Stress and Your Health

Stress and Your Health

Many medical conditions are caused or exacerbated by stress, including:

Chronic pain Migraines Ulcers Heartburn High blood pressure

Heart disease Diabetes Asthma PMS Obesity

Infertility Autoimmune diseases Irritable bowel syndrome Skin problems

Emotional effects

Chronic stress grinds away at your mental health, causing emotional damage in addition to physical ailments. Long-term stress can even rewire the brain, leaving you more vulnerable to everyday pressures and less able to cope. Over time, stress can lead to mental health problems such as:

• anxiety
• depression
• eating disorders, and
• substance abuse.

Severe stress and trauma

Severe stress reactions can result from sudden, catastrophic events or traumatic experiences such as a natural disaster, sexual assault, life-threatening accident, or participation in combat. After the initial shock and emotional fallout, many trauma victims gradually begin to recover from its effects. But for some people, the stress symptoms don't go away, the body doesn’t regain its equilibrium, and life doesn’t return to normal. This severe and persisting reaction to trauma is known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Common symptoms of PTSD include:

• Flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, or nightmares about the trauma
• Avoidance of places and things associated with the trauma
• Hypervigilance for signs of danger
• Chronic irritability and tension
• Depression.

PTSD is a serious disorder that requires professional intervention.