Stress, the silent, but deadly killer

I wonder if you've noticed of late that, although we live in a far "better world" than that of our grandparents (in some ways at least), stress is rampant within a great portion of our society. Modern day pressures of living, many of which are imposed by expectation, are growing year by year. Indeed, one could look at the world we live in, and it often feels that we're looking at some strange and foreign play being acted out on a parallel stage in another dimension. As if we're actually not in charge of the whole shooting match, and some strange external force is pushing us toward that dark abyss.

What is psychological stress anyway, and how are we affected by it? What does it do to our body and mind?

Stress is simply a fact of nature -- forces from the outside world affecting the individual. The individual responds to stress in ways that affect the individual as well as their environment. Hence, all living creatures are in a constant interchange with their surroundings (the ecosystem), both physically and behaviorally. This interplay of forces, or energy, is of course present in the relationships between all matter in the universe, whether it is living (animate) or not living (inanimate). However, there are critical differences in how different living creatures relate to their environment. These differences have far-reaching consequences for survival. Because of the overabundance of stress in our modern lives, we usually think of stress as a negative experience, but from a biological point of view, stress can be a neutral, negative, or positive experience. In general, stress is related to both external and internal factors. External factors include the physical environment, including your job, your relationships with others, your home, and all the situations, challenges, difficulties, and expectations you're confronted with on a daily basis. Internal factors determine your body's ability to respond to, and deal with, the external stress-inducing factors. Internal factors which influence your ability to handle stress include your nutritional status, overall health.

Stress comes in many forms and affects people of all ages and all walks of life. No external standards can be applied to predict stress levels in individuals -- one need not have a traditionally stressful job to experience workplace stress, just as a parent of one child may experience more parental stress than a parent of several children. The degree of stress in our lives is highly dependent upon individual factors such as our physical health, the quality of our interpersonal relationships, the number of commitments and responsibilities we carry, the degree of others' dependence upon us, expectations of us, the amount of support we receive from others, and the number of changes or traumatic events that have recently occurred in our lives.

There is now evidence that points to abnormal stress responses as causing various diseases or conditions. These include anxiety disorders, depression, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease, certain gastrointestinal diseases, some cancers, and even the process of aging itself. Stress also seems to increase the frequency and severity of migraine headaches, episodes of asthma, and fluctuations of blood sugar. There also is scientific evidence showing that people experiencing psychological stress are more prone to developing colds and other infections than their less-stressed peers. Overwhelming psychological stress (such as the events of 9-11) can cause both temporary (transient) and long-lasting (chronic) symptoms of a serious psychiatric illness called post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

So, as you can see, stress can transmute from something totally mind related into something deeply physical in nature. It can make us very ill indeed, with some of our commonest diseases such as diabetes exacerbated, or possibly even created by stress.

In order to allay these physical ramifications, we need to act. We need to participate in something which confronts this stress reaction. Being a hypnotherapist, I can think of no better way than by the use of therapeutic hypnosis. It is a wonderful way of divesting yourself of the cares and worries you've accumulated. The best way that I can explain it, and to use a modern terminology, a session with me, for stress relief, is somewhat akin to defragmenting your computer. In your case of course, your HardDrive is your mind.

You may wonder if it can help you. There's only one way to find out ...........