Battling Stress

By Gwen Stewart

The World Health Organization calls stress “the health epidemic of the 21st century.” Stress resulting in illness is the causative factor underlying more than 70% of all visits to the family doctor, medical doctors suggest. What is stress? We all talk about it but what does ’stress’ mean and how does it affect our bodies?

Dr. Hans Selye, who first noted and described the concept of stress, defines stress as “the non-specific response of the body to any demand made upon it.” Stress is neither good nor bad. The effect of the stress is not determined by the stress itself, rather it is determined by how we handle the stress.

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By Joe Love

Do you remember when you were young, feeling the prickliness of the carpet on your belly as you lay in your pajamas at the top of the stairs, while your parent’s party was hitting full swing below? How could you sleep, or even stay in your room, with whispers of noise and food aromas seeping up through the vents, tickling your imagination?

You wanted to know what all that action was about. You heard the conversation flow peppered with outbursts of laughter as sudden as a honking horn. You smiled, too, and wondered: What are they laughing at? What is so funny?

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By Donovan Baldwin

You would think that anyone knows when they are under stress, but that is not always so. The symptoms can sometimes be difficult to spot, particularly by the afflicted person. It’s a bit like being drunk. The drunker someone is, the more signs of drunkenness they may be exhibiting but because of their inebriated state, they are the ones least likely to pick up on the symptoms and react to them. Of course, each of us is different, and, just as some people seem able to handle their liquor pretty well, and/or know when they have reached their limit, some people can spot the signs telling them that trouble is brewing.

It can be important to pick up on these stress symptoms in yourself, or in others. If stress, particularly chronic stress, is allowed to continue unchecked, it can contribute to a wide range of physical ills or unhealthy conditions such as ulcers, insomnia, heart disease as well as relationship problems, just to name a few. Of course, any stress, chronic or acute (immediate) can interfere with judgment, concentration, and logical thought processes.

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