Chronic stress and its connection to diseases

This medical mindset is the reason why most people view illness as some physical change in the body. From my practice I know that, for example, a significant portion of people brought by ambulance to the hospital with suspected "heart attack" and severe shortness of breath show no detectable changes on the ECG or in the laboratory values, no abnormalities on the echocardiogram, and even the exercise ECG may be normal. In other words, they certainly did not have a myocardial infarction, they do not have a lung disease, yet their subjective symptoms fully match what medical textbooks describe.

What should raise suspicion in such cases?

In these cases — where the subjective symptoms perfectly mimic disease but no measurable abnormality can be found — chronic stress is most often the underlying cause.

Stress is, after all, your body's natural reaction to something that affects you. Normally it is a useful process that prepares you for "fight" in situations of threat and helps protect yourself. You experience this, for example, when you get frightened. A sudden large amount of hormones is released in your body and acts explosively. Your body tenses in an instant, ready to defend yourself, to run away, etc. When the danger passes, the tension caused by stress "evaporates" and your body returns to a normal state.

However, if stress is continuous and persistent, you will eventually feel adverse effects. Chronic stress can, for example, weaken your immune system and you may go from one cold to another. Depression may torment you and you may become listless, or constant irritability may cause problems. If the stress does not cease, physical complaints may appear. The symptoms can be extremely varied and can be mistaken for those caused by truly serious diseases, yet no measurable abnormalities are detectable.

The main sources of stress

Many things can trigger stress! Often it is things shrouded in the mists of the past, even seemingly insignificant matters that are often extremely difficult to discover or decode. Other times the triggering cause is obvious but has no solution — for example, you cannot lawfully free yourself today from the "terror" of an alcoholic family member.

• relationships (romantic relationships, mother-child, father-child, parent-child relationships, etc.)
• financial situation (money problems, e.g. financial insecurity, stress from loan repayments, etc.)
• workplace issues (e.g. an unloved job, conflicts with a boss or colleagues, high expectations, perfectionism, etc.)
• sexual relationships (e.g. secret relationships, sexual abuse by a family member or someone else, an unsuitable partner, etc.)
• sleep problems
• fear of illness or death
• life situations (unexpected death, unresolved bereavement, etc.)
• ability to perform usual tasks (loss of ability to work due to an accident, disability, etc.)

The trap of "mental illnesses"

Because medicine has not found proof of the existence of the "soul," unfortunately many — even among doctors, especially the "old school," older physicians — do not take complaints caused by chronic stress seriously. For a while they send you from one test to another, and since every result is negative, after some time they get "bored" with the case. They stamp you as "mentally ill" and no longer take you seriously. Anytime you go with any complaint, without examination they prescribe a little anti-anxiety medication, mood elevator, sedative, or sleeping pill. If you experience this, be suspicious — your doctor has "given up" on continuing to look for and find what is wrong with you. Of course it is also true that the usual therapy for a psychological illness — "take a few tablets or capsules, or maybe we'll do a little operation" — DOES NOT provide a solution!

Medication does not remove the causes of stress, it only masks the symptoms!

You cannot solve situations that cause chronic stress with some pill or capsule!

For clarity, let's look at a simple example. Suppose your dog rushes into the apartment and soils the middle of the room. You solve the situation by elegantly pulling a rug over the mess. Is that a solution? No! The crap (sorry for the expression) remains there. Over time it will ruin the floor and the carpet, while the pile of mess is still there and you can smell it. There is only one real solution here: you get to work, pick it up, mop and clean it away.

It's the same in your life! Some medications can improve your mood, suppress your anxiety, but that does not solve the problem! Unresolved stress keeps "chewing away" at your psyche! Although it may seem that you have thoroughly covered and hidden it with medication, sooner or later it will appear somewhere! First causing mild, then increasingly serious physical symptoms.

Be careful! Complaints caused by chronic stress are reversible only up to a point! If you do not eliminate the stress, you can reach a state where it is already too late! Years of postponing a solution can lead to real physical illnesses that then make you permanently ill.

What can be the solution to chronic stress?

If you look again at the paragraph about stress sources, you'll realize: the things that cause stress are not those that can be treated with conventional medical methods.

You cannot fix a broken relationship with your partner with any pill, not even an injection. The anger, humiliation, etc. simmering inside you cannot be excised with a surgeon's scalpel. You can't simply "make the problem go away" when it comes to a tyrannical boss or an abusive colleague.

Stress management means how you react to the events or situations that cause stress. The first and most important step in treatment is identifying and recognizing the causes! But even if you recognize the cause, the solution is straightforward only in some cases. You can relatively easily free yourself from a tyrannical boss or a quarrelsome colleague by changing jobs. But getting free from the grip of a tyrannical father or an alcoholic husband is far from easy. Likewise, a bad childhood memory, the loss of a loved one, or the burden of a mortgage are things that are very difficult to process and resolve.

Most often you won't succeed on your own. Although the support of a good friend can sometimes be enough, it's better to turn to a professional. Uncovering and resolving emotional problems can "save your life"! I mean this very seriously.

Reduce stress as much as you can on your own! Change jobs, discuss problems with your partner and relatives. And seek a supportive psychologist to help you regain psychological balance. Don't be ashamed! It can save your life!