According to the website healthline.com in the article ‘What’s Your Stress Type; Managing Stress”, “stress is a part of life and not all stress is bad. Stress is what gives us our fight-or-flight mechanism and has helped us survive for so long. But too much stress is unhealthy. There are many types of stress, from minor incidents that last a little while, to chronic or long-term stress that is ongoing. Stress affects everyone differently but it can lead to a variety of health issues. Managing stress is important to maintaining a healthy and fulfilling life.”
The above article also explains the various types of stress as follows:
“1. Acute stress- Acute stress is the most common type of stress. It’s your body’s immediate reaction to a new challenge, event, or demand, and it triggers your fight-or-flight response. As the pressures of a near-miss automobile accident, an argument with a family member, or a costly mistake at work sink in, your body turns on this biological response.
Acute stress isn’t always negative. It’s also the experience you have when riding a rollercoaster or having a person jump out at you in a haunted house. Isolated episodes of acute stress should not have any lingering health effects. In fact, they might actually be healthy for you, as these stressful situations give your body and brain practice in developing the best response to future stressful situations. Severe acute stress such as stress suffered as the victim of a crime or life-threatening situation can lead to mental health problems, such as post-traumatic stress disorder or acute stress disorder.
2. Episodic acute stress- When acute stress happens frequently, it’s called episodic acute stress. People who always seem to be having a crisis tend to have episodic acute stress. They are often short-tempered, irritable, and anxious. People who are “worry warts” or pessimistic or who tend to see the negative side of everything also tend to have episodic acute stress. Negative health effects are persistent in people with episodic acute stress. It may be hard for people with this type of stress to change their lifestyle, as they accept stress as a part of life.
3. Chronic stress- If acute stress isn’t resolved and begins to increase or lasts for long periods of time, it becomes chronic stress. This stress is constant and doesn’t go away. It can stem from such things as:
- poverty
- a dysfunctional family
- an unhappy marriage
- a bad job
Chronic stress can be detrimental to your health, as it can contribute to several serious diseases or health risks, such as:
- heart and/or lung disease
- cancer
- disease
- accidents/suicide
- cirrhosis of the liver”
Now that you have an idea of how the different types of stress affect us, it’s important to remember, the toxic stress that comes from trauma, abuse and adversity at the hands of a loved one is the most insidious and damaging not only because of the intense emotions involved but because of the opposing impulses of the victim’s innate need and desire to be loved and cared for by the loved one while wanting and needing for the mistreatment to stop. This knocks out our innate need to go to that person for safety but when that person is the abuser, safety is replaced with terror. This causes an internal storm within the victim, that includes creating a more “pro-inflammatory” environment in our immune system which help start the increase of inflammation in the body. I hope this sheds some light on the damage stress can cause to our bodies. If you feel that stress may be causing your symptoms or illness, please consider incorporating a Psychologist, Psychiatrist or therapist as part of your treatment plan for a more comprehensive treatment protocol.
