Just about everyone who you talk to nowadays will complain about being
“stressed out.” Thirty years ago, no one
ever even used this term. Today,
however, it is a staple in most conversations.
We often refer to ourselves as being “stressed out” when we discuss our
careers as well as our personal lives.
Recent studies indicate that even children are “stressed out.” Little kids, who shouldn’t have a care in the
world, are becoming “stressed” due to activities at home or at school. In most cases, they are simply inheriting the
stress from their parents.
Psychologists who deal with “stressed out” individuals blame the current
situation on everything from the foods we eat to our society. Most agree that people today attempt to do
“too much” and end up getting burned out.
We all experience stress during the course of our lives. There is a difference, however, in being
constantly stressed out and experiencing stress due to a certain
situation. Anything that dramatically
disrupts our lives is a cause for stress.
Most people recover from the stressful situation after it has been
resolved or over a period of time.
Other people tend to get stressed out all the time. In fact, their entire life appears to be one
big stress factory. This is unhealthy
and is gradually taking its toll on our society. Each year, billions of dollars are spent on
symptoms of stress. There are dozens of
prescriptive medicines on the market today that address stress and
anxiety. Millions of people are on some
sort of medication for “stress.”
What has happened in the past thirty years that has caused us to become
such a nation of stressed out individuals?
Is society expecting too much from us or are we expecting too much from
ourselves? Why are so many people
suffering from the following:
·
Anxiety disorder
·
Social anxiety disorder
·
Obsessive compulsive disorder
·
Anorexia Nervosa
·
Depression
·
Panic attacks
Years ago, no one ever even heard of these conditions, now they are
featured in every magazine you encounter.
There is a huge market to treat both depression and anxiety, which
usually go hand in hand and are the offspring of stress.
Pharmaceutical companies are cranking out different anti-depressants all
of the time. These are said to be
‘better” than the other anti-depressants that they discovered a year
prior. Thirty years ago, no one ever
even heard the term “anti-depressant.”
If you used that expression back then, people would think you were
talking about something to do with your car.
Today it seems as if every single person you encounter is “on something”
for stress, depression or anxiety. All
of them can neatly be lumped into the same category and are caused by
stress.
Stress is usually at the root of all of the above psychological
disorders. It also affects us physically
as well. Stress has been linked to every
disease known to man, including heart disease and cancer. Clearly, it is not a good idea for people to
be under stress. But, as human beings,
we are going to experience stressful situations. There is no avoiding this fact. Therefore, in order to really be able to help
cure ourselves from being “stressed out” we need to know how to do the
following:
·
Identify stressors that affect our daily lives;
·
Eliminate the stressors of which we can free
ourselves;
·
Learn to deal with stressful situations in a healthy
way
If you are one of the millions of people who are feeling stressed out,
you must take a look at the reasons why you are stressed out and try to do what
you can to eliminate as much stress as you can from your life. If you continue to be “stressed out” you will
most likely find yourself taking some sort of prescription drug for one of the
above disorders. Taking prescription
drugs for stress does not mean that you are “crazy.” This article will discuss alternative ways to
deal with stress, but as a last resort, you are better off with the medications
than allowing your body to be battered by stress.
Life is way too short to go through it being stressed out. And chances are that you will shorten your
lifespan significantly if you continue to be “stressed out “ through the daily
course of your life. This is especially
true as many of the things over which you may be stressed are minor, but have
been blown up in your mind to be worse than they actually are.
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