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Is Stress an Unrecognized Addiction Or Just a Choice?
By Terry Rondberg | Submitted On July 21, 2014
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Expert Author Terry Rondberg
Is stress an unrecognized addiction... or just a choice? Either way - is it good, or is it always bad for you?
What daily stressors cause your muscles to get tense, your heart rate and respiration to increase? How much time do you spend stressed?
Are You Addicted to Stress?
The irony
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This can be exhilarating and addictive-you might know a person who is an "adrenalin junkie" like this. A person who can lose control, get a cheap thrill, in an environment where he or she feels safe. But in this heightened state of arousal 24/7, stress takes a toll on anyone's body - whether or not they think of the stress as good or …show more content…
It also gave humans the ability to kill prey. Today, this "life-saving" response triggers within us over modern-day activities-dealing with over priced gasoline, fear of public speaking, demanding bosses, and horrible traffic, etc... and we have a very difficult time turning it off. It's become an accepted lifestyle.
We definitely need an "off-switch" for stress!
Chronic stress exposes us to caustic hormones-constantly! The impact stress has on our body is measurable: it causes our brains to shrink, adds fat to our bellies, and even "unties" our chromosomes. Understanding the negative impact of stress is the first step in finding ways to deal with it. The next step, reduce stress.
Nature-it has a way of teaching us what we need to know...
Studying primates in Africa, Dr. Sapolsky has learned a great deal about how the human stress response affects our body. Each year, Dr. Sapolsky spends a weeks in the Kenyan wilderness studying baboon societies which have social and psychological commotion which resembles the stress of modern humanity-and has similarities of human DNA. (ScienceDaily.com reminds us that humans share over 90% of our DNA with our primate
“All of us have a personal relationship with stress, but few of us know how it affects us.” In the film “Stress- Portrait of a Killer” by National Geographic, Robert Sapolsky is researching baboon’s to find a link in stress and potential health risks in humans, Carol Shively is also researching macaques for that reason. Sapolsky is an american neuroendocrinologist that went to Africa “on a hunch” to study non-human subjects to test his theory, this experiment actually got Robert Sapolsky “MacArthur Foundations Genius Fellowship”. He did this by darting the baboons with anesthetic to put them to sleep, to make for easier blood samples. In the samples Sapolsky is measuring the levels of stress hormones found in the blood, he devoted thirty years of his life to this study with the help of his wife Lisa Sapolsky. This experiment relates to sociologic analysis, because Sapolsky’s study happens to draw a conclusion between economic activities and how it genuinely affects the quality of life. Some of the sociological themes we’ll be discussing are how “stress impacts our bodies and how our social standing can make us more or less susceptible”.
To a great extent, stress can be a helpful response, especially for prehistoric humans. During this era, our species needed to react quickly to outside stimuli through a response of “fight or flight”. Through stress, certain hormones are released to help the individual resist the stressor, which may have meant running away from a natural predator. Thus, stress is a positive response that ensures the survival of the species. However, stress over a prolonged period of time causes exhaustion in the individual. Consequently, although stress can be helpful for individuals today, many often experience chronic stress, inflicting varying degrees of damage to their bodies.
In the 2008 National Geographic documentary Stress, Robert Sapolsky and other scientists explain the deadly consequences of prolonged stress. “If you’re a normal mammal,” Sapolsky says, “what stress is about is three minutes of screaming terror on the savannah, after which either it’s over with or you’re over with.” During those three minutes of terror the body responds to imminent danger by deploying stress hormones that stimulate the heart rate and blood pressure while inhibiting other functions, like digestion, growth and reproduction.
The purpose of this paper is to define stress and how it effects the body's physiological systems. This paper will include the normal functions and organs involved in the following five physiological systems, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, respiratory, immune and musculoskeletal. This paper will also include a description of a chronic illness associated with each physiological system and how the illness is affected by stress.
We deal with stress every day and may not even realize it. Stress is the body's response to any demand made on it that comes across as threatening or challenging. There are two different types of stress: eustress and distress. Eustress is thought as the beneficial stress, for example running or biking, as long as it is moderate exercise. Distress is unpleasant and is linked to negative emotions. Stress is unavoidable in life because it would mean a total absence of stimulation, also known as death. Stress can stem from many things in our life. For example, cataclysmic events are known as chronic stressors, which include death, war, birth, divorce, etc. Other stressors include job stress, conflict, and the hassles of daily life. Our body's natural reaction when it experiences stress is known as coping. Coping is our bodies attempt to manage stress in the most effective way that varies between the different stressors. There are two main forms of coping: emotion-focused and problem-focused. Emotion-focused forms of coping are focused on a reaction to the stressor; while problem-focused forms of coping focus on the stressor itself and dealing with it.
Life is full of obstacles and has shown people that stress is very common and a part of life. When you are running around all the time like you are in an emergency mode, your body will pay the price. What some people do not know is that stress can actually be helpful and can cause a positive effect on you. It can serve as a motivation and be useful under pressure. Without stress, our lives would be boring and pointless.
Many people think of stress as a simple problem. In reality however, stress is complex and often misunderstood. We all know that stress is the body’s reaction to any demand on it. Perceptions of events, whether positive or negative, activate stress. It is, therefore, a highly individual affair. What is stressful to ‘X’ may not be so to another. But it is fairly easy to conclude that everyone lives under a certain amount of stress. In fact, the only people without stress are dead. At the same time it is certainly wrong to conclude that stress is always bad. Mild stress may improve the productivity. It may force people to focus more sharply on the problem and produce solutions. But if stress is severe and persist for long periods of time, it can be harmful. Stress can be disruptive to an individual as any
Kumar, Anil, Puneet Rinwa, Gurleen Kaur, and Lalit Machawal. "Stress: Neurobiology, consequences, and management." Journal of Pharmacy and Bioallied Sciences, 2013: 1-7.
fear of failure, and cultural conflict may each heighten stress. Under stress, the heart rate and breathing are at a higher speed and muscles are tense. Multiple stressors
Stress is the main cause of lifestyle diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity that can lead to heart attacks.
Stress is the combination of psychological, physiological, and behavioral reactions that people have in response to events that threaten or challenge them. Stress can be good or bad. Sometimes, stress is helpful, providing people with the extra energy or alertness they need. Stress could give a runner the edge he or she needs to persevere in a marathon, for example. This good kind of stress is called eustress. Unfortunately, stress is often not helpful and can even be harmful when not managed effectively. Stress could make a salesperson buckle under the pressure while trying to make a sales pitch at an important business meeting, for example. Moreover, stress can increase the risk of developing health problems, such as cardiovascular disease and anxiety disorders. This bad kind of stress is called distress, the kind of stress that people usually are referring to when they use the word stress.
Stress is defined in the dictionary as “state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life”. Everyone encounters stress in their life caused by many different variables in life and we all cope with in different ways. The way one copes with the stress is how it can affect our body. Some take to working out, eating healthy, take breaks from what is stressing you out and getting plenty of sleep which are good ways to cope with it. Some take to other coping mechanisms that are not very great for the body. Some examples are stress eating, abuse of drugs and alcohol, bottling up the stress, and depression. These bad methods can cause serious damage to one’s health on the body.
Hans Selye defined stress as “the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change.” He later defined it as “the rate of wear and tear on the body.” Stress can be good because the pressure placed on someone can motivate them to complete the tasks ahead of them. From this, small amounts of stress can be positive. However, long periods of stress wear the body down and begin to have negative effects on the body which could be long term.
"Stress is a natural physical and mental reaction to both good and bad experiences which can be beneficial to your health and safety." (8 Ways Stress Is More Dangerous Than You Think) Everyone 's body responds to stress by releasing hormones, also, you brain receives more oxygen. Stress starts to occur when we become worried about a task or responsibilities we face. Major stress is called chronic stress. It can cause symptoms that can affect your health in a larger way. Some people may say that they succeed more under stress, but sadly, that’s rarely the case. Research has shown that "stress makes a person more likely to make mistakes" (Stress Symptoms, Signs, & Causes). For most people, stress is extremely normal for them that they don 't see it as anything but ordinary. However, stress can motivate someone while under pressure and even get you through a tough or dangerous
Stress is not always harmful, many individuals need a bit of low levels of stress to improve their performance. For example, students preparing for an exam will be motivated to do exceptionally well on the exam. High levels of stress will increase in anxiety, depression, hopelessness, and tension.