Stress & Anxiety

Stress can be physical, emotional, and psychological in nature. It can also cause problems for people. If stress is prolonged, it can cause a real problem with the person’s well-being. It can alter a person's physical state, their emotional state and psychological state of well-being. A minimum amount of stress is healthy for us, however, chronic stress, (due to stress being unresolved, or chronic illness), can have the person go through problems, which they might not be aware of, unless something goes wrong. Prolonged stress can cause psychiatric concerns or disturbances for individuals and their families.

These types of problems if due to stress or chronic pain, are often sorted out in time as the physical complaint is overcome. A true depressive mode cannot be snapped out of. Doctors recommend seeing a GP or specialist, if a depressive episode or mood has not lifted within two weeks.

Chronic stress levels can cause our bodies to react with sickness and cause us cognitive problems, which are problems which can alter our brain function and our behavior. It is perfectly healthy for you to experience stress and can even be good for you. Not only can it motivate you by building up your adrenaline levels and confidence levels, by helping you to get that get-up-and-go, attitude or feeling, putting your body into the fight or flight mode. Basically, you make a decision to confront a problem, or run from it, because it feels better and less threatening.

It is a well-known fact, that if we are experiencing a life-threatening event such as domestic violence, then we would be safer not in that threatening, emotionally draining environment. This type of environment can also cause stress, injury and an unhappy, discontented person or personality. Any prolonged stress can become chronic and dangerous for anybody’s well-being.

Stress is a common reaction when your basic needs are not being met. In this case our basic needs are love, shelter, food and water. It is a psychological response to stimulus in your environment. A counselor can assist with your stress in your present situation, while trying to build up your skills so you can better manage your stress levels into the future. The emotional effects of stress can create disease and illness, because they can be chronic if not treated. People can find themselves in circumstances beyond their control and they seemingly have a feeling of no resolve. Their feelings begin to show psychological disturbance or physical symptoms of illness. This is because chronic stress causes wear and tear and physical and mental breakdown in our bodies.

Psychological symptoms of stress include anxiety, agitation, apprehension, depression, frustration, hostility, intolerance, irritability, reaction to noise and sleep disturbance. Stress can be physical which comes from over extension and being tired. Shift workers often suffer from tiredness, because the shiftwork throws the body out of balance.

Either positive or negative stress can be good for us, as it motivates us giving us energy to provide commitment while challenging our creative problem-solving natures. Stress is needed to produce a productive lifestyle, because achievement is necessary to our wellbeing. The problem is when stress becomes chronic. It is inevitable that people experience stress in their daily life, because of situations we find ourselves faced with. If we choose to act positively to these stressors, then grief, confusion and the use of drugs and other negative life choices become less important in our life. People deal with stress differently and our bodies react differently to problems and stress.

   7 Tips to Manage Your Stress (anzmh.asn.au)