Do we know what stress is exactly? Can stress be quantified or measured in any real way? Is stress a chemical or substance, or is it a sort of condition.?
Let me know what u guys thinks…
Quicke answer:
Adrenaline.
So yeah, it can be meassured.
Longer answer:
When the body gears up for certain tasks, adrenaline is released. This is a good thing.
But if you keep pushing, and not getting enough time to relax in between, the constant pounding on your system, by the adrenaline, may harm you, the first symtom being that you’re stressed out.
Some poeple get a rush from stress. They say that they need it to “get going, get focused.” Some claim there is positive stress. Whatever.
So what comes first, the chemical/substance or the condition, you mention? It’s entwined, IMO. The condition, to be stressed, is a feeling you get from the adrenaline. Why the adrenaline? Because you were pressed for time, i.e. stressed?
Take it from the ex-burnout who staid home from work three months to learn to sleep properly again - to much stress is bad for you.
Everyone needs some stress. Without it, there is no development or growth, and there are two basic types: good stress and bad stress (eustress and distress, according to Hans Selwye(sp?). If your body is able to adapt to the stress, this is eustress. If not, that is distress. So you don’t want to continually stress your body without giving it time to adapt. For example, weight lifting. You need to give your muscles time to recover; otherwise, you will suffer injury.
Adrenaline or epiphenine is the hormone the body releases during stress. This hormone causes your HR to increase along with other physiological phenomena to get your body ready for the stress.
What are the effects of chronic adrenaline overload? I imagine we aren’t designed to be on edge all the time, but certain lifestyles call for it.
…or worse, like a heart attack. A record producer we know was pushing himself so hard, working non-stop and always so pre-occupied with the goings-on at the recording studio that he had a stress-related heart attack at the age of 37. (Mild one, luckily.)
Megan O’ the above would answer your question too.
Being in a perpetual state of stress is similar to being forever anxious – you can suffer from insomnia, dehydration, anxiety and your nutrition can suck from lack of apetite (the adrenalin gives you such an energy boost that you don’t think about eating proper meals to refuel). Eventually, when it all combines, together, you can suffer either a physical breakdown, a mental breakdown (like Mariah Carey) or both.
That’s when you hear catch-phrases like “hospitalized for exhaustion.” (Yes, it’s not always a euphemism for “going to rehab.”)
A friend of mine in a stressful occupation was given “stress-leave” because he became so wound up he could no longer form sentences when he tried to speak. He slept for five days straight.
And a former co-worker died last Tuesday, at age 38, during a business meeting. He was getting worked up, colapsed and when the paramedics got there, it was too late. (I wasn’t present).
The body starts pumping adrenaline for the flight or fight mode, to give us strength and endurance to survive a hostile situation. If we constantly get the adrenaline flowing like that, eventually it will be harmful.