Weekly Wellness News

January 22, 2007

Feature: Prolonged Stress Effects

Stress is a part of life. I mean that literally. Stress is simply the response of the mind and body to change in the environment; since the environment changes regularly, stress is a fundamental part of life. How we deal with stress makes all the difference between having a healthy life and destroying ourselves.

In the short-term, stress is viewed by many as a challenge, as a good thing. This is a healthy choice, the sign of a positive attitude. While a person might feel typical symptoms (headache, stiff neck and shoulders, nausea, rapid breathing and heartbeat, sweating and sweaty palms), this goes away after a few minutes or a couple hours if the stressor is a specific event. This is the famous "fight or flight" response. Coping with this type of stressor is as simple as talking with friends over a meal or in the park, meditating, or getting some physical exercise like going for a walk or bike ride. When the stressor is specific and short-term, the fix is simple.

What happens, though, when the stressors of life are felt for long periods of time, especially when the stress is significant to begin with? The normal stress response is much more damaging when stress is prolonged, causing severe psychological and physiological damage and even death.

The phases experienced with long-term stress are predictable and are called the "General Adaptation Syndrome". Initially, the "fight or flight" response occurs. Then, as the body adapts, the symptoms go away; the body learns to cope with the level of stress experienced and the stresses appear to be under control. This is where danger lies: because it appears the symptoms are gone, it is easy to believe we have learned to manage the stresses we are experiencing, but the truth is that the body is still undergoing strain and is just masking the damage being done. After prolonged coping, we hit a point where we cannot function any more, and suddenly the symptoms return, much stronger than before. This is the onset of burnout.

With burnout comes a whole new slew of problems: energy levels drop dramatically, we lose the ability to focus and concentrate, we get irritable and intolerant about everything in our lives. But it gets worse, because the damage is deeper than our attitude and our mind. The immune system begins to fail in many ways, leading to many colds and sickness and also to long-term health problems like heart disease and cancer (yes, there is much evidence to suggest these are both heavily influenced or even directly caused by stress). We become anxious or depressed, or both, and lose the ability to feel happiness.

Keep in mind, however, one important fact: burnout is not when the problems initiate, it's just when they become apparent. By the time you get to burnout, much damage has already been done.

There is a silver lining to all this, however. All (or at least most) of the damage of even long-term stress is reversible. Eliminate the stress. How to do that is entirely dependent on what the stressors are, but everyone has the ability to eliminate stress from their lives if they really want to.

On a daily basis, take time for yourself: listen to music, dance, exercise, play with your children or with a pet, go shopping or socializing with friends, take up a creative hobby like writing or painting, meditate, go for a walk in the woods or on the coast... do things that put you in a good place emotionally and spiritually.

On a larger scale, take enough vacation time to truly escape the pressures of your regular environment; leave your email and phone behind, or you won't escape those pressures (if you're working, it doesn't count as vacation). Get away from it all for enough time to unwind. Remember, you're not trying to convince someone else you've been relaxing, you're trying to actually relax; don't kid yourself about it.

If life is truly too stressful, if you can't get away even when you try, then it's time to redesign your life. Perhaps a six month (or even several year) sabbatical is appropriate. Maybe it's time to start an entirely new career. Figuring out if this is right for you is no easy task, as the change can be enormous if you choose to rebuild your life from the ground up, so seek the assistance of others in making this kind of choice; look for a life coach, counselor, psychologist, or mentor who you can trust to help you see the big picture objectively.

Resources:

• Stressed Brain [www.brainsource.com]
• Stress Management [www.webmd.com]
• What Stress Is - The Underlying Mechanisms... [www.mindtools.com]
• Stress and Your Health [www.mindtools.com]

Other news

• More than just the 'olive oil and wine' diet: Why The Mediterranean Diet Is 'It' [www.cbsnews.com]
• In other words, no excuses: On Vacation On A Diet [www.cbsnews.com]
• On the forefront of last century's research: Texas study links pollution, child cancer [www.msnbc.msn.com]

From the editor

Last week I asked for article ideas. Gabby in Queensland, Australia replied: "How bout an issue on what stress-related issue can do to your body, for example anxiety attacks and such?". That's a great idea, Gabby, and so I replaced this week's article that I was writing with the one you see here.

Since my planned article was bumped back a week, I'll at least tell you what it will be: next week you'll be able to read about the immune system and how to keep it strong. Rather than telling you to wash your hands, the focus will be on long-term strategies to stay healthy even when you are exposed to outside contaminants, such as when you travel to less-developed areas or work in confined spaces with a lot of people (think the typical office environment).

I would also like to take this opportunity to announce my new business. Over the past two years, I have been rearchitecting my life from the ground up. I was completely burned-out myself, and had forgotten to have fun and enjoy most of my days. I lost touch with the important things. Now that I've been down a healing path of self-growth, I am offering my services as a coach to others. My focus is on realigning goals and objectives with core values. My mission is simple: "Helping people rediscover the joys in everyday life."

Because this is a new endeavor for me, I am looking for a few people to cut my teeth with, so to speak. I would like three or four volunteers, people who have thought recently of taking on a coach but haven't for some reason. Contact me through the feedback link below and we can talk at more length about what I offer and how I can be of service to you. This offer will be on a first-come, first-served basis, so don't dally too long if you're interested.

As always, if there are things you want to learn or read about in the newsletter, use the 'feedback' link below and let me know!

Healthy thoughts,
Jeff

Your feedback is always welcome!

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Copyright 2007, Jeffrey Eliasen.
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