Severe stress can lead to. What are the effects of stress and how to deal with them

A little nervous excitement has a beneficial effect on a person. But severe stress triggers the mechanism of destruction, in which all body systems suffer, immunity decreases, and the emotional background fades.

From the strongest impact on a person, the protective abilities of the body are aggravated. It is their inclusion that provokes a stressful state. In psychology, there is a special scale of stress, which contains standard traumatic conditions. In the first place is the death of relatives and friends. In last place - promotion at work, wedding. Positive emotions can also make you worry.

Causes of nervous stress

Understanding the causes makes it possible to quickly figure out how to deal with stress. Strong psychological stress arises from parting with relatives, for example, as a result of death. This situation has a quick, severe effect on the human nervous system.

The causes of a stressful situation are: external, internal.

Any experience can cause stress to the body. External reasons include a change in the usual environment, flying by plane, moving to a permanent place of residence in another country, leaving the usual place of work.

Stress is the body's response to various adverse factors. In a small amount, it can even be useful, as it stimulates the body to find solutions from uncharacteristic situations. But with a strong and prolonged effect of stress on the body, many disorders occur. In order to get rid of this negative state, it is necessary to understand the cause of its occurrence.

Causes

Anything can cause a stressful state, any situation that has a strong impact on a person. When a person tries to get rid of everyday stimuli and keeps a lot in himself, subsequently any little thing can cause severe stress. Even the loss of a loved one can feel tragic and upsetting. Such irritants have a strong impact on the emotional background: the death of loved ones, divorce, scandals in the family or at work.

Irritants are divided into three types:

• mental stimuli (influence of negative or positive emotions);
• chemical irritants (effect of toxic substances);
• biological stimuli (the effect on the body of overloads, injuries, various diseases).

Severe stress can appear in both adults and children. Usually in children it is less protracted. Except in families where children are under a lot of pressure and suffer from constant quarrels.

Treating stress in women and men is equally difficult. It is important to identify the development of a stressful condition at an early stage, then you will not have to deal with the treatment of the consequences.

Symptoms of severe stress

Sleep disorders

The appearance of insomnia or drowsiness indicates the development of disorders in the body. A person who is tired after a hard day cannot fall asleep for a long time, and sleeps very sensitively. Or vice versa, sleeps more than usual and feels sleepy throughout the day. These manifestations can be both a sign and a cause of the disorder.

Malaise

A person suffering from mental disorders also suffers from the physical manifestations of the disease. Stress is often accompanied by the following symptoms: dizziness, nausea, indigestion, tachycardia, frequent colds.

Appetite disorders and habit changes

Under stress, a person may lose appetite or, on the contrary, increase. Abuse of sweets or other unhealthy foods may also be observed. A sharp transition to the use of atypical foods is also a sign of a stressful state. Switching to a separate diet will help solve stomach problems, but it will not get rid of the source of the problem.

Trying to hide and run away from the problem

A person suffering from stress tends to hide from the problem. He avoids people, may not leave the apartment for a long time, sleep a lot, etc. Quite often, people try to escape from a problem with alcohol or drugs. As a result, it leads to self-destruction.

Symptoms in women

Most women perceive everything too emotionally. For this reason, they are more susceptible to negative factors. The slightest negativity can lead to the development of stress. When stressed, women often suffer from headaches, menstrual and hormonal disorders. The disorder makes the woman feel helpless. Getting rid of this feeling alone is quite difficult. In times like these, you can’t do without the help of loved ones.

How to survive stress? To overcome stress, you need to give yourself more time. For example, you can go to a beauty salon or go to nature. Such a pleasant vacation will help you tune in to positive and accept the help of loved ones.

Postpartum depression is the most dangerous for women. After all, the child feels all the negative emotions of the mother, and they can adversely affect the health of the baby. The main manifestations of postpartum stress are: suspension of milk production, sleep disorders, eating disorders. Only a woman who has given birth is too worried, afraid to do something wrong and considers herself a bad mother, feels guilty, which leads to depression.

Symptoms in men

If women can still admit their weaknesses, then men keep everything in themselves to the last. Thus causing significant harm to health. Characteristic signs of a depressive state in men: irritability, the emergence or intensification of bad habits, sexual disorders.

Being under stress, a man tries to get rid of this condition by self-affirmation, thereby causing pain to his loved ones. In such a difficult period, a man more than ever needs female support.

The effects of severe stress

With a strong stress state in the body, malfunctions begin in the body and the following consequences may occur:

• decreased immunity;
• increase in pressure;
• increased risk of stroke and heart attack;
• development of infertility;
• depression and neurosis.

Also, many diseases are aggravated after facing stressful situations. For example, eczema, autoimmune disorders, heart problems.

What to do

How to deal with stress? Many people, thinking about how to relieve severe stress, resort to drinking alcohol. However, it is worth knowing that alcohol will never help solve problems. Drinking alcohol only temporarily calms, the next day the anxiety will return, intensifying. Therefore, if in thought about how to survive stress, you thought about an alcoholic drink, put it aside. It is also better to refuse coffee and strong tea. They should be replaced with herbal preparations.

With severe stress, you need to eat foods containing magnesium and B vitamins. These substances have a beneficial effect on the nervous system.

To normalize sleep and general tone, regular physical activity is necessary. It is best to exercise outdoors a few hours before bedtime.

Medical treatment

The safest remedies for the body are herbal preparations. A common herbal sedative is valerian. It is allowed to use for the treatment of children, the remedy is not addictive. But it is effective only in cases where a person is able to cope with his experiences. This sedative can be used for short-term depression, with severe stress, its use will not be effective.

To reduce irritability and calm down a little, you can take drugs that have a concomitant sedative effect. They increase concentration and mental activity. The most common is glycine.

The lack of vitamins in the body can increase the manifestation of stress. In mild cases, taking the right combination of vitamins will help. Such a complex contains large doses of vitamins that are necessary for the normal functioning of the nervous system.

To combat stress, homeopathic remedies and dietary supplements that have a calming effect can be used as an aid. Many of them contain in their composition tonic or soothing plants.

The most effective means for the treatment of severe stress are anxiolytics. A common selective agent is Afobazol. This tool can not only eliminate symptomatic manifestations, but also restore and normalize the functioning of the nervous system. It is not addictive, has almost no restrictions on the use and side effects.

If all of the above methods are ineffective, it is necessary to use antidepressants. These funds are sold only by prescription, their intake is strictly controlled by a doctor.

The effect of taking antidepressants does not appear immediately, but after a while. In some cases, the effect may appear after a few weeks, and in some it may not help at all. Then you need to select another tool.

Doctors of all profiles vying with each other trumpet the dangers. This condition, which many used to consider the norm of life, can become a non-specific cause of a huge number of diseases.

First, let's deal with the terminology. Stress is neither good nor bad. It is a natural adaptive response of the body to the impact of various physical or psychological factors. Positive and negative forms of stress (eustress and distress) have similar features: they activate the adrenal cortex, stimulate the production of cortisol, increase anxiety and lead to exhaustion. In this article, we've compiled 10 of the most common effects of chronic stress.

1. Deterioration of memory and attention

Stress leads the human nervous system into an excited state. This is natural, since the brain needs to focus all its efforts on solving the actual problem. But prolonged psycho-emotional stress very quickly depletes our consciousness, and the main cognitive functions begin to decline inexorably: a person systematizes information worse, his attention is scattered, his memory worsens.

2. Anxiety and fixation on the bad

Chronic stress causes the brain to be constantly "on the alert", therefore - the body's natural protective reaction to irritating factors. Moreover, this disorder is one of the main symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) - a severe mental condition that occurs as a result of a single or repetitive psychotraumatic situation.

3. Irritability and irascibility

There are people for whom irritability and irritability are a normal condition due to temperament. But in most cases, such reactions are a method of psychological defense against external aggression, failures, criticism, annoying attention and other stressors. If they are not stopped, a person will gradually lose control of himself, and his temper can destroy valuable family, friendship and professional relationships.

4. Depression

If it arises as a result of any psychotraumatic situation, it is called reactive. The main causes of the disease are stress from the loss of a loved one, divorce, financial difficulties, professional troubles, conflicts, and so on. Reactive depression can last from 1 month to 2 years. The symptoms of this disorder are severe enough (anxiety, tantrums, suicidal thoughts, insomnia, loss of appetite) and should be treated by a professional psychotherapist.

5. Eating disorders

Chronic stress is directly related to eating habits. To cope with stress and give himself pleasure, a person begins to seek solace in food, or, on the contrary, tries to limit its consumption. As a consequence, we have a whole range of eating disorders: anorexia, bulimia, overeating, psychogenic vomiting, loss of appetite and complete refusal to eat. Often it is stress that causes obesity, and in order to cope with the problem, a person will need not only nutritional correction, but also the help of a psychiatrist.

6. Bad habits

That alcohol or drugs can help you deal with stress is a dangerous misconception that has ruined millions of human lives. Indeed, exposure to certain chemicals can temporarily reduce anxiety and anxiety. But in the future, any addiction will become an additional source of stress, and the person will move in a circle, gradually aggravating his condition.

7. Trouble sleeping

Constant nervous tension reduces the quality of sleep, and the anxiety caused by its lack becomes an additional source of stress. People suffering from chronic insomnia are at risk of cardiovascular disease, and they also put their psyche to an unnecessary test.

8. Peptic ulcer

Many have heard that the 12 duodenal ulcer is a consequence of frequent stress. This theory has been confirmed by medical research: stress increases the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, activates the secretory function of the pancreas, and a large amount of bile causes inflammation, erosion and ulcers of the gastric mucosa.

9. Loss of sex drive

Chronic stress can cause impotence in men and lower libido in women. In a state of constant nervous tension, the human brain cannot relax, and sexual arousal does not occur. Loss of desire and lack of sexual life become a source of additional experiences and complexes for both sexes, and a long-term refusal to have sex threatens with hormonal disorders and prostatitis.

10. Cardiovascular disease

Chronic stress, anxiety, attempts to calm the nerves with cigarettes, food and alcohol are the main provocateurs of heart and vascular diseases. They greatly increase the risk of developing arterial hypertension, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease and heart attack.

Maria Nitkina

Not all people know what stress leads to and how seriously this overload affects our body. In some cases, even minor stress, but prolonged over time, stress can lead to serious physiological and mental changes.

Why stress is dangerous

It is difficult to predict what consequences certain psychological shocks will be fraught with, the reaction to stress of men and women varies significantly, and the level of resistance in each organism is individual. For some people, stress is just a temporary difficulty that disappears after the irritant, for others, even a short-term uncomfortable state can be considered a serious failure that can disrupt appetite, cause weakness, fear, and illness.

If we consider stress as a long process of impact on the human body, which causes an oppressed general state, provokes severe dizziness, headache, nervous and mental disorders, disrupts the functioning of organs and systems, becomes an impetus capable of causing physiological and mental illness, then we can conclude - such a phenomenon would not turn out to be useful.

Constant stress can not only affect the emotional component of a person's life. Against its background, the degree of concentration worsens, efficiency decreases, stress can provoke various diseases and will certainly affect the appearance. The consequences of stress are not only nervous overload, severe headache, physiological disorders, but also conditions that can cause serious hormonal failure.

For example, after prolonged stress, you are guaranteed to give the impression of a tired person, have not only an unhealthy complexion, a stale appearance (which causes particular irritation in women), but can also lead to an aggravation of the situation, give rise to weakness, apathy and indifference, become reason for depression or chronic illness. Often external manifestations of stress in a person can also be a change in weight, the appearance of edema, hair loss, brittle nails.

With prolonged stress, a decrease in immunity and the occurrence of various diseases are often observed:

• viral;
• fungal;
• bacterial;
• immune.

Many who have experienced prolonged stress note that they often experienced dizziness and headaches, skin diseases worsened, hormonal failure, adaptation disorders were observed, fears, weakness, mental illness and various diseases appeared, the existence of which a person may have heard, but I could not even imagine that someday they would become a part of his life.

Stress and its consequences

The consequences of stress are very diverse, and each person can manifest itself in the failure of one or more parts of the body. The consequence of severe stress depends on the state of health, gender, age, duration of emotional overstrain, the presence of chronic diseases or disorders in the functioning of organs and systems.

If you are constantly in a state of nervous tension, you may experience the following effects of stress:

• Change in attitude to life (manifestation of irritability, vulnerability, resentment, self-doubt, panic attacks, hysteria).
• Changing the routine of the day. Insomnia, drowsiness, headache, dizziness, a state of weakness, fatigue, lack of a sense of relaxation are often noted.
• Malnutrition - indigestion, decreased or increased appetite, discomfort in the digestive tract.
• Violation of concentration - restlessness, inattention, memory lapses.
• Changes in libido, up to frigidity in women and impotence in men.

Prolonged stress, frequent nervous breakdowns can lead to depression, which is very difficult to get rid of alone, without the help of specialists. That is why we urge you to be extremely attentive to your health, and if you feel that the process is being delayed, and you yourself can no longer cope with the current situation, do not hesitate - consult a doctor!

How to recover from stress

Manifestations of stress in each person, both men and women are very individual. Also, it's different for everyone. Communication with loved ones allows one person to come to his senses, while for others, rest in solitude and peace becomes the best way to relax, relax the body. Someone removes the negative experiences or pain caused from memory with the help of relaxation or yoga, and someone chooses outdoor activities, travel, sea cruises, hiking routes to adapt to new living conditions.

There are many ways to calm down after stress, we will give below the most universal, acceptable and simple, so that each reader can easily use one or more options.

Recovery methods

• Get distracted.

This type of problem solving is effective if you have experienced a nervous shock of an emotional nature. Switching attention to any other object is a very good attempt and the right action! Think about your favorite hobby. Maybe you used to draw well, write poetry, embroider? Or maybe visited the pool or went on horseback? Today, hippotherapy is a fairly popular way to treat many ailments and a good method of recovery after illness or stress.

Communication with animals is a unique chance to restore peace of mind, to be filled with new impressions and emotions. A very good way to regain strength, feel renewed, and restore the functioning of the body for men can be a bath, and for women - spa treatments, a visit to a beauty salon or a massage room.

• Another very inexpensive way to adapt is walking.

Walking is not only a good way to tone up the body, but also an opportunity to calm down, switch, feel better, overcome weakness, restore interest in life. Hiking in a beautiful park or smart city streets will not only distract your attention, but also improve your physical condition. In a leisurely walk, you can forget the pain and bitterness of defeat, analyze the current situation, try to formulate the main tasks, the solution of which must be taken without delay.

Walking makes it easier to endure stress and its consequences, restore appetite, overcome weakness, and help restore a positive emotional state. If you have children, make it a rule to go with them to the zoo, cinema, cafe, water park, participate in joint entertainment, go on picnics or to the country. Children are a real “bottomless well” of positive emotions and incredible positive. Spending time together in a fun, relaxed environment can be your best medicine.

• Another way is hydrotherapy.

It is not necessary to carry out water procedures on the sea coast in the summer or in an expensive spa. A hot bath with sea salt, aromatic oils, decoction of medicinal herbs will help to calm down after stress and strong emotional arousal. However, this procedure may have contraindications, so before using it, you should consult your doctor. It is also recommended to listen to calm music or meditate.

Against the backdrop of pleasant calm melodies, after drinking a cup of herbal tea with chamomile and mint, you can relax, disengage from a difficult situation, try to look at the problem from the outside and come to a solution to issues or problems, while also getting an emotional release.

• Get a massage.

Activation of points of the body, nerve endings will switch the "attention" of the body, help to calm down, relax, let go of the problem. The massage of the head and fingers works very well. Massage is an excellent prevention of many diseases, as well as an effective way to treat various ailments and diseases. Massage allows you to restore the basic functions of the human body, relieves the effects of a nervous breakdown, physical pain or disorders and psychological disruptions, is a great way to adapt, the ability to overcome weakness, restore appetite, neutralize hormonal failure, etc.

• Breathe correctly.

If your breathing is measured, deep, infrequent, rhythmic, calm, your body will automatically adjust to this rhythm and relax. To breathe correctly, you need to monitor your posture, inhale deeply, inhale through your nose, and exhale through your mouth. Breathing exercises are a great way to adapt to various conditions in everyday life, the ability to level the consequences of almost any disease, nervous breakdown, or can be an effective prevention of physical or mental ailments.

• Smile as often as possible.

Women and men smile not only decorates, but makes them more attractive. Scientists back in the 80s proved the relationship, which they called "body-brain". Those facial muscles that are involved in smiling activate nerve endings. They send a signal to the brain, which takes a smile for a state of happiness, and increases the secretion of endorphins and serotonin, the hormones of happiness and joy. And, as you know, these chemicals are the main enemies in the fight against stress. These hormones increase the body's resistance, reduce the level of anxiety. A smiling person feels more confident and calm. There is also an inverse relationship. A frowning face causes the opposite reaction of the brain, and any disorders against this background intensify even more.

• Do not avoid socializing with people and friends that are pleasant to you.

Try to get in touch with relatives more often, do not deny yourself small pleasures. Love sweet? Haven't been to the cinema or theater for a long time, haven't visited museums? Or maybe you have always dreamed of "talking" with dolphins or participating in bowling competitions? Give yourself pleasure, realize your dream, positive emotions are the best medicine!

• Do not focus on your own worries, the best way to adapt is to forget your own pain and start helping others. The more active you are, the easier and faster you will find peace of mind, which means that your ability to withstand stress will increase many times over!