The Physical Effects of Stress
We all experience stress. In fact, a majority of people experience stress on a daily basis. Say for example, you are preparing yourself ready for office, all of a sudden you discover that you are unable to find out your favorite perfume, so you become anxious and may outburst to anger or anxiety depending on your personality type. Although this is not such type of stressor that can lead you to experience too much stress in your life, there are many stressors that can significantly influence an individual's life in many aspects, for example, death of a close one. The experience of stress to some extent is necessary for our survival. But a prolonged stress can lead to experience catastrophe in life.
Good Stress vs. Bad Stress
If broadly categorized, there are two types of stress - one is 'good stress' and the other one is 'bad stress'. Not all stressors are bad to our existence such as experience of stress during exam. If a student does not experience a minimum level of stress concerning his preparation for the exam, it is very likely that he will lack the motivation to do well in his exam. However, if his degree of experiencing stress becomes higher, he may not perform optimally as expected due to intense stressor. This consequently affects him both physically and psychologically, leading him to experience different psychological and physical effects of stress. Hence, we can conclude that the experience of same event can be attributed as either 'good' or 'bad' depending on how we perceive.
When the experience of stress becomes so intense and continues for a very long period of time, it may contribute to a several number of minor and major physical disorders. Here we will discuss various physical effects of stress.
Minor or Short Term Effects
When we experience stress, the most common physical effects of stress include fatigue and difficulty in sleeping. In addition to this, we may also experience sweating, heart palpitation, minor body aches or headache, recurrent urination, etc. The prolonged experience of fatigue and difficulty in sleeping may lead to cause mood swings and irritability. This may turn out the situation even worse with the experience of frequent body aches and headache. However, all of these can be attributed to minor or short term physical effects of stress which may not be very critical in time, but not all the physical effects of stress are limited to minor or short term effects.
Major or Long Term Effects
Prolonged interaction to stressors may lead to major or long term physical effects of stress which can even be life threatening. Stress may affect the internal organs profoundly. The experience of stress may cause faster heart beat and an increase in blood pressure, leading to experience cardiac problem and stroke. High blood pressure is considered to be the silent killer as it does not have any apparent symptoms. There is a strong correlation between the experience of stress and high blood pressure. In addition, a prolonged experience of stress may cause permanent emotional distress, which may lead to social isolation, depression, frustration, anxiety and many other psychological complications. These psychological disruptions may aggravate the existing physical condition, directing to experience indirect physical effects of stress.
