Symptom - Stress

Stress is such a small word, having huge implications. Stress is a difficult word to define, but it is something which occurs through events or occurences known as stress factors or stressors. These events can be major, happening infrequently or once in a lifetime. An example of this is the sunami which happened out in Thailand. The event could be small but related to personal issues, or it can relate to everyday issues, which constantly niggle and hassle us. Regardless of how small the constancy causes it to become a stress event.

In addition stress can relate to the environment, a persons life and immediate occurences within it, the weight of responsibility, an inability to cope. When we consider stress we look at a number of issues which relate to the individual and their environment, the source of the stress and the individuals own innate coping mechanisms of stress factors.

No matter how or why stress originates, there can no be no argument to the fact that it is triggered by a natural chemical response in the body to fear and danger, known as the fight or flight syndrome. In modern day society the homeostatic mechanisms by which the fear response is switched off when danger dissapears seems to be faulty, resulting in the chemicals of heightened awareness remaining in the system for longer. The presence of these chemicals over long term, is what can be referred to as stress and can have negative effects upon the body and seriously effect the quality of life of the indiviual who is suffering stress.

Different people react to stress factors in different ways. Stress which effects one person in an incredibly adverse manner, may be like water off a ducks back to another. The younger a person is the more able they may be to cope with stress. The sources of stress are varied and where stress stems from and how it effects life has a great deal to do with how it transpires. Earlier I mentioned that it may be something occuring from a major and very rare event, but something which is sudden like an unexpected death will impact in a number of different ways and those ways may interchange, become worse or lessen depending on other associative stress factors.

Something is only really made into a stress event by the interpretation put upon it by an individual. A new job, may pose positive challenges and encourage enthusiasm in one individual, that same job may cause another individual to exhibit a different behaviour, so is it the job which is the stress factor, or is it the individual who are themselves creating the boundaries of their own stress. It has a great deal to do with personality and viewpoint, and these are considered to be cognitive factors. However stress is also an issue connected to adequate diet, sleep and social environment. An individual who has the support of his or her peers, family and other loved ones can call upon a network as part of their coping mechanism. Often the individual who feels alone, copes with less ease than the individual who has strong social ties. They call upon a number of controls to help them navigate the stress filled time, event or situation.

Touch Of Healing is usually called upon to deal with what stress causes in way of consequences. This is because stress effects health and it interferes with ones ability to work and function at optimum levels. This leads to a lesser quality of life. In many individual the effect to health is minor and usually manifests as aches and pains, regular colds and flu, eczema and other irritations. Initially these can be treated successfully with drugs, but over time if the stress and physiological effects of stress persist then the individual becomes more prone to the more severe health related outcomes, of which coronary heart disease is major issue.

Stress also effects automimmune response, sending it into overdrive, where the natural protection mechanisms begin to set a self attack mode. This is apparent in diseases like Rheumatoid Arthritis and even cancer. From a life quality point of view if the result of stress is mental illness like depression, then it can effect work. the satisfaction of being able to work. The sense of achievement in whatever work is being done. It can result finally in an inability to deal with some of the simplest of tasks.

An inability to cope can lead some individuals to turn to drink or drugs, as a means of forgetting what worries and concerns them. However, pushing through the stress factors, trying to cope and failing consistently can lead to burnout and major mental breakdowns and withdrawal from life.

When a psychologist or doctor diagnoses stress they tend to categorize into areas of severity. The most severe example of stress is referred to as post traumatic stress disorder PTSD. Similar methods are used to diagnose this and again within PTSD itself there are levels of severity. It transpires after experiencing the rarer event. Those allied soldiers who were subjected to constant attack by the Japanese during the second world war, experienced and witnessed horrifying situations and scenarios at the hands of a culture whose take on winning a war, meant honour at all costs, even if that cost meant killing in the most inhumane of ways. Soldiers came back traumatised, but research at that time had no idea that these were stress illnesses and classed these soldiers as mentally ill. Vietnam veterans were treated equally badly, but at that time the condition could be recognised as being stress induced. The kind of occurrences which can result in PTSD are things like prolonged torture, single events of a very rare kind such as the terrorist attacks on the twin towers in New York.

PTSD doesnt just lead to psychological disturbances, there is strong evidence that following the experience of the trauma it can lead to an extensive range of stress induced physical illnesses, headaches, chest pains, severe fatigue syndromes, cardio vascular issues, gastro intestinal issues and an excessively impaired immune system. Those who suffer PTSD struggle relating to people and breakdowns in communication and reclusive behaviour become a part of life. Families, suffering from PTSD after being involved in forest fires, exhibit irritation, anger and infighting towards eachother. These are some typical stress responses.

The trauma in these forms of stress shape outlook, thought and behaviour and its important to treat the inability to cope with natural life processes, on all levels. Behavioural therapies are very useful in this, as they can help to reshape the newly formed brain patterns, that have been adopted from stress.
At Touch Of Healing craniosacral therapy can help. But since general stress factors in life vary as with coping mechanisms, an aid to this can be any of the holistic treatments, like Hot stone fusion massage, Aromatherapy, Reflexology, Dynamic Thai massage, Amma Fusion can be of benefit in recharging a few batteries. But its really important to take on board that stress has to be managed, if the demands of a mortgage, standards of home life and other needs and wants can be met successfully. For more information you can talk to Shehnaz to discuss what options are available to you.

Articles:

Stress of Trauma
Stress which transpires through trauma is defined by psychologists as a particular category of stress. The word trauma can itself be viewed as a subjective phenomenon, because any event can be seen as being traumatic dependant upon an individuals stress response to it. For the purposes of this article if we look at trauma as if it were a rare occur...
28/05/2010

Stress Burnout
When stress becomes so acute that its no longer possible to deal with the pressure one experiences what is referred to as burnout. This stress involves a feeling of being drained of emotional resources. It is accompanied by the development of a negative, cynical and callous attitude towards life in general and particularly connected to the source ...
27/05/2010

Stress and the Immune system
There is an area of medical research which associates psychological stress to a compromised immune system. This is called psychoneuroimmunology or PNI. Various studys are revealing a correlation between the central nervous system and the immune system. From this information it is believed that psychological stress can directly impact upon the immun...
26/05/2010

consequences of stress
Prolonged stress can effect health in one of two ways. Stress is able to seriously damage health and it also effects our ability to work properly. In todays modern society stress induced coronary heart disease is the main cause behind premature mortality. It happens through a hardening of the arteries. The stress on these arteries causes them to lo...
25/05/2010

What stresses you
Sometimes it may feel like stress is over rated, over played and over emphasised. this will be true of many of you appear to manage stress regardless of how intense it may be for you. This is because each of us is individual and views and deals with life and stress with varying skills and perspectives and resources. These aspects of personality and...
24/05/2010

Measuring Stress
Stress is difficult to define, but even more difficult to measure. It usually involves the individual feeling stress being able to report on their own feelings, thoughts, behaviour and actions connected to the events that happen around their lives. Believe it or not there is a scale to measure this self reporting system for stress. It is called The...
21/05/2010

The stress of Bereavement
The death of a very close family member is recognised as being, one of the most stress filled events of life. Research into the first six months after the death of a spouse, partner, parent or child has shown the examples of depression increase, and there is some degree of evidence which implies an increase in rates of death in those grieving and ...
21/05/2010

Sources of stress
Stress has major impact on the lives of many people, and its often helpful to identify the stress source although that is easier to say than to actually do. Its often helpful for a person to reflect upon their circumstances, their personality and abilities to cope and the point in life thay are at in order to be able to assess if they are feeling s...
19/05/2010

The physical effects of stress
Although, we are not conciously aware, stress does in fact have physical effects upon the body. To illustrate this fact, and if you are able to, think back to the times of prehistoric man, and consider their lifestyles. What would have been their general concerns, and how would they have survived in their environment. Did Stress even play a part in...
18/05/2010

A definition of stress
People tend to define stress as a modern day response, but its been a word in use for many hundreds of years, documented by physicians, apothercaries and psychotherapists of old. In the middle ages stress came to be a canopy term for hardship, conflict or adversity. In the world of engineering it has alot to do with structural pressures.

...
17/05/2010

Neck Pain from Stress
During the recent snowy weather my daughter was driving along a narrow windy road, caught some black ice and ended up sideways in a dyke. She could not remember any impact, she described the car as slipping and sliding into a ditch. However, that evening she developed severe neck pain. Along with the pain she was experiencing a stiff neck and so re...
09/04/2010