Are you under stress?
When I ask that question, most people answer “Not really”. In my experience, they choose this answer for a number of reasons – they think that’s the socially acceptable answer, they have nothing to measure their stress against, they have false beliefs about stress and they fail to recognise the signs of it and label them correctly.
All of us have stress – a crying baby is stressful, moving house is stressful, argueing with a relative or friend is stressful. There are so many everyday things that many of us simply do not label as “stress”
Stress in Modern Ireland
Modern life in Ireland has become very like the American way of life – in other words, we wake up in the morning, rev up to 100mph straight away using beverages such as coffee or caffeine drinks to “get us going”, and then we stay at that speed until we eventually collapse into bed at night. Stress has become so commonplace that it now seems to be the norm. It’s as if you’re constantly running in emergency mode.
The Effects On Your Body
When you’re in a stressful situation, the “emergency response” hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline are produced in higher quantities, preparing your body for the battle ahead. The body doesn’t distinguish between physical and psychological threats. When you’re stressed over a busy schedule, an argument with a friend, a traffic jam, or a mountain of bills, your body reacts just as strongly as if you were facing a life-or-death situation. If you have a lot of responsibilities and worries, your emergency response may be “on” most of the time. The more your body’s “fight or flight” system is activated, the easier it is to activate and the harder it is to shut off.
Potential Health Effects
Chronic stress can cause serious health issues, the symptoms of which are heart disease, digestive problems, sleep problems, depression, obesity, auto-immune diseases, etc. The causes of are many and varied, and I suppose the most obvious one in modern day Ireland is financial pressures, however, many other things that you may not have thought of can cause you stress also such as buying a house, moving house, changes in your role at work, relationship problems, etc
Stress Management
Stress management is a skill that can be learned easily through hypnosis and hypnotherapy. Treatment with hypnosis also involves dealing with any “root cause” issues, such as problems in childhood, relationships with parents, unresolved emotions, etc. You can manage it – there is no need to risk all of the ill effects of chronic stress.