Mental stress definition, cause, symptom, consequences, how to relieve, natural remedy, Instant relieve.
What is stress?
Stress is a response of our body and mind when they are under pressure. Stress happens when it’s difficult for our body and mind to control or handle a situation.
Stress is when we force our body and mind to do something which is not easy for our body to do or it is not supposed to do.
Everyone has stress more or less inside or outside of home, in personal life, social life, in our professional life, in the workplace stress is everywhere.
Some stresses are good, some are bad. A stress said to be positive stress before any exam because this stress is able to increase our productivity.
We get stressed when someone gets too sick in our family. We lose our job and we are stressed, we get stressed when we are unhappy in our personal life. There are many more reasons.
Whatever the stress is physical or mental, it is not healthy for our body or overall health when you have continuous or chronic stress.
A stress can be short or long term depending on what you are experiencing and what is the root cause of the stress.
A stress is called chronic stress when it comes regularly and consistently. Chronic stress brings serious health consequences to your body and mind.
When you are having chronic and continuous stress, you are not able to control your stress and you are taking drugs. In that situation you should take the advice from your doctor or take help from your friends, family or nearest one to take you to the doctor.
So that they can treat you with any appropriate medication or therapy according to your condition.
We can prevent, manage and relieve stress in several ways.
Before going to a solution we need to know about what happens when our body and mind are under stress? What change occurs in our body once we are under stress? What are the consequences of stress on our body, mind and overall health. So let’s dive deep.
Stress can impact your emotions, physical condition and many more. Some symptoms indicate that you have stress.
What happens in your body when you are stressed out?
You have a high workload in your workplace and you are stressed out. Don’t you want to know about what is in your body in this time of stress? Let’s go and see the bigger picture.
Hypothalamus is a small and smart control center of our body. The main responsibility of hypothalamus is to keep your body in a stable state called homeostasis. It also influences your body’s nervous system and manages important hormones.
When you are under stress hypothalamus influences your adrenal glands to release the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol trigger your body’s “fight or flight” response. Your heart beat rises, you breath quickly, this is an emergency mode.
Your heart is in a rush, pumps quickly and sends blood flow to the important organs of your body that need the blood in that emergency condition, such as heart, brain and other important organs. The “fight or flight” response protects your body from the emergency mode by reacting quickly.
When this situation happens randomly sometimes it may be ok but if it continues on a regular basis, you will have serious health issues.
So if you are in a stressed condition and your body is in the “fight or flight” mode your heart pumps quicker than normal and sends Oxygen-rich blood in the same pace to the important organs of your body because they need it to keep the balance.
So if you already have a serious health condition such as asthma, the stressed or “fight or flight” mode can make it even worse, sometimes life threatening. If you already have plaque in your blood vessels or arteries that means your blood vessels are now narrower than normal.
Now it is too difficult to pass this high speed blood to pass through narrower blood vessels to the important organs such as the brain. In that situation blood pressure goes high dramatically and there is a high chance of massive Stroke or Heart attack.
Symptoms of stress
As stress is an abnormal action on the brain and mind there must be some symptoms that determine that you are under stress. Another reason to identify the stress from its symptoms is to take an action to prevent it and get relief from it for further securing the body and mind from further damage.
Symptoms of emotional stress
- Mood swing, frustration, agitation
- Depression, feeling lonely, feeling worthless
- Feeling exhausted, losing control
- Takes long time to relax, avoiding people
Symptoms of physical stress
- You feel low energy and headaches
- High blood pressure, chest pain and rapid heart beat
- Poor digestion, constipation and nausea
- Low sexual desire or ability
- Dry mouth and sleep problem
- Less hunger and appetite
Some time people who are experiencing a chronic stress try to compensate and manage the stress by doing something unusual and unhealthy behavior such as:
- Getting alcoholic, drinking too much alcohol
- Gambling
- Overeating
- Very rapid and unusual sex
- Too much smoking and taking drugs
Consequences of chronic stress
A little stress now and then is not a big problem. But continuous and chronic stress can bring serious health issues. For example:
- You will suffer from serious mental health issues like depression, anxiety, personality disorders
- Stress increase the stress hormone cortisol which triggers blood sugar level results type-2 diabetes
- Cardiovascular disease, heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes
- Skin problem, acne, unusual hair fall
- Eating disorder, unusual weight gain
- Menstrual disorder
- Sexual dysfunction: early ejaculation, less sexual desire, impotence
How to prevent stress?
There is a saying that prevention is better than cure. If we can prevent the stress from its symptoms we can save our lives from many long term life threatening diseases. We can prevent our stress by doing the following things the list below:
- Regular physical activities
- Becoming more social and making more connections
- Stop smoking and using tobacco products
- Stay away from the root cause of stress
- Eat healthy and balanced diet
- Reduce consumption of coffee
- Have a pet at home
- Learn to say ‘No’ and ignore unnecessary responsibilities
Regular physical activities
Any kind of regular physical activity can help to relieve stress. Jogging, cycling, yoga, even simple walking can be a stress reliever. Once we do some physical activities, our body relieves the well-being hormones endorphins which take us away from stress.
Becoming more social and making more connections
Go to social media to make new friends and meet new people. Clubbing can help to meet new people. Go outside with friends, have fun, go to the cinema, travel with them, visit new places and discover things.
Stop smoking and using tobacco product
There is a misconception. Smokers believe that smoking can help to relieve stress. From that sense the smokers increase the smoking while they are under pressure or stress. But the truth is smoking worsens the situation. Nicotine brings more stress on our body and mind.
Stay away from the root cause of stress
Stay away from the root cause of stress. If you know the person or the thing will be a beginning of stress it is recommended to stay away from this thing or the person at any cost.
Eat healthy and balanced diet
Eating a healthy and balanced diet can help you to prevent stress. We sometimes eat too much unhealthy, energetic, fatty, and spicy food that can make our stomach upset and trigger the stress hormone cortisol that could be a reason to trigger any stress. A healthy balanced diet can fight against stress.
Learn to say ‘No’ and ignore unnecessary responsibilities
Try to ignore unnecessary responsibilities in your daily life. Sometimes people are too good and friendly to their friend, colleagues and never say NO to them.
We sometimes take some unnecessary responsibilities from our friends and colleagues because we love them and we can not say NO to them.
These unnecessary responsibilities make you overwhelmed and can be a big reason for stress.
We help our friends and colleagues with heart and soul but when we need help and nobody comes to help you , you find nobody around you.
This situation triggers your stress. Sometimes we help our friends with money and our friends are not able to return our money back which triggers your stress. So the bottom line is to learn to say NO.
How to relieve stress instantly?
There are several ways to control stress. We can take stress control medications or we can do exercises.
Stress is something we can not avoid in our daily life. But if we are overwhelmed with stress we still can get rid of it by following some strategies. They are:
- Do something for mind relaxation:
- Go for shopping
- Instant physical activities
- Play with your pet
- Watch movie or comedy show
- Call your best friends
- Take medication or call your doctor
- Cook your favorite food
Do something for mind relaxation
When you are under stress try to do something mind relaxing: Meditation, deep breath (Take breath slowly and release it slowly, do it for 5 minutes)
Deep breathing can help activate the parasympathetic nervous system of your body, which controls the relaxation response.
While deep breathing, focus on your breath, make it slower and deeper. When you breathe deeply through your nose, your lungs fully expand and your belly rises.
In the same way we can control our stress with the help of a natural remedy.
If you have an inability to control your stress, adaptogen is able to help you.
Adaptogen is a component that has an ability to handle your stress, anxiety, and fatigue temporarily. Adaptogen creates a resistance to stress.
Go for shopping
If you think that you are under pressure or stress, you can go shopping instantly if possible. Shopping can divert your mind from the thoughts you are stressed about.
Instant physical activities
Instant physical activities can help you to get rid of stress. If possible go for jogging in the nature, go for a walk, do sex or musterbet or watch porn, try yoga or massage as an instant stress reliever.
Play with your pet
If you have a pet at your home, go and play with it. Pets are cute animals. They can play with you and divert your mind from stress.
Watch movie or comedy show
If you are under stress go watch a movie of your favorite category. You can watch any comedy show on youtube. Listen to soft relaxing music you can find on youtube.
Call your best friends
Call your best friends or colleagues and gossip with them. You also can share the story of your stress so that your friend can advise you or give you some suggestions.
Take medication or call your doctor
Take medication if you have or call your doctor if you are under severe stress. Do not take a random stress reliever medication. A random medication can be harmful for you. Do not take any medication without advice and recomendation from the doctor.
Cook your favorite food
Do not wait ! Go play music and cook your favorite food or try a new recipe you can find on the internet.
Natural medication to relieve stress
Adaptogens are active components that can help you to get rid of your stress. Adaptogens found in certain plants and mushrooms.
Ashwagandha is one of the plant based adaptogens. Ashwagandha has been used as a stress, anxiety and fatigue reliever for thousands of years. The useful part of ashwagandha is its root.
Not only stress, anxiety and fatigue Ashwagandha is also used to boost the immune system and get rid of mental trauma.
How does Ashwagandha work in our body to release stress?
If you are under stress the main component adaprogen in ashwagandha takes you body and mind back to the balanced state which is called homeostasis. Adaptogens increase or decrease the chemical reactions in our body according to our body need to come back in a balanced state.
If we are under stress that means the level of stress hormone cortisol is very high, adaptogens keep the level of cortisol low to maintain balance. On the other hand, if we feel chronic fatigue, having a very low level of cortisol adaptogen will increase the level of cortisone hormone to get our body and mind back to a balanced and healthy state.
How and when to consume ashwagandha?
When you should take ashwagandha depends on your own personal preference. Ans one thing to clear that ashwagandha is not something you will get a result instantly. It is a regular process for the main component adaptogens of ashwagandha to work in your body effectively.
A study on 60 people shows that regular consumption of 240 mg of ashwagandha everyday for 60 days reduces the stress significantly.
You can use ashwagandha with any kind of drink , smoothie or as tea.
Basically you can take ashwagandha anytime in any way. But some people feel discomfort after taking ashwagandha in an empty stomach.
Therefore it is suggested to take ashwagandha after any meal or small snacks.
Ashwagandha can be found as powder or a capsule form in the market. Try to buy organic one with good quality.
If you have any critical health condition consult with your doctor before taking Ashwagandha. If you notice any abnormal reaction after taking Ashwagandha stop consuming instantly and call your doctor.
The people who the ashwagandha not for
Before starting to consume ashwagandha, talk to your doctor. If you have a certain critical medical condition and under medication you should be careful taking ashwagandha. You should definitely avoid ashwagandha if you have below mentioned health conditions:
- If you are pregnant and breastfeeding
- If you are with a serious medical condition like type 2 diabetes,chronic high or low blood pressure, stroke
- Insomnia, hypothyroidism and depression
- Ashwagandha root is starchy, dense, heavy and oily so people with digestion issue or stomach ulcer should avoid ashwagandha
- Ashwagandha promotes testosterone do those with female hormone imbalance should ignore ashwagandha
- If you have autoimmune disease
Bottom line
We fight against stress small, large or chronic in our daily life. The most dangerous stress is chronic mental stress. Chronic stress can be a reason for many other serious health complications. Stress promotes stress hormone blood sugar and excess blood sugar is a reason for the serious diabetes which is an introduction of high blood pressure and all other cardiovascular disease. We can not ignore stress in our daily life but the stress management is in our hands. Regular physical exercise, mind relaxation exercise, proper deep sleep, consulting with a doctor and taking medication if your doctor prescribes and taking some natural ayurvedic remedies like ashwagandha.
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3252722/
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/drugs/22361-adaptogens
https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-953/ashwagandha
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/ashwagandha-in-the-morning-or-night#bottom-line
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