This Unseen Poison is Probably the Biggest Killer Around. It is Called Stress!

 

Introduction:

Imagine you are on the road. There is a big queue, and the traffic is hardly moving. You have an important appointment, and the way things are, you are likely to miss it! What is the state of your mind at that particular moment? What is the dominant emotion you are experiencing? I think such an emotion is called FRUSTRATION.

That is our lives. On a daily basis, we encounter many situations that produce frustration. For example, you are overwhelmed by bills that need to be paid, but you are short of cash. While this is eating you slowly, you remember that an instalment on your mortgage is due! Then your wife humbly approaches you and reports that her ultrasound exams have revealed that she has a huge ovarian cyst, and that is why she has been experiencing pain on the right side of her lower abdomen. A costly operation is needed, but since she does not have medical insurance, the family must somehow raise the required operation fees! So, frustration piles upon frustration, upon frustration...

The outcome is stress! Before our lives became a fish swimming in water made by stressors, stress used to be very useful. Stress was meant to help us deal with short-term threatening events. In the wild, for example, if you encountered a ferocious beast, stress helped your body to get the short-term energy it needed to run, or if need be, to fight! Without this change, you would probably just pee in your pants, pass out, and become breakfast, lunch, or dinner for the beast.

 

Why is Continuous Stress so Bad?

Stress comes with a price. The stress hormones that are released into the bloodstream to initiate coping mechanisms also cause problems. One of these problems is the elevation of blood pressure. High blood pressure is bad for various body organs. When the stress is short-lived, blood pressure due to it is short-lived too. However, when stress is full-time, the raised blood pressure is full-time too!

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 'The number of people living with hypertension (blood pressure of 140/90 mmHg or higher or taking medication for hypertension) doubled between 1990 and 2019, from 650 million to 1.3 billion. Nearly half of people with hypertension globally are currently unaware of their condition. More than three-quarters of adults with hypertension live in low- and middle-income countries.'

In this WHO statement, have you noticed the location of the majority of victims? Low- and middle-income countries! Do you know what is common about these countries? They commonly rank very low in world happiness reports. People are very unhappy. Life is very frustrating and thus drives stress levels to be very high.

Another reason why continuous stress is potentially harmful is its ability to generate acid in the body. Continuous stress is a high-energy-consuming process in the body. Acid production is a byproduct of energy consumption. So, the body is churning out acid all the time because of stress. This acid is bad news for the body because of its potential to cause various diseases. The rise of non-communicable diseases in society may be partly due to this.

 

Misguided Coping Mechanisms:

Do men bear the brunt of stress in the family? It seems so. To begin with, men have shorter lifespans than women. In many developed countries, the difference in life expectancy between men and women is around 3 to 5 years. In less developed countries, the difference might be bigger. In third-world countries, the phenomenon of runaway husbands is becoming more and more apparent. They normally say they are going to search for work and just disappear! In a way, this is a coping mechanism. At a certain point, they can't bear the overwhelming demands placed upon them by their wives and kids.

Then there is alcohol. So many bars and pubs! In some countries, even normal provision shops are selling liquor. The producers have even invented very small packs that one can carry in his shirt pocket! People think they can drown their frustrations in alcohol, but in actual fact, alcohol makes things worse. You wake up in the morning with a hangover, and the little money you had with you the day before is gone! What happens? A day of new frustration stretches ahead of you.

It is no wonder that corruption, scams, gambling, and violent crimes are on the rise. People are driven by frustration to seek these vices in the hope of bolstering their purchasing power!

 

Doing It the Right Way:

We definitely need to cope with stress to avoid its negative effects on our health and personal development. Experts have developed various methods of doing this. Probably, you can buy a book on this subject or you can search the internet for information. As a health and wellness professional, I have also created a handbook for stress management. The handbook details various strategies recommended by experts to enable us to cope with stress and practice mindfulness. You can use the following link to access the handbook: The Nuts and Bolts of Stress Management and Mindfulness

Conclusion:

Stress, though unseen, is a serious killer that we need to cope with as best as we can. Trying to handle stress unprofessionally may lead to even more serious stress. The best way is to learn stress-coping strategies developed by experts and diligently put the strategies into practice. After a while, tackling stress successfully will become second nature, and you will become a more resilient person.