What the mind suppresses, the body expresses…..
“Stress isn’t just in your head,” It’s a built-in physiologic response to a threat. When you’re stressed, your body responds. Your blood vessels constrict. Your blood pressure and pulse rise. You breathe faster. Your bloodstream is flooded with hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline.
“When you’re chronically stressed, those physiologic changes, over time, can lead to health problems,” Dr. Jay Winner – Take the Stress Out of Your Life
Stress weakens your immune system and this in turn makes you more vulnerable to illness and disease.
Avoiding Stress is difficult but understanding what causes you stress and how you can deal with it and take control is easy with Stressworx! Both EFT and Hypnosis can quickly and easily reduce fear, break established patterns and discover the causes of your stress. Any emotions attached to painful memories are eliminated, leaving your mind and body calm and relaxed, free of fear.
Identified Stress Related Health Issues
Panic Attacks
Panic attacks are usually triggered by a situation that is stressful, but not life-threatening such as feelings, fears, ideas, memories and expectations that activates the “stress response” Fight or Flight . However this is the last thing you feel like doing and there is a tendency to “freeze” instead. In a situation which is not life-threatening, these physical changes may be experienced as extremely unpleasant, causing palpitations, pain in the muscles resulting from excessive tension, insomnia, breathlessness, numbness, tingling, dizziness, sickness, fainting, headaches, indigestion, diarrhea, fatigue, chest pains, blurred vision, nausea and shaking, to name but a few possible symptoms.
The subconscious mind stores the experience of the panic attack and you may then be fearful of having another so avoid the situation or place where the attack took place. In extreme cases, fear of panic attacks is greater than the attack itself and can sometimes stop people going out (agoraphobia). This in turn reduces confidence and the situation dominates your life.
Headaches and Migraines
Stress is considered one of the most common triggers for headaches and migraines.
Insomnia
If you have trouble getting off to sleep or wake in the night and cannot get back to sleep you may be suffering from insomnia. You may have a very restless sleep pattern and wake feeling as if you haven’t slept at all and feel sluggish and tired throughout the day.
We all need sleep to refresh and re-energise both our bodies and minds. If we don’t get enough sleep, it becomes hard to function and we make mistakes, become irritable and thoroughly miserable.
Stress, anxiety and worry are not the best companions to end the day with and the more sleepless nights you have, the worse it gets as you are training your mind to create a new habit of not sleeping ( not deliberately!)
Depression
We all have bad days but most of us bounce back quite quickly, However when you’re depressed you feel consistently sad for weeks or months, rather than just a few days and are unable to shake it off.
The use of the word depression is often used to describe a rough patch in our lives but it is a real illness with real symptoms, and it’s not a sign of weakness or loss of control.
Symptoms of depression vary – feelings of sadness and hopelessness, being overwhelmed and unable to cope or see any hope or joy ahead, losing interest in things you enjoyed doing not being bothered about the people closest to you. You may feel tearful, constantly tired, have poor sleep patterns, no appetite or sex drive, and have various aches and pains.
Severe depression can make you feel suicidal and that life is no longer worth living.
IBS
Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a very common condition which causes many people emotional as well as physical distress.
As with many illnesses, stress can make IBS worse. It is yet unproven that stress is the cause but it has been discovered that many people with IBS have experienced a traumatic event, usually during their childhood, such as abuse, neglect, a serious childhood illness or bereavement. Of course certain foods and a sensitive stomach also play their part!
Heart Attacks
Researchers have long suspected that the stressed-out, Type A personality has a higher risk of high blood pressure and heart problems. We don’t know why, exactly. Stress can directly increase heart rate and blood flow, and causes the release of cholesterol and triglycerides into the blood stream. It keeps the body on “high alert” which makes the heart work faster and harder than it should. Comfort eating to alleviate stress causes obesity which also puts a strain on the heart Doctors do know that sudden emotional stress can be a trigger for serious cardiac problems, including heart attacks.
Skin conditions and others
Research suggests that high levels of stress hormones can cause inflammation, aggravating conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, eczema, Fibromyalgia, ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Continual stress weakens the immune system making the body vulnerable to infections and colds..
Diabetes
A common illnesses caused by stress is out-of-control blood sugar for diabetes patients. Stress upsets the body balance and makes sugar levels rise.
Cancer
More research is showing clear links between stress and various types of cancer. Stress is known to depress the body’s immune system; people struggling with continuous stress may are unlikely to be equipped to fight a major illness. Unresolved traumas are also believed to contribute to the growth of cancer cells.