In 2019, 23% of 18 to 34-year old’s perceived that most days of their life were quite a bit or extremely stressful. It’s understandable that that stress is higher now, given that this age group is continuing to try to navigate online learning, obtaining new working positions, trying to transition into the ‘adult’ world. We are learning how to manage stress without friend groups that we are able to see at the café that you usually frequent or being able to easily go to the gym when you feel like it.
Stress is caused by situations or pressures which we normally associate as a negative experience. Something like an overwhelming work and school schedule or a relationship that has been having strings tied and pulled because of the events of last year. For most of 2020 and for all of 2021, we and many other schools will be talking about mental health and how to keep it in a healthy state. In the last post we talked about stress management. This week, we are going to talk about what can happen if stress is long term and not managed.
Chronic stress is a constant stressed experience over a prolonged period as defined by the American Psychological Association. When this prolonged period is not remedied, it starts to effect both the physical body and the mental body of the person.
Musculoskeletal System
Those tight muscles that you feel is because your body is trying to guard you from the stress you are going through. This can lead with headaches or migraines from tension in the shoulders and neck. Work/School stress has been shown to be linked to low back and arm muscle pain.
For stress related muscle pain, relaxation techniques and stretching are to be considered. Whether that is meditation, yoga, traditional stretching, tai chi, whatever it is, would be the best way to combat this stress-related body response. This could also lead to insomnia, as sore muscles tend to keep people awake. Insomnia can also occur due to hormonal changes.
Respiratory and Cardiovascular System
When we are in a chronic state of stress, our bodies constantly release hormones that effect our cardio and respiratory systems. In severe cases, this overload of hormones can cause a heart attack or stroke due to heart rate and blood pressure being raised for an extended period of time. Those same hormones also increase ones breathing, thinking that the body needs more oxygen due to the increased heart rate. If you have pre-existing conditions like asthma or emphysema, chronic stress can lead to further breathing difficulties.
When stressed and to help reduce risks involved with these two systems, low to medium intensity exercise as well as practicing breathing techniques help manage the bodies response.
Nervous System
The nervous system, mainly the sympathetic system, is run on adrenalin, which oversees the fight or flight response. They make your heartbeat fast and increase respiration, as mentioned above, while also dilating (increase circumference) of the blood vessels in the extremities and changing the speed of the digestive system. This is the bodies way of dealing with a crisis. Normally, the body deals with the short-term emergency them returns to the unstressed state where the parasympathetic system takes over. However, this is where chronic stress can cause the nervous system to start over working. The chronic in and out of the flight or fight response. The body starts the go into a drained state for the overworking of hormones, which is like the wear and tear on your body when you start to over exercise.
Digestive System
We’ve hinted that the digestive system is affected by chronic stress. The rush of hormones from the nervous system can lead to things like heartburn and acid reflux due to the increase in stomach acid production. This stomach acid increase, like many believe, does not cause stomach ulcers to form that often, but is more likely to cause existing ones to act up. One may find that they are prone to stomach aches, nausea, or even vomiting.
Further down the digestive tract, stress hormones can the physical digestion of food to be delayed or sped up. So, you may notice that in extremely stressful times, you may become constipated or, the complete opposite, diarrhea.
Finally, your liver will start to produce extra blood sugar, trying to give you energy boosts to help you in your flight or fight state. If you are in the state of stress long enough, that extended period of increased blood sugar could increase your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
Other Systems
When folks are in highly stressful states for extended periods of time because the body is in such an exhausted state, sexual drive and reproductive functions start to decrease. Due to the body considering those functions secondary, many hormones related to sexuality decrease and can cause erectile dysfunction, effect the menstrual cycle, and can even cause physical symptoms like menopause.
On the opposite spectrum, stress activates the immune response. If there is an injury, this is a great part of the stress response, however, over time the immune response will weaken your immune system. This reduces your bodies ability to fight off infections, illness, and to heal from wounds or surgeries. One under chronic stress is much more susceptible to things like the common cold much more.
Finally, the endocrine system, which oversees hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, is affected by chronic stress. The hormones can cause behaviours like overeating, not eating enough, abuse of drugs and/or alcohol, and/or social withdrawal.
When talking about long-term stress, the first signs to look for are irritability, anxiety, depression, headaches/migraines, and insomnia. Even though those may not always be the first symptoms, they tend to be the most common symptoms. When dealing with chronic stress, falling back to your stress management techniques is important. However, sometimes, you need to remove yourself from the situation and that is always an option that you need to remember that you have. Remembering healthy habits like exercise, good eating, and relaxation techniques and practicing them regularly, not only when stress happens, is something to always make time for.
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