Stress, it’s a part of everyday life for most of us. Between work and home, bills and family, things can pile up. Then to compound the problems from the stress we worry about these things and this creates more stress until finally, for some, we may end up in the ER and if we are lucky we can tell people about our ordeal. The less fortunate, unfortunately, won’t be worrying about anything anymore.
Death, yes death could be the end result of all that stress and worry. According to a study by Suzanne Pieper, MSc, Jos F. Brosschot, PhD, Rien van der Leeden, PhD and Julian F. Thayer, PhD, “worry in daily life might have substantial cardiac effects in addition to the effects of stressful events, especially in the form of work-related and anticipatory stress, the latter being a type of stress that has been largely neglected in stress research.”
Basically what that means is that worrying about events past, present, and future, creates stress that can, and eventually will, lead to cardiac related problems eventually leading to myocardial infarction or full cardiac arrest.
Other factors that are common stressors could be a job interview, going off to college or moving out on your own, a test, weddings, birthday milestones such as reaching driving age or turning 18, and many other common life events, even retirement can be stressful when it should be a time to relax. But for some people, even with no real concerns, they still worry, and worrying can lead to anxiety.
Excessive anxiety and worry can manifest into physical ailments like ulcers, weight gain, weight loss, sleep disorders, an inability to function in a social environment, it may even shorten your life span significantly. It’s actually been proven through study that happy people live longer. People that genuinely smile regularly can live several years longer than people that worry constantly.
Where do you stand in this? Look in the mirror, is your mouth a straight line or down turned and is your brow furrowed even though nothing particularly is bothering you? Then it”s likely that you are a worrier or suffer from stress or anxiety. If this is the case then it might be a good idea to talk to your doctor about it.
Anxiety may contribute to harmful habits such as smoking, excessive drinking, overeating, or even drug use/abuse. Excessive stress, worry and anxiety are detrimental to your well being on many levels and reduce the quality of your lifestyle. Persons suffering from high anxiety often have difficulty functioning in social activities and may become reclusive due to their inability to cope.
Anxiety disorders are not that uncommon and affect close to 40 million adults in The U.S. and does not discriminate between sex and race, it can affect anyone. If you know anyone or you yourself suffer from stress, worry or anxiety you are not alone, although you may feel that you are. But for you or their well being seek medical advice from your physician.
