re: Have You Ever Dealt With Stress to the Point it Affected You Physically?

Talk about it on here all the time...

Below is a good, easy to understand description "how" stress affects our physiology.

Very important read.







Stress


Stress Cup/Allostatic Load

Management of stress:

Breath work
Meditation
Prayer
Yoga (anyone see the new season of NFL Hard-knocks?)
Jacobsen progressive muscular relaxation
Mobility work/stretching with coordinating breathing (similar to yoga..)
Exercise with coordinated breathing during work/rest intervals

The focus for all of the above should be on breathing (taking control of the parasympathetic nervous system by conciously controlling the breath/slow extended exhalation = increases vagal tone). This keeps you in the rest/recovery mode. We should be in rest/recovery mode 90% plus of the time (parasympathetic dominance). Not surprisingly, these themes have shown up in most major cultures/religions in much of recorded history. Only recently have we seemed to dismiss this "foolishness"

Instead, most modern people spend the majority of their time in sympathetic dominance mode (fight /flight). They struggle to get into rest/relax mode. Substance abuse issues can evolve to try to compensate. Strange conditions evolve from being in chronic sympathetic states : hypetension, palpatations, muscle aches/tension, GI and urinary disturbances, poor sleep, insulin resistence, weight fluctuations, etc thus creating a vicious cycle of more worry/ stress. Well intentioned providers often try to control these symptoms with medication (with often limited success). This is further made worse by social media oneupmanship, media negativity bias, excessive work hours, limited sleep, etc... Look around and see the effects of this (diseases of Western civilizations)

Other ways to increase vagal tone by using breath:

Singing/chant
Playing a woodwind instrument

Was in a very stressful job for several years, and am also a diabetic. Stress levels were so bad that they almost made my diabetes uncontrollable.
Sought assistance from an endocrinologist, retired at 60 years old, and have never regretted choosing my health over work!

Yes I have. A job a few years that raised my blood pressure to unsafe levels. I lost 20-30 pounds and stopped eating whole meals. Quit that shite the day my dad died. Life is too short man.

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Yes. For some reason earlier this year I began feeling stress unlike ever before. I basically turned into a hypochondriac and my stomach was always in knots, I started getting bits of muscle fasciculations. It fricking sucked. I finally realized I wasn't dying, life wasn't as bad as it seemed at the moment, and over the course of a couple months, that all has slowly disappeared.

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Did you do anything particular to help?

I've posted on here about it a couple of times but I'm kinda going through the same thing though for no discernible reason which really concerns me.

I have/had no stress at all with work, home, family etc... but have become incredibly anxious (mostly health related) which now seems to be pushing me into some kind of depression.

It's pretty awful and something that I've never had any issues with for the first 34 years of my life. Can't seem to snap out of it though no matter what I do/try.

Low hanging fruit to consider:

any sleep changes (shift work)/circadian disruption
quality of your diet
vit D level
thyroid function
testosterone level (can manifest as depression)
how much do you workout/run (Macho Man may be overtraining, see stress cup above)


see a primary care MD for basic screen/check


See my posts above for other considerations...

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Everybody keeps telling me to get on meds to break the cycle but I don't even know if that's how it works...

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That's EXACTLY how it works. When your quality of life drops drastically, and you are going days to weeks that way? You need meds. If a simple Benzo breaks it and you are fine in a week? Great. Move on with life. If not you may need meds and counseling. Cognitive behavioral therapy.

I stopped at meds. I've had flare ups where I thought about counseling, but they always subside. You CAN keep going the way you are going. But it is miserable. And when you notice that your kids notice? That's another wall of guilt, panic, and depression.

My rock bottom... Full disclosure. I already mentioned my driving range meltdown. Just had to leave a bucket of balls in the tee box. Later that night I fricking BAWLED in front of my wife. We had just went to bed. Couldn't do it. Couldn't stop it. She knew I was anxious, but that freaked her out. It was a good 3 minutes of shameful sobbing. I don't think I've cried that hard at deaths of loved ones. Made ZERO fricking sense.

That's why it's anxiety or depressive DISORDER. If I chase you with an axe, you should be anxious. If a parent dies, you should be depressed and grieve. But when your life is just rolling along and your brain is telling you to feel the same way? Releasing the same chemicals? It is no way to live.

Good luck.

Look at Hans Selye's article on General Adaptation Syndrome.

LINK



LINK

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Later that night I fricking BAWLED in front of my wife. We had just went to bed. Couldn't do it. Couldn't stop it. She knew I was anxious, but that freaked her out. It was a good 3 minutes of shameful sobbing. I don't think I've cried that hard at deaths of loved ones. Made ZERO fricking sense.

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Dude until today I had cried for no reason like 4 days in a row including like 3 or 4 different times yesterday, my birthday, like boo hoo cried. It was the first time through all this I felt depressed rather than anxious.

Today has actually been an overall good day but I'm going to try to get on some kind of med/counseling action plan first thing tomorrow.