| Stress is a daily reality for most of us. We live with it | | | | adverse conditions. |
| and sometimes it is silently killing us without us | | | | When subjected to circumstances that induce stress, |
| realizing it. It is not a question of does stress affect | | | | the body reacts in a similar way that it would react |
| a person, it is a question of how and how much does | | | | under dangerous situations. It releases chemicals that |
| stress affect a person. Let's look at how it can | | | | prepare the body for defense. |
| affect you. | | | | Under normal dangerous situations these bodily |
| MedSearch defines stress as, "The sum of the | | | | reactions lasts for a very short period of time, until |
| biological reactions to any adverse stimulus, physical, | | | | the danger has passed. |
| mental or emotional, internal or external, that tends | | | | Stress inducing conditions tend to prevail day after |
| to disturb a person's normal state of well-being." | | | | day, month after month. The body was not designed |
| I like this definition because it emphasizes the fact | | | | to be in a constant state of high alert. |
| that stress is actually the effects that we experience | | | | That is why stress can be a killer. |
| in our bodies due to adverse stimuli. | | | | It is basically synonymous with running a car's engine |
| That brings it much closer to home and makes it | | | | constantly at red line revolutions. Sooner or later it is |
| easier to understand how stress affects a person. | | | | going to break because it was not designed to do |
| The biological reactions can include one, more than | | | | that. |
| one, or all of the following: | | | | There is a normal level of operation that your body |
| 1. Physical effects on your body. | | | | can easily cope with. The effects of stress take your |
| 2. Changes in your emotional state. | | | | body beyond those limits. |
| 3. Disturbances in your mental state. | | | | These additional pressures of stress on the bodily |
| 4. Deviations from your normal behavior. | | | | systems result in major effects on a person that can |
| Physical effects of stress can include tenseness in | | | | ruin your emotional state, cause depression and a |
| the muscles, an increased heart rate, more rapid | | | | general negative state of mind, and cause you to act |
| breathing, increase in blood pressure, and many other | | | | completely out of character. |