Stress now has become a fact of life. The American Psychology Association found out in 2017 through a survey that at least 80% of Americans were showing at least one symptom of stress. Sometimes we stress out over good things, but it is more common to suffer from bad stress that can have lasting negative effects on your body. If you don’t take care of yourself enough to lower your stress levels, the consequences can be quite bad and affect body health over time. There are several ways by which stress ultimately affects your body and knowing the warning signs may help you to overcome them before it becomes chronic.
Physical effects of stress
Weakened immune system: This is one of the major effects of stress, especially if it is long term. It can make your immune system less receptive to dangers, which means that you will have a tendency to fall sick more often. The probability of being more prone to disease when switching to a more stressful lifestyle has been scientifically proven as the cause of an impaired immune system.
Bad skin: There are many ways in which we build up stress which ultimately affects our skin. Maybe you’re having a terrible day at work, or you’ve lost real money repeatedly on popular online poker sites from here. Puffy eyes, dark circles, premature wrinkles and rashes are common symptoms of stressed out skin.
Insomnia: You’ll find that the cause and effect of stress are sometimes interrelated. While stress makes it difficult for the body to fall asleep and stay asleep, which leads to insomnia, insomnia leads to bad skin and a weakened immune system because your body is not getting enough rest at night to be able to repair and replenish itself.
It can make you slower: When your brain does not get enough rest because of stress, cognitive learning, which is an important feature of brain function, slows down. This can lead you to process information slower, let alone retain it. You might find yourself being sluggish while doing everyday tasks. Assignments at work can take longer and so can going from one room of the house to the other.
Physical aches and pains: Stress and tiredness are often related to each other, and tiredness has negative consequences on your motor skills. Whenever you feel an odd ache in your limbs and feel tired to walk, but don’t remember lifting any objects or climbing a steep set of stairs, it’s possible that your body is overworked and you need some rest. Persistent headaches are also a major sign of stress. Stomach aches are quite common, which can further lead to nausea and indigestion.
Heart health weakens: Prolonged stress is seriously bad for your heart. If you have a tendency to eat when you’re stressed, that can cause heartburn. If not, increased blood pressure, another symptom of stress, can often lead to heart attacks if you have faced severe stress for a long time. It also makes your heart work twice as hard because when stress levels increase, the heart pounds harder to send blood as quickly as possible to the rest of your organs.
Mental effects of stress
Depression: Mental health is affected quite negatively due to bad stress. Emotional health can become very low when you are in a drawn-out stressful situation, and that can eventually lead to depression. Depression, in turn, affects the immune system and your motivation to do carry out daily activities, including taking care of yourself in the most basic way like eating and showering. Insomnia is further strengthened through depression, which means inadequate rest.
Memory failure: Constantly feeling stressed is seen to affect the way your brain processes memories. Your body becomes so overworked from stress that remembering things become difficult, and even mundane thoughts like recalling the name of someone or what you had for dinner last night are tough to navigate.
Anxiety: Always feeling like you can never relax is a cause for anxiety, which is a dreadful cycle when it comes to stress. When you are thoroughly stressed out, you feel anxious, which makes you more stressed, that makes you even more anxious. Anxiety can stop you from engaging in simple tasks, including those which require you to be in social situations. Avoiding human contact yet again has negative effects on mental health.
Lower your levels of stress
When you have realized that you’re showing signs of being under stress, the first step is to accept it and then take steps to make yourself more relaxed. Laughter is truly the best medicine, so you can take some time out and spend it with people who make you happy, or just watch a comedy show.
Find things to do that you know lowers your stress levels and make time for them even if you have a busy schedule, like reading or even gardening. Make sure you are getting enough sleep. Even if you are suffering from insomnia, lying down and trying to relax instead of worrying about not getting enough sleep is better because at least you are resting, if not sleeping.
Move more. Staying in all day can be quite bad for your mental health, even more so if you’re already depressed because of prolonged stress. Going out might seem daunting or exhausting, but once you’re out the door and getting some fresh air or meeting up a friend for some hot coffee, it should work as an instant mood lifter. Take some time to pamper yourself. Practising self care can lower the effects of stress on your body, so you can cut yourself some slack by investing in a good skincare routine for better skin health and even indulging in some food products that make you feel happy but are not exactly healthy, maybe a couple days a week. Lowering stress is hard, but definitely not impossible.