Stress
Stress is a feeling of excess pressure, it is the feeling of emotional or physical tension. Stress is part of our daily life. Stress can be caused by time and work pressure, problems in relationships, noise, pollution, finance, insecurity to mention but a few.
Stress pushes you to face the very cause of the pressure or prompts you to run away for safety. The consequences of stress affects our body, mind, and emotions. stress should be monitored, because it’s effects can cause damage and can even lead to fatality. On the other hand, in the right quantity, stress is a good source of motivation. Stress mechanisms release energy so the individual can face almost any situation.
Some classify stress as a physiological condition, necessary and useful in life and survival; some also assume stress to be a condition of imbalance, prejudicial to health.
Example From Eveline A Tailor
Evenline, a tailor, provides an example. she knows that friday is the day she delivers her sewing orders, and she works untiringly on Thursday. In fact, on Thursday she produces more than on Tuesday and Wednesday together. She concentrates better and works more quickly and with greater precision. she even forgets to eat! On Friday, she delivers the clothing on time and relaxes with great satisfaction. Stress was useful in the situation of Eveline.
Is Stress Bad?
Using the case of Eveline, Stress pushes her to plan her job in an organized way and get them done before the deadline giving her time to rest the next day in order to calm her nerves and regain her lost energy, But she cannot abuse this energy constantly.
The effects of stress emerges when situation like this shows up more often and become extended and exaggerated. Stress isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It is what propels us to act quickly on important issues and what motivates us to achieve our goals sometimes even before the deadline. Stress is healthy when it helps to achieve a task quickly to save more trouble.
Stress can mean different thing to different people, what you may find stressful may seem interesting and a wonderful experiences to another person.
Prolonged causes of stress should be avoided. Activities causing stress should be lowered to prevent health issues. When an individual oversteps the barrier of adequate stress, the body consequently lowers the resistance of the immunological system that protects us against infections. We then become prone and open to having all kinds of illnesses and diseases of different types including Headache, Cold, Fever etc. Now imagined Cold aligned with depression, it becomes a terrible state for the victim.
Types of Stress
Acute Strees
Episodic Acute Stress
Chronic Stress
Acute Stress
Acute stress, is an intense, unpleasant, and dysfunctional reaction beginning shortly after an overwhelming traumatic event and lasting less than a month. If symptoms persist longer than a month, people are diagnosed as having post traumatic stress disorder.
Acute stress is short time stress that goes away quickly. It helps you manage dangerous situation. It also occurs when you do something exciting. Acute stress reactions occurs when symptoms develop due to a particular stressful event.
The world ‘Acute’ means the symptoms develop quickly but do not usually last long.
Episodic Acute Stress
Episodic acute stress occurs when someone frequently gets involved in Acute stress. Acute stress will occur when people takes more jobs or activities that are more than what they can deliver. It makes them always feel as if they are in a hurry to finish up their task, makes them disorganized ending up accomplishing none.
The difference between Acute stress and Episodic stress is that; Acute stress disorder or PTSD. is occasional, moderate, acute may not cause mental result in mental health issues but if it continues often and on, it may result in serious health break down.
Chronic Stress
Chronic stress is a type of stress arising from a long-term emotional pressure. For example, a very stressful job, an unhappy family conditions, financial challenges etc.
If you have chronic stress, your body experiences the fight or flight response so it can frequently recover. This causes your nervous system to be constantly aroused or disturbed, which is very dangerous to your health and may lead to High Blood Pressure HBP.
When your stress level becomes so chronic, it can result in serious health challenge which can affect your heart and immune system.
Research have it that people living in busy and very populated towns or cities tends to experience chronic stress, due to road traffic, food security, basic needs, job security, contaminated water. etc.
If you think you may have this type of stress, it is advisable you speak to a health personnel who can help you find ways to manage your stress level before it turns be a serious health challenge.
Physical and Pyschological Effect of Stress
Stress has influence on various various disease, and the state of imbalance caused by bad stress weakens the mind and the body to face theses situations. Thoughts, emotions, and behavior also feel the effects of excessive stress:
- Thought: difficulty thinking correctly, faulty memory, lack of concentration, mistaken concepts, et cetera.
- Emotions: ncostant tension, fear of contracting some types of disease, impatience and irritability, insecurity. et cetera.
- Behavior: a decline in verbal flow, a risk of the use of dangerous substances habitual absence from school and from work, difficulty sleeping, relationship problems, et cetera;
When work production is maintained at the cost of high stress and great tension, efficiency is lost. And when the duration of high stress is prolonged, the risk for serious disorders in the body and mind increases.
How To Prevent Stress
A wise use of time prevents stress, and we need to know how to manage pressure, and how we feel depends on how we spend it.
1. Be realistic:
Perhaps you recognize the saying, “Don’t bite bite off more than you can chew.” It advises us against trying to do too many things at once. You should set goals and carry them out in the time available.
2. Establish priorities:
Knowing your priorities to concentrate on the task that are most important. This has a lot to do with your values and your beliefs. You should know what positions money occupy in your life? What is the importance of your work? How do you do you consider your family relationships? Do you regard helping other people as something meaningful? Do you demonstrate religious values in your life? Depending on your answers, you will designate adequate time for each aspect of your life.
Diversify your task:
Focusing time and energy on one activity for too long can cause it to become boring or become an obsession. Work is important for you to receive an income and personal satisfaction. A couple or family relationship is also an ingredient of good balance. Leisure offers much satisfaction and should be a complement to regular work; therefore, it does good to alternate physical work with calm leisure activities or sedentary work with active leisure pursuit.
Be organized:
Prepare a list of things you need to do during the day and week. Focus on them, and do not get distracted by other things that take your attention from your desired activities.
Live a simple life:
Leisure activitiews that absorb a great deal of time, such expensive vacations and extravagant sports, can become causes of stress in themselves. These examples involve not only large amount of money but also the use of time and energy for them to be implemented. Try simple activities such as an outing in the open air or reading a good book. Learn to be happy with simple things that provides true joy.
How to Overcome Stress
The treatment for stress has to be complete and holistic. It should emcompass all social aspects of one’s life (work, family, friends, etc.) In period of stress, choose the amount of work that be done, don’t be concerned about anything else. Give attention to your relationships, forget about yourself, seek to be pleasant, and offer your friendship to others. Help someone, be friendly and make a meaningful contribution to humanity. The reaction from others will give you great help.
Overcoming stress involves all the dimension of existence: physical, mental and spiritual. Consider the following guidance listed below:Thought plan: The most effective therapy in stress cases is called cognitive psychotherapy, which consist of teaching an individual to control his or her thoughts instead of allowing the thoughts to dominate the individual. How can these be done? Practice the following exercise always:
- Prohibit negative thoughts.
- Discard irrational beliefs.
- Choose topics that are positive or neutral.
- Have constructive concerns as a motivation.
To be continued.……………………
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