If you see a doctor with symptoms which is hard to be explained, stress often comes along as a possible cause. In Oriental Medicine, seven kinds of emotion of human being are considered as the internal causes of disease when they are extreme, and they are taken seriously as a main causes of illness unless physical injury is involved.
Of course not all stress is harmful, and moderate amounts of stress could help you keep motivated, alert and prevent danger. If you are stressed, the Sympathetic Nervous System indicates the adrenal glands to produce hormones like epinephrine and cortisol. These hormones raise heartbeat and respiration rate, tense your muscles and slow digestion so that your body can prepare for emergency.
Our body is designed to have stress and respond to it to protect ourselves. Even though stress could be positive, it becomes negative if it stays for prolonged period without relief and it could cause a condition called distress which is a negative stress response.
Distress could distract your internal balance causing physical symptoms involving skeletal muscles and the Autonomic Nervous System, mental symptoms and behavioural symptoms. The symptoms could include headaches, insomnia, pains and tense muscles, upset stomach, ringing in ears, diarrhoea, sexual dysfunction, raised blood pressure, depression, forgetfulness and reduced work efficiency or productivity.
We often find patients with slow recovery are involved with much stress, especially patients with pain related issues. If you are suffering from pain around your neck, shoulder or low back and they are persistent, think about how much stress you are dealing with everyday, since one of the stress responses is tensing your muscles.
Also, it would be wise to discuss the stress you are getting as well as main complaints you have, to acupuncturists or Chinese medicine doctors for the better outcomes since research proves that acupuncture treatment is effective method for relieving stress.
Stress is a part of our lives and what matters most is how you manage it and prevent excessive stress to avoid distress. If you learn and practise the strategy to avoid distress in long term, the strategy could become your lifestyle habit and would save you from lots of uncomfortable symptoms as you get older.
So what are the strategies?
You can check out our previous article for instant stress-relieving strategies or;
We found a great article that can help you, especially in the long-run. https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/what-matters-most/201701/10-new-strategies-stress-management
Hope you all have a distress-free day!
Healing Tree