of these symptoms indicate that your immune system is not operating at its best. Stress can make the immune system either under- or overreact. NEXT STEPS Take a Personal Stress Diagnostic Quiz today to find out whether stress has manifested any immune system symptoms in your life.
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Long term, chronic stress disorders are serious matters which can lead on to other serious health conditions associated with the endocrine, or hormonal, system. If you find yourself battling against stress for a long period of time, it can have a knock-on effect on other areas of your physical health. For instance: *Women may experience premenstrual difficulties or menstrual irregularities Hormone imbalance is one of the three most serious and common effects of long-term stress. Hormones play a crucial part in making sure our physical health is regulated, including: *Metabolism In addition, stress suppresses your immune system, which leaves the body open to colds, flus and other health conditions.
NEXT STEPS Take a Personal Stress Diagnostic Quiz today to find out whether you have any endocrine symptoms induced by stress.
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If your primary stress symptoms are cognitive in nature you may find you suffer from the following: *Sleeping problems The brain works differently under stress. Some people find that they feel more clear thinking and sharper under stress. As motivation or challenge increases, the brain can take in more information and becomes hyperactive, and so do you. Adrenaline can cause the neurons in the brain to fire two to three times faster than normal. Thoughts race in bits and pieces, memory is impaired and judgment deteriorates. If there is too much pressure, or in dangerous situations, mistakes can be made, especially for tasks that require complex, creative thought. This stress/performance ratio changes depending on the type of task, fatigue levels, and the individual’s experience. If an action has been rehearsed repeatedly, it becomes automatic, even under pressure. This is why police officers, fire fighters and soldiers drill emergency procedures over and over, so when they are faced with the real-life situation, they can perform under pressure. In contrast, problems that require unusual or creative solutions may need long periods of uninterrupted quiet.
NEXT STEPS Take a Personal Stress Diagnostic Quiz today to find out whether stress has manifested any cognitive symptoms in your life.
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If the symptoms you seem to be experiencing are associated with over stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system, or SNS (the part sensitive to adrenalin) it will manifested in the following ways:
It is hard to ignore these symptoms. Under normal conditions the SNS and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) work together to regulate the body. The SNS regulates your blood pressure by controlling your heart rate and the contractions of your blood vessels. In normal circumstances, the SNS exerts its effect on the body by secreting small amounts of a neurotransmitter, called noradrenaline, directly onto the organs it is stimulating, getting a precise response that passes quickly. Under stress conditions, additional noradrenaline and adrenaline is secreted into the entire bloodstream. This causes the whole body to react, not just a single organ. Often, this is experienced as an anxiety episode or as a severe panic attack that takes longer to subside. If your original stress trigger was through a traffic accident, a personal assault or a home invasion, reminders of these may bring back your symptoms. Other social events, such as job loss, relationship break-up or family disputes, can also trigger physical anxiety symptoms. In order to avoid these reminders or situations, humans tend to have internal “catastrophising thoughts”, in anticipation of dreaded events. We have a great capacity to worry about “what ifs.” Focusing on this imaginary future situation can create a sympathetic nervous system over-response that leads to such stress symptoms. NEXT STEPS Take a Personal Stress Diagnostic Quiz today to find out whether your stress has brought on any lungs and cardiovascular symptoms.
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Everyone has their down days; when life doesn’t go as planned we feel hopeless and frustrated. People might let us down, or we may experience loss or feel discouraged that despite our best efforts, we seem to get nowhere. How we feel about things is important. If episodes of stress recur regularly, the stress response can reach the “danger zone”, which can bring on one or more of the three main emotional symptoms of stress: Anger – feeling helpless that you can’t resolve an issue can be more than frustrating. Anger is felt usually in a situation which is in fact out of our control and not able to be changed. Anxiety – this is when we get fearful or nervous of a situation and it results in not being able to behave or perform in a way in which you know you can, or would like to. Depression – this is the most extreme emotional response to stress symptoms. When a problem or stressful situation recurs and you have tried many options, you may internally “give up” and you despair that things will never return to their previous state. It is in the human nature to seek out feelings of happiness and pleasure and fulfillment. Fear, guilt, grief and anger are not pleasant experiences and the human tendency is to avoid these, but it doesn’t mean they go away. In fact, facing these feelings, although painful and unpleasant, can make you stronger and more resilient to stress symptoms. Writing, thinking or talking about these feelings is greatly therapeutic. In times of stress is when you most need your capability for intelligent thought and clear perception, but during frequent episodes of heightened stress, your thought is not clear, it is not rational, and it can hamper your thinking ability. You may experience the following:
The thing is all these emotional symptoms lead you to make poor decisions and therefore lead to greater stress.
NEXT STEP Take a Personal Stress Diagnostic Quiz today to find out whether stress has caused any emotional symptoms in your life.
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An overstressed body commonly can manifest itself through gastrointestinal symptoms. The physical symptoms can include: If you suffer any of these, the chances are that your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) is your primary physical indication of stress. The PNS is part of your automatic nervous system and regulates many of your basic functions: The physical arousal which is caused by acute stress can cause any of the symptoms above, and the function of the PNS is to decrease arousal and slow you down again after a bout of stressful reaction. When experiencing stress, people tend to “wind up” and the body speeds up. It is the inability slow down or relax which causes those annoying and embarrassing symptoms. The PNS is regulated by the other half of the automonic nervous system, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), which speeds things up again, and these two work automatically under normal circumstances. However, when you are under duress, oxygen is partially siphoned away from the digestive tract to feed the larger muscles in preparation for “fight or flight”. Lack of oxygen in the gastrointestinal area leads to digestion slowing down, or even stopping, but once you calm down and relax following the stress-out, the flow of vital oxygen can return to normal. It is when you come under longer bouts of stress without taking time to recover that the gastrointestinal tissues and muscles become sensitized to over-activation. This is when symptoms can still manifest themselves, even when the stress that caused them has vanished. You may feel fine in your mind, and over the stress, but your body has yet to recover.
NEXT STEP Take a Personal Stress Diagnostic Quiz today to find out whether stress has caused any gastrointestinal symptoms in your life.
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Muscular complaints are the most common physical sign of stress. Most of these only last for a short time and are low intensity for most people, but in others they can be long-lasting and therefore have major implications for basic functioning. They are the most frequent reason for sick leave and even disability. Muscular stress may manifest itself in any of these ways:
Suffering from any of these can interfere with work, family life, and simple activities of daily life. The human body has more than 690 separate muscles. People often take them for granted, expecting good performance day in and day out. In human biology, a substance called noradrenalin alerts the muscles to tense up in preparation for action, this is called the “fight or flight” response. Tense muscles get set to act quickly in response to threat or danger. Of course, in modern life we do not really need to flight nor flee and the stress is not physical, it is more likely to be social or economic. This sequence of events could lead on to other problems:
Understanding the relationship between stress and your muscles can help you tend to the special needs of this important organ system. The good news is that these straightforward interventions can make big difference in healing and protecting your muscles.
NEXT STEP Take a Personal Stress Diagnostic Quiz today to find out whether stress has manifested any physical symptoms in your life.
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How does stress cause problems with your immune system?
How does stress cause symptoms related to your endocrine system?
How does stress cause symptoms associated with your lungs and cardiovascular system?
How does stress cause emotional symptoms? 
How does stress cause gastrointestinal symptoms?
Dealing with stress-induced muscular complaints