Stress. We have all experienced it at various points of our lives, typically starting from childhood. At that time, we may have had to deal with stressful situations at school or at home. As we got older, the stresses we experienced would most likely have become more complex, more varied and nuanced, and consequently, how they manifest in our health and wellbeing may not always be apparent.

When people are stressed or experiencing stressful situations, but depending on the individual, some symptoms tend to be evident:  headaches; being short-tempered; loss of appetite; overeating; fatigue; weight loss, weight gain; forgetfulness; muscle soreness; high blood pressure; skin flare-ups; insomnia or trouble sleeping; oversleeping, to name just a few. However, these indicators only tell part of the story, as they tend to emerge at the time when stress is being experienced. Once the challenging situation has been resolved or has settled (somewhat), our body may still be reacting and responding as if it is still in distress.

 

What Is Stress?

According to the Mental Health Foundation in the United Kingdom, stress is our body’s response to pressure, which may be due to a change in a situation we are experiencing, or life events. The feeling of being stressed can be triggered when we experience something new, unexpected or something that threatens our sense of self, or when we feel we have little control over a situation.

Dr. Sonia Reid-Ukala, a General Practitioner, with over 30 years of experience agrees, but she emphasised that our response to change may not only be conscious, but also unconscious. She noted that babies experience anxiety when separated from their parents or caregivers, which is one of the reasons they cry, but they can also develop eating and/or sleep disorders, which if prolonged, can affect their growth and development.

In keeping with the well-known saying, ‘the only constant in life is change’, Dr Reid-Ukala added:

Change is the most persistent and predictable aspect of life, and probably one of the most difficult to accept realities of life.

Life is ever changing. And as you accept and master a particular aspect of your life and enter your comfort zone with this change, another change happens. And this can lead to stress.

Stress affects all aspects of life and affects us in different ways in different stages of our lives. So from the cradle to the grave, we are affected by stress.

 

The Other Symptoms Of Stress

As highlighted earlier, the symptoms of stress are varied, but frequently, we tend to focus only on the physical manifestations. We also ought to consider some of the other ways our bodies may respond to stress, which can be grouped into three areas:  emotional, cognitive and behavioural. 

In addition to the physical symptoms of stress, the emotional symptoms tend to be apparent, and can include feeling anxiety, which could lead to panic attacks, or becoming easily agitated, frustrated, and moody. People also report feeling overwhelmed, like they are losing control, or need to take control. There can also be difficulty relaxing, or quieting our mind, or feelings of low self-esteem, loneliness, worthlessness, or even depression.

To some degree, the cognitive or mental symptoms of stress may seem to overlap with those previously categorised as emotional symptoms of stress, which in essence, highlights the complex interplay between our thoughts and feelings. Nevertheless, some of the mental symptoms of stress include racing thoughts, constant worrying and pessimism, being unable to focus, which can lead to forgetfulness and disorganisation. Additionally, stress can trigger poor judgement across a broad range of situations, and could include self-destructive behaviour and actions.

Similarly, behavioural symptoms of stress tend to be linked to our mental and emotional health, but of course, the severity of the symptoms will depend on the type of stress that is being experienced, and the resilience of the individual. Some of the behavioural symptoms of stress tend to include procrastination, changes in appetite, drug, alcohol and/or tobacco misuse, and an increase in nail biting, fidgeting, pacing or other nervous behaviours.

 

The Longer Term Impact of Stress

If there is any takeaway from all of the symptoms of stress it is the fact that it affects every system in the body. More crucially, and according to Dr Reid-Ukala, stress is a very important factor in people developing chronic and non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and even depression and anxiety. “ And if you speak to any doctor who has been in practice a long time, and I myself have seen many women develop breast cancer after a particularly stressful divorce or breakup of a relationship, because stress affects your immune system.”

Our immune system is crucial in maintaining our health. Every day, our body creates abnormal cells. When our immune system is working well, it will recognise these abnormal cells and destroy them, “But when you’re stressed, the immune system is not working well, then your risk of cancers increase,” according to Dr Reid-Ukala.

She also drew attention to high blood pressure and diabetes, and their relationship to stress, which is quite prevalent in her practice and in developing countries. When stressful situations are experienced, the body releases stress hormones, such as adrenalin and cortisol. Adrenaline raises our heart rate and blood pressure and increases our energy supplies, in order to respond to the situation, whilst cortisol increases sugar in the bloodstream and suppresses non-essential processes in the body, such as those associated with digestion, growth and rejuvenation.

Ideally, once a stressful situation passes, our adrenalin and cortisol levels should go back to normal. But with so many of us are experiencing nearly chronic stress, our adrenalin and cortisol levels are likely to remain elevated, and in the long term can result in, among other things, heart disease, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, hair loss, loss of libido, digestive problems, such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome and weight gain.

 

Prolonged Stressful Living

In our society today and to a considerable degree, it could be argued that stress has become normalised, with most of us living in some state of stress (or distress). We perhaps no longer know what it is like to have ‘no stress’, and if asked to assess our stress levels at any point in time, on a scale of 1 to 5, where ‘1’ is ‘stress-free’ and ‘5’ is ‘extremely stressed’, most of us are likely to be hovering between 2 and 3, which we would consider normal. However, what is the impact on our bodies?

We have sought to highlight the various types of stress that our bodies experience – both when we are going through particularly challenging episodes in our lives, and over the long term if stress is prolonged. The symptoms we have highlighted are just the tip of the iceberg, as the interrelationship and interplay of the symptoms will be unique to each person’s physiology. Further, the impact of stress in our body may be exacerbated or improved by the steps we take to manage and ultimately reduce the external stressors, and more importantly, how our body responds.

 

 

Image: freepik; Mufid Majnun (Unsplash)