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Stressing the Pitfalls of Stress
It could wreak havoc with your life: By Cliff Samuel
Stress has been acknowledged in our day and age as a major health–related problem. Constant stress over a long period of time is known to affect the individual as a whole.

It has been an unpleasant fallout of a technology driven, fast–paced lifestyle. In recent times, medical research has not only confirmed its ominous, all pervading presence in any human being’s life, but has taken serious note of its potential repercussions. So many illnesses are said to be directly related to stress, and that is common knowledge now. One does not need a medical practitioner to enlighten us on that. However, modern man finds himself increasingly unable to cope with the impact of stress in his life.

Being over–stressed over a long period of time could even lead to a nervous breakdown. Becoming irritable, feeling fatigued all the time, suffering from what has sometimes been characterized as a nervous headache, migraine and even a sudden bout of diarrhea are some of the commonly identifiable symptomatic manifestations of the person being under too much stress. And over a long period of time, the individual affected by it could end up experiencing severe physiological problems with obvious psychosomatic origins that could affect his normal functioning.

It has been the general tendency to focus on the symptomatic manifestations of the problems associated with stress that show up in those parts of the body that are from the neck downwards. Very little is said or written about the effect of constant stress on the brain itself. Stress triggers off a chemical reaction in the brain and one of the stress hormones it dispatches off when it senses a threat cortisol. The part of the brain that is most affected by is the hippocampus, which governs the so–called declarative memory. That is the conscious fact based storehouse you draw on to recall that you’ve run out of milk or wear shoes of a particular size.

Read more: Articles on Psychology