Today, each person adopts a stressful lifestyle. Stress is an inevitable part of every day that touches anyone, whether a kid or an adult. It is expected to be stressed in a stressful or demanding situation, but stress that goes on and on or is too much can cause the risk of the development of mental illnesses and some health problems. In the following essay, I will account for the personal pressure I have experienced and how it impacted me physically and mentally. I explain why stress occurs and indicate the critical biological consequences of stress, emotion, and thinking on general health. Finally, I will highlight different ways of changing stress motivation behavior. Moreover, reference to existing and respected studies is an approach that I will pursue to strengthen my opinions and the recommendations that I will make.
Different sources may cause stress, and it is beneficial for people to know their stressors, which will help them cope with stress. Work-related pressures, financial worries, and family matters are critical in why anxiousness if stressed, can develop. Most days, I have to share time between a tiring job, house chores, and solving interpersonal issues with colleagues or within the family, directly impacting my daily stress line.
Besides the external factors, some of the internal ones like personal, perfectionism, or unrealistic expectations stress and emotional tendency to be a perfectionist; I find out that having unreachable targets and even being restless when something is not exactly as I dream of has been the one that causes me to take more weight than I could handle.
Another reason is that life events, like relocation, changing jobs, or experiencing a loss, may cause significant stress. I can still feel the tremendous anxiety that came with the loss of a loved one a few years ago, which was the most stressful time of my life. The mixture of the emotional wreck and the real-life problems of coping with the loss could only make me more confused and just incapable of fighting all of this. Furthermore, environmental factors like noise pollution, busyness, or calamities may create massive stress levels (Remes et al., 2021). I have been exposed to stress that arises due to incessant noise and lack of personal space in an urban area, all of which are interpreted as mental and physical fatigue.
Stress can also derive from traumatizing events, like physical or emotional abuse, violence, or road accidents. People who have gone through a traumatic event could develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which could be shown in bodily and psychic symptoms like anxiety, depression, and hypervigilance.
Moreover, chronic illnesses or health conditions may even be a source of stress for the patients and their families, according to a study by Remes et al. (2021). The strain of continuously managing a chronic illness, with its physical and emotional components, including the financial strain and the lifestyle adjustment it might bring about, is also a significant contributing factor to heightened levels of stress. It is worth noting that stress is sometimes internally the origin, and other times, it is the outside world responsible for the rising stress level. Furthermore, it is not often the case that both sources work independently, and they often interrelate as things that make stress more complicated and break down only through effective coping.
Long-term or excessive stress can be severe and capable of changing life in the short term as it can negatively influence an individual’s overall health. An outcome of this is the immune system’s lowered functioning, making people more prone to diseases and infections (Remes et al., 2021). When I am under extreme stress levels, I have discovered that I also have frequent bouts of illness, which is highly probable given that my immunity is compromised. Stress can also lead to the development of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and heart disease via the production of inflammation and changes in blood pressure and heart rate (Remes et al., 2021). When I am under stress, I often go through the physical symptoms of increased heart rate and elevated blood pressure, which bothers me when these go for more extended periods.
Furthermore, chronic depression has positive implications for mental health issues like anxiety and depression by generating brain chemistry and dysfunction, which is considered the most important factor affecting overall mental health (Remes et al., 2021). Anxiety and depression are two of the mental health issues that I have gone through, and I can say that stress has been an essential cause of these challenges.
Although stress may be destructive, it is also an effective change source for people to develop better-coping strategies or change their behaviour. Firstly, stress can produce in people the need to get to the bottom of their priorities and make lifestyle changes, like running regularly or using mindfulness techniques daily, to decrease stress levels (Rudland et al., 2020). I learned the lesson of taking care of myself by practising regular exercise and mindfulness tactics, which bring relief from stress and sustain the balance in how I deal with stress.
The second one is that stress might encourage people to search for supportive social networks, indicating that seeking social support is an efficient coping mechanism (Rudland et al., 2020). When I am at a high centre of stress, what gives me respite and I feel supported is opening up to my close friends or family members. Talking to someone lets me feel that I am not overwhelmed and can tackle the stress-causing situations in my life.
Also, stress can cause people to improve their time management skills, setting the goals they can achieve and saying no to too many demands, thereby reducing their stress. By better understanding how stress affects my productivity and well-being, I have applied clear plans to block essential tasks and make them manageable. I mainly learned to say no to excessive commitments or any other activities that involve much stress.
In conclusion, stress is a complicated entity that is likely to affect both physical and mental health in a rather intricate way. Through personal experience and intellectual research, it has been revealed that stress develops out of different causes, such as external factors, internal factors, and significant life events. On top of that, stress has biological side effects. Namely, it impairs immune function, involves heart symptoms and contributes to mental health problems. Nonetheless, stress can also motivate positive actions, such as healthier coping strategies, reaching out to social groups, and enhanced time management skills. People can better manage their stress levels when they learn about the stress triggers and reactions. With a better understanding, an individual can utilize various management strategies to maintain an overall balance and improve quality of life. It is vital to highlight that people handle stress diversely, and what is beneficial to one individual might not be helpful to another.
Consequently, it is advisable to try different coping strategies and determine what works best for your situation and necessities. It may be done through physical exercises, mindfulness activities, social support, or learning good time management skills. Finding the right tools to help you manage stress has many benefits for the body and the mind.
Lu, S., Wei, F., & Li, G. (2021). The evolution of the concept of stress and the framework of the stress system. Cell stress, 5(6), 76.
Remes, O., Mendes, J. F., & Templeton, P. (2021). Biological, psychological, and social determinants of depression: a review of recent literature. Brain sciences, 11(12), 1633.
Rudland, J. R., Golding, C., & Wilkinson, T. J. (2020). The stress paradox: how stress can be good for learning. Medical education, 54(1), 40–45.