What does stress feel like?

Pamela, a homemaker, often feels tense. Her life leave her feeling frazzled and drained. Sometimes she is unable to cope with the demands that her family places on her. She feels as if she is being pulled in individual directions at once. Sometimes she becomes irritable and has emotive outbursts over time details. Lately she has even had pain sleeping at night, though she is exhausted.

Pamela is low stress. Though it is a commonly utilised term, many people do not understand the fleshly and emotive implications of stress. The personalty of pronounce attain daily tasks difficult. Stress affects the performance of the brain. When people are low stress, their memory suffers. Stress can drive irritability and nervousness. The following are ten key pronounce indicators:

    * Sleep disturbances (insomnia or too much sleep)
    * Changes in matter consumption (loss of appetite or process in appetite)
    * Poor immersion or memory retention
    * Uncharacteristic mistakes or forgotten appointments
    * Anger or tantrums
    * Violent or anti-social behavior
    * Emotional outbursts
    * Alcohol or drug abuse
    * Nervous habits

Constant pronounce can trigger fleshly ailments such as high murder pressure. When the body is low stress, certain fleshly responses are triggered including:

•  Increase in heart evaluate and murder push to process murder flow to the mentality for reinforced decision-making ability
•  murder sugar rises to furnish more fuel for energy as the result of the breakdown of glycogen, fat and protein stores
• murder is shunted away from the intestines, where it is not needed for purposes of digestion, to the large muscles of the arms and legs to provide more capableness in combat, or greater speed in effort away from a scene of potential danger
•  murder action occurs more apace to prevent murder expiration from lacerations or interior hemorrhage

When mitt untreated, pronounce greatly affects one’s quality of life and the ability to complete daily tasks. 

8 secrets for all-day energy -Part 6

Consistent wake-up time, regular meals can help fight fatigue

Relieve stress

Instead of: Meditating for 20 minutes

Try: Shorter, more regular sessions

\"Even in the span of 3 minutes, reflexion can modification the stress hormones that suspenseful your muscles and constrict your murder vessels,\" says book Orloff, MD, a specialist at UCLA and communicator of \"Positive Energy.\" \"It increases endorphins too.\" Quick time-outs throughout your day are also easier to fit into a laboring schedule than a longer digit at day's end.

Find a stilly locate where you won't be interrupted. (\"In a laboring office, that may even stingy going into the bathroom,\" says Orloff.) Sit down and close your eyes. Listen to your breath as you slowly inhale and exhale, and when thoughts intrude, imagine that they're like clouds floating by in the sky. Then visualize something or someone who makes you happy. It could be someplace you've been on vacation, someone you love, or something you fuck doing (like lounging in a fragrant bath).

Do You Suffer From an Anxiety Disorder That Can Lead to Panic Attacks?

Learn calming breathing techniques to calm a panic attack.  When a person has a panic attack, often they feel so overwhelmed that they forget to simply breathe properly.  Many doctors, therefore, advocate safe breathing practices in order to help calm anyone having a panic attack.  In fact, if you ever had a panic attack in public, someone may have tried to get you to breath into a paper bag.  This may or may be a good method for you, but the fact is that you should know and practice your breathing exercise before you are panicking, because if you suffer from anxiety disorder, panicky attacks may be a part of your life.

Other relaxing practices may also be able to help your panic attack.  Of course, you might find it difficult to even consider meditation when you're having a panic attack, but by learning this relaxing procedure, you can use some of the same calming techniques that help you to meditate to help you calm down.

Another great way to prepare for a panic attack is to simply know your triggers.  Do you have a specific phobia?  Is excess stress your downfall?  Do certain situations seem impossible for you?  When you know what triggers panic reactions, you can do your best to avoid or minimize these situations.

You should also be medically prepared for a panic attack.  When you go outside of the home, take with you a list of emergency contacts, which should include your doctor's number, your local crisis hotline, and members of your personal support systems.  You can use these phone numbers yourself if you feel a panicky attack starting, or another person will easily find this information in your purse or wallet if you are not capable of helping yourselves.

Also take with you a bag to help you feel comfortable and calm down during a panic attack.  A crucial part of the bag is any medications you may be taking, along with instructions on taking it.  You can also include any items from home that will help you feel more comfortable.  This can include herbal tea, a stuffed animal,  photo's, rubber bands to snap on your wrists, mints, hand cream, money, a puzzle book, and everything else that may help you relax, stimulated your brain, or distract yourself.

by: Vi Bronkhorst

Stress Management - Addressing The Source

Stresses induced by modern day living habits takes a serious toll on the well being of families everywhere. Deadlines to meet at the workplace, financial obligations to be met at the homefront, relationship issues, parenting issues and the like have caused a lot of havoc in a lot of people's lives. News articles and magazines are filled with stress induced fatigue and stress induced senseless actions taken by people in all kinds of stressful situations. And this stress is not limited to any specific geographical region, any specific people or any specific age group. Stress seems to be affecting not only adults in the prime of their lives, but also the elderly and children of both sexes male and female. Management of stress is extremely important at this juncture in our society and unfortunately this is not something that is taught in schools and universities. While this article cannot encompass all aspects of stress management, we will deal here only with one aspect of stress management and that is addressing the source of stress.

Stress management is usually associated with yoga or meditation and other relaxation exercises. While mind calming techniques such as deep breathing and calming scene visualizations do play an important role in stress reduction, in the opinion of the author, stress reduction is different from stress management. To associate stress reduction with stress management is akin to saying reducing your household expenses is the same as home finance management; sure reducing the expenses will certainly help, but that is not management.

Stress management invokes the use of techniques to manage stress, with the full awareness that you cannot lead a stress free life in the modern world and run to the mountains. Hence the first step in stress management is the acceptance that there will be factors that push your limits and introduce stress levels in your day to day life. Now, once that is accepted, you can proceed to manage it. Management of stress involves first of all finding the source of the stress and addressing the source rather than the result which is the stress. For example, because there is a tight deadline for you to meet for some project at work, you may get stressed; in this case, the source of stress is the deadline at work; you need to manage your resources, time, people, etc to ensure that you will meet this deadline and you would have managed the stress effectively.

Another example here; let's say you are in the process of buying a house and your finances are really not in great shape to purchase this house; you are getting stressed all over. In this case, you need to identify that purchasing the house is not the source of stress, rather it is your bad financial management that is the culprit; you have one of two choices, you can face the reality and back off buying this property until you get all your financial ducks in a row or you can opt to buy a lesser valued home. The house project may suffer, but you would have mitigated the stress from buying the house when your finances are terrible. As you can see from these two examples, addressing the source of the stress many times involves being completely honest with yourself and facing reality the way it is instead of hiding behind the curtain of imaginary bliss.

by: Bobby Iyengar

Primary Suicide Risk Factor For Veterans Is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Researchers working with Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have found that post-traumatic stress disorder, the current most common mental disorder among veterans returning from service in the Middle East, is associated with an increased risk for thoughts of suicide.

Results of the study indicated that veterans who screened positive for PTSD were four times more likely to report suicide-related thoughts relative to veterans without the disorder. The research, published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, establishes PTSD as a risk factor for thoughts of suicide in Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. This holds true, even after accounting for other psychiatric disorder diagnoses, such as substance abuse and depression. Veterans who screened positive for PTSD and two or more comorbid mental disorders were significantly more likely to experience thoughts of suicide relative to veterans with PTSD alone.

As many as forty-six percent of veterans in the study experienced suicidal thoughts or behaviors in the month prior to seeking care, and of those veterans, three percent reported an actual attempt within four months prior to seeking the care. Suicide-related thoughts and behaviors discovered in a returning veteran who has been diagnosed with PTSD, especially in the presence of other mental disorders, may suggest an increased risk for suicide. This study is published in the August 2009 issue of the Journal of Traumatic Stress.

Lead author Matthew Jakupcak, Ph.D. is a researcher at the Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC) as part of the VA Puget Sound Health Care System. He is also a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, WA.

Source:
Bethany H. Carland-Adams
Wiley-Blackwell
www.medicalnewstoday.com