jakobmaret - Stress Sickness

Stress Sickness and Physical Effects.

Stressed-caused cell killing and or stressed-caused behavior responses are reasons why anxiety is detrimental to our immune system. Anxiety and depressive moods limit the production of white blood cells, causing you to be more vulnerable to prolonged disease. From bad sleeping habits to not eating healthy, stress causes people to go into unhealthy habits. The physical actions decided by your weakened psychological state can be what lowers your immune system as well. On top of that, prolonged stress will hinder your growth and might cause cell deformities, leading to cancer (Herbert).

Researchers have made a conclusion that in some situations, our physical state depends on our psychological state. A woman by the name of Carole Howard was receiving pain and flu-like symptoms but was thought to be lying. When researchers looked into Carole’s symptoms, they found her mental state debated how sick she was. Sickness is biological and psychological, so anxiety does play a role in the intensity of a sickness (Schorr).

Stress plays a large role in younger children’s physical health. Over the last decade, physicians have determined that children being pushed by their parents to achieve better grades tend to break down from stressful situations. Parents want their children to do so much, including sports and AP classes, but it becomes heavily detrimental to the student’s mental health. In scenarios where children are overworked, they experience head/stomach aches, a compressing feeling on their chest, and also early signs of depression. Physicians have determined that medication alone won’t help, but letting children go into a low-stress environment will (Layton).

Not only does mental illness impact your psyche, but it will also physically change your brain. When a schizophrenic’s brain was scanned in a study, it was shown that the brain tissue shrunk. Mental illness can now be proven to show physical defects in the brain. Scientists are continuing to look into genetic traits that cause these mental diseases. While finding specific genes that trigger specific mental illnesses is complicated, it uncovers more evidence that these genes are only half of the puzzle. The other half is related to the emotional environment around the person (Rafinski).

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Mental illness effect.

Teenagers' symptoms of mental illness can be downplayed due to similarities in depressive moods and teenage norms. When parents or doctors disregard the tendencies of depressed teenagers, rather than calling them normal or dramatic moods, it only makes things worse. Depression leads to physical harm to the body. People with depression have tendencies to commit acts of self-harm but, in some cases, don’t want to take their life, rather wanting to have their pain and stress stop. Self-harm is known to be started and affected by a depressed and stressed mental state. Stress hinders a human’s cognitive and physical abilities, making everyday life unbearable (Hollingsworth).

“Bottling” your mental health is a term where you try to hide your stress and deeper emotions. Suppressing your emotions will actually bring you more stress and physical pain. When undergoing stress for a long period of time, you can encounter higher blood pressure, chest pains, palpitations, and insomnia. Your eating and weight habits will change, and your joints will be more prone to pain when under anxiety. In order to lessen the pains of stress, try to find small activities to do and balance out your work and personal life (Staff).