Emotional Stress Essay, Research Paper

Emotional Stress

In our society of today, stress plays a big role in our daily lives. Stress is what moves us, and it can also be what harms us. Yes, stress is what motivates us to do things efficiently, but it is also what can cause serious diseases to occur such as heart disease or cancer.

Stress comes upon all of us, especially those who have responsibility. Whether we have a final paper due in four hours, just failed an exam, or lost our job, it all plays a great role in our life and it can seriously affect us for the future.

The emotions of the body are what contribute to stress. If a person is having a ordinary boring day, then they will have very low stress levels. But, if a person is having a miserable day or even one full of fun you will see that their stress levels are high. In old and even new research it is said that this stress is caused from the communication between the nervous and immune systems.

Impairing the communication between these two systems is associated with a susceptibility to inflammatory diseases, thyroid problems, and arthritis. This is what stress does, it interferes and causes the immune system not to be ready for possible illnesses that may come about.

The numbers of ways that stress can harm us are great. The development of cancer is one thing that stress can effect. There have been studies that show that the more stress a person has, the chance that they may develop cancer will increase. It has even been shown that people with cancer already can live a longer life, on a average of 18 months longer, without stress. In both cases stress plays a important role of whether a person will die and this is why stress effects cancer.

Heart disease is another that stress can effect greatly. Researchers have found that sudden clumping of blood platelets triggers some heart attacks caused by fear or anger. When these emotions run high, the platelets become stickier and they tend to act as a dam, blocking up the arteries from blood flow.

Other problems that may occur are due to a stress hormone called cortisol. This hormone is used in the regulation of the inflammatory signals caused by stress. If this hormone does not increase in response to stress, hyperactivity may occur. If there is too much of cortisol it can cause changes to the brain that lead to memory loss.

The warning signs of being stressed aren t invisible and they should be looked for in order to cope with it. These warning signs are headaches, neckaches, backaches, stomach upsets, irregular heart beat, muscle twitching, jittering, irritability, fatigue, depression, nightmares, frequent accidents, skin problems, hair pulling, inability to talk, and reckless behavior. These signs should be looked at as clusters, having just one of these doesn t mean your stressed, but having more than one may be a good sign that you are under too much stress.

There are many ways that you can reduce the stress in your life. One way is to make new friends and to talk with them frequently about what is going on with your life. Long ago, people lived in close contact with the same group of people and relatives, the people who helped with problems and tasks. Now, it is very rare to see people get so close to each other. This is the main cause of stress in the lives of people, not enough communication.

Communication is the key to coping with stress. Talking about the things that go on in your life can bring about solutions from yourself or from those around you. Keeping the stress bottled up inside only increasing your anxiety, which will lead to problems with your health. Going to talk with a friend or with a psychologist will help you relieve this stress.

Exercise is another way of coping with stress. Going out and jogging or even hitting a punching bag will not only relieve the stress bottled up, but it will also give you a chance to lose those extra pounds. Most people who use exercise to relieve stress tend to stick with it and they also tend to stop overeating and the warning signs of stress seem to fade away.

Stress isn t bad in all cases, and there are many cases in which it is good. Such as getting a report done, thinking of the next breakthrough in science, or even enhancing your skills in a sport. But, most stress in our lives is bad, and without finding ways to decrease this stress, it can cause serious problems in a person s health. So to cope with stress go out and talk about it or exercise and the difference will be remarkable.

References

1. Can Stress Make You Sick? . Harvard Health Letter. April 1998 v23 n6 p1(3)

This source provided me with how stress makes a person sick and had great examples within.

2. College freedom can trigger illness . USA Today. Dec 1996 v125 n2619 p7(1)

This source was not very good, I used only a small portion of it.

3. The talking cure for stress . Health. Nov-Dec 1996 v10 n7 p68(7)

This source was great about how communication plays a important role in decreasing stress.

4. Stress and what you can do about it . Current Health 2. Jan 1996 v22 n5 p6(7)

This source provided the information about warning signs, exercise and how it can reduce stress, a good source of information.

5. De-Stress in minutes . American Health. Sept 1995 v14 n7 p70(1)

This talked about ways you can relieve stress, a short but good article.