Effects of Stress

Stress affects people from all walks of life, irrespective of gender, intellect, cultural background or professional level.

The effects of stress can worsen the symptoms of any physical or psychological issue.

While stress alone may not cause problems like chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and more, it magnifies the symptoms and distress.

What is stress?

Stress is a result of the natural ‘flight or fight’ response within all humans.

When placed in a threatening situation, our bodies produce adrenaline to enable us to either fight or run away (take flight).

However, most of the threats we encounter are not an immediate physical threat to our lives. They tend to be perceptional threats to our livelihood, relationships or egos.

The problem is our bodies cannot differentiate between an immediate threat to our lives and a perceptional threat, so the adrenaline surge is still produced but has no way of fading. We cannot run away from a traffic jam or fight off a bad telephone call, so the adrenaline produced by stress gets stored in the body with nowhere to go.

Beating stress

One of the best ways to combat stress is to exercise regularly.

In some cases, mild forms of stress can be beneficial. It can signify something needs to change or spur us on to achieve new goals.

However, when stress becomes prolonged it can have a very damaging effect and result in psychological and physical symptoms. Anxiety is just one form of stress we can help you beat.

For help in properly managing and alleviating your stress, contact Online Counseling now to speak with one of our expert counselors.