You’re sitting in exam hall with question paper in your hand, having little knowledge about the answers,watching the minutes tick away. Your hypothalamus, a tiny control tower in your brain,notices your situation and decides to activate your sympathetic system, send out the order: Send in the stress hormones! These stress hormones are the same ones that trigger your body’s “fight or flight” response. Your heart races, your breath quickens, and your muscles ready for action. This response was designed to protect your body in an emergency by preparing you to react quickly. But when the stress response keeps firing, day after day, it could put your health at serious risk.
Stress is a natural physical and mental reaction to life experiences. Everyone expresses stress from time to time.
Changes to the body
Stress slows normal bodily functions, such as the digestive and immune systems. All resources can then be concentrated on rapid breathing, blood flow, alertness, and muscle use.
The body changes in the following ways during stress:
- blood pressure and pulse rate rise
- breathing is faster
- the digestive system slows down
- immune activity decreases
- the muscles become tense
- a heightened state of alertness prevents sleep
Types of stress
There are various types of stress that require different management
acute stress:
it is the short term stress and mostly people suffer from this type of stress.
Episodic acute stress:
People who frequently experience acute stress, or whose lives present frequent triggers of stress, have episodic acute stress.
chronic stress:
This is the most harmful type of stress. Symptoms of chronic stress include:
- irritability
- anxiety
- depression
- headaches
- insomnia
Stress management:
stress can be managed easily by changing monotonous lifestyle and by adapting proper healthy routine.
- Exercise
- healthy balanced diet
- meditation,massage,relaxation techniques
- spending time with family and friends
- reducing intake of alcohol,drugs and caffeine
Stress management can help to:
- remove or change the source of stress
- alter the way you view a stressful event
- lower the impact that stress might have on your body
- learn alternative ways of coping
Treatment
Doctors usually prescribe no medication for relieving stress,but in cases where the doctor is treating mental illness and not stress,he usually prescribes antidepressants.
