Ahh, stress… Like a constant, unwanted passenger on an otherwise uncomfortable ride. Everybody experiences stress in some given way, shape or form over the course of their lives. In many ways, without even realizing it, but there are no exceptions. While not inherently a good thing, most folks don’t realize that stress is a normal function of the body and is usually the response to a significant change or challenge that pops up on you.
According to WebMD, which I love to peruse. “When you feel stressed, your body releases certain hormones. […] The hormones your body releases when you’re stressed get you ready to meet the challenge or demand in your environment. During the stress response, your body gets ready to flee or fight by increasing your heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure.” Sounds pretty reasonable, right? Something that preps you for the challenge you’re about to face?
The point, and the article touches on this, is that stress, in controlled amounts, helps us to get things done and accomplish tasks. Without stress, we’d be left with a “fuck it” mentality where most of us would accomplish very little. The problems arise from being in a stressed state constantly or semi-permanently. The problems arise is that prolonged periods of stress can affect the entire body and mind. It’s taken a lot of decades for people to wake up and realize that emotion and mental health plays a huge part in physical health.
On the emotional side, prolonged periods of stress may cause unusual bouts of emotion, good or bad, sadness, depression, restlessness, short term memory issues and issues focusing long enough to meet your goals or get things done. A lot of this actually sounds like symptoms of poorly controlled Diabetes. Imagine that? And I know for a fact THAT shit is stressful! But an important thing to keep in mind is that every person deals with stress differently. While something may be a big deal to one person, it may come off as nothing at all to another.
On the physical side, there’s a lovely grocery list of potential symptoms that may arise from prolonged stress. These symptoms apply to so many things that one may be experiencing stress while simultaneously thinking they’re just unwell. I’m talking about headaches, inability to sleep or sleeping too much, muscle and joint pain, increased heart rate and blood pressure, fitfully breathing, upset stomach and/or diarrhea and loss of sexual desire. Sounds fun, eh? Pair that with the fact that prolonged stress affects your overall immune system, making it easier to get sick. Also sounds like Type-1 Diabetes.
Ultimately, there a varying forms of stress, not just the emotional or physical, and there can be long-term, permanent effects to prolonged or “chronic” stress. The challenge is in recognizing it and taking steps to address it and manage it in a healthy way. Personally, I’m likely the worst in taking steps to address stress. I’m more of a “jump towards the threat head-on” kind of guy. The result is that I’ll often fight my way through stress instead of recognizing and addressing it. The problem with this is that stress releases a bunch of hormones into the body that can significantly increase blood sugars; cortisol being among them. As I’ve often mentioned before, EVERYTHING affects a Type-1 Diabetic’s blood sugars.
At the end of the day and as I mentioned in the opening paragraph, stress is normal. There’s no getting away from it. But staying healthy depends on how you address it and deal with it. When speaking with others, I’ve often compared getting through a period of increased stress to falling into a river with strong current. If you try to swim against the current or get directly out of the water, you’ll likely exhaust yourself and drown. But if you swim with the flow and slowly make your way to the outer edge, you’ll likely exhaust can manage your way to safety. Stress is very much the same. Food for thought… ☯️
The Blogging Buddhist 