Healthy Living gets stressed out

It’s not contagious but it certainly does plague millions worldwide. In fact chances are someone around you is stressed out just about now. Stress is known as a mental and emotional condition that affects every aspect of a person’s life.  However, managing or even relieving stress is not always easy. This week on Healthy Living has useful tips to keep you calm and healthy for everyday life.

Dr Carol Brebion, Psychiatrist

“They have elastic and stress will stretch it and when we can’t stress that elastic anymore or else it breaks”

Marleni Cuellar reporting

Psychiatrist, Dr Carol Brebion, uses the analogy of a rubber band to illustrate how the body functions under stress. Most of us can identify stress without a medical diagnosis. The countless demands of everyday living can overwhelm any person. According to Dr Brebion, the body’s physical reaction to stress is instinctual whether the cause is natural or not.

Dr Carol Brebion

Dr. carol Berbion

“If we were to go in the jungle in Belize today and meet a jaguar you would have an increase in the sympathetic nerve system basically you would get what we call a flight or fight response. You would run or you would fight and so there are certain evolutionary mechanisms which makes your heart beat quickly you would have increased blood pressure and decrease blood going to your digestive system and basically all of these are survival mechanisms in other words they make it more likely for you to survive the event of meeting the jaguar in the jungle. Stress these days are not due to life threatening effects of nature in fact most of our stress these days come from psychological stresses which often are self imposed.”

The accumulation of daily stresses can and eventually will take a toll on the body.

Dr Carol Brebion

“Unfortunately today we have a lot of chronic stress which means that it’s a bit vaguer as to what is causing the stress. It’s often not just one stressor but a combination of multiple things that are causing stress.  If you’re too stressed then your immune system will decrease and that will put you at increased risks for infectious disease whether it’s cold or pneumonias but it may also have a role to  play in for example in cancer developing. In terms of mental health if you’re stressed for long periods of time many people will complain “I can’t remember anything, I can’t concentrate I keep forgetting things and there is a reason for that. The cortisone that is released in the body is a toxic bath for your brain and you’re actually losing cells in your hippocampus which is responsible for short term memory so that is one of the reason that we tell people that they really need to learn to manage their stress because in the long term mental problems that can be the precursors to dementia.”

But how can you differentiate when you have moved beyond the level of manageable stress? Here are some signs to look out for: Chronic pain/ headaches/ muscle tensions/ unusual emotional outbursts, irritability, insomnia, unable to have or relax Learning ways to manage your stress level is extremely important. According to Dr Carol, at the top of the list is self care.

Dr Carol Brebion

“You need to think of yourself first. If you’re going to do all of these activities and then you say to yourself “if I finish all these activities and if I have time and energy at 9 o clock at night to go to the gym.” You’ll never go. So you have to say yourself I’m going to go to the gym first thing in the morning. I’m gonna take care of myself first today and everything else will fall into place and if it doesn’t get done then it’s likely to be less important than what you did for yourself. Sometimes people are quite rigid. “if I have to go visit my mother every day. Why do you have to go visit that you can her can talk and call her on one day and visit her  the next. Look at those words, have-to I should, those are often places where people get stuck. Do you really have to and what is the priority. If your mother is the priority then that’s ok but if she’s one of many priorities then maybe you need to accept that you have limitations. “

And looking back at the analogy of the elastic band, it’s all about flexibility.

Dr Carol Brebion

“You need to have a little bit of flexibility so that if something happens that is unexpected, for example, you son or daughter falls or your husband has an accident  you at least  have a little bit of reserve so that you can stretch a bit more. You can’t be functioning at your stretched limit because that is when you’re going to break down. You’re not going to be able to cope with anything and you’re going to be useless to your family to yourself. Eat well sleep well and get some exercise and do relaxation. Surround yourself with a good social network, laugh do the things that bring you joy in your life.”