OCR Text |
Show Stress can be life threatening Most individuals experience some amount of stress in their lives, but a prolonged period of stress can cause the human body to malfunction and can possibly be life threatening according to Dr. Jeff Kocherhans of Benchmark Regional Re-gional Hospital. There are really two areas in which we can categorize stressors, "major life changes and daily life hassles," he said. Stress results from numerous demands in a person's per-son's life, such as a need for achievement, career success, children, chil-dren, time constraints, poor health, finances, self-imposed demands, de-mands, or even marriage. While some demands may be considered negative, stress can occur as a result re-sult of a positive change as well. For example, "starting a new job or getting married," explained Kocherhans. While these may be considered positive life changes, they too can be stressful. As a technical definition, "stress is a nonspecific response to some kind of perceived challenge or demand de-mand in the environment," he said. It is nonspecific in that your body doesn't know whether you're threatened with death, or simply experiencing anxiety prior to taking tak-ing a test, explained Kocherhans. The body experiences physiological physiologic-al and emotional arousal when under stress, "as it gears up to help us cope," he said. It is a natural, physiological response to threats in the environment. Although stress may be a natural response, a prolonged state of stress may negatively affect our physical and emotional health. "If this feeling happens over a long period of time, we get to the point where we don't function very well," said Kocherhans. "The experience ex-perience of stress is meant to be a temporary kind of state." Some physical symptoms of excessive ex-cessive stress may be headaches, backaches, skin irritations, stomach sto-mach upset or digestive disturbances, disturb-ances, fatigue and colds or respiratory respira-tory problems. In addition, stress can be associated with some cardio vascular conditions, thus becoming becom-ing life threatening. Characteristics of emotional and behavioral responses to excessive stress include overeating, substance subst-ance abuse, irritability, emotional instability, poor concentration, or depression. A stress related, long-term long-term depression may become a concern, as it can lead to thoughts of suicide. "Learn deep muscle relaxation," relaxa-tion," he said. By tightening and then relaxing each part of the body, we can reduce stress. "Learn to say no," he added. Evaluate how you are spending your time, by making a list of the things you do each day. "There will be things that you have to do, things that you want to do, and some things that you don't have to, nor want to do," he said. "Eliminate some of the things you don't have to do, especially espe-cially if you don't enjoy doing them." In addition, learn to talk calmly and positively to yourself, eat sensibly, sen-sibly, get enough sleep, exercise and learn to relax and play. Stressing Stres-sing that we should avoid using drugs, alcohol or overeating as a way of coping with stress, he explained ex-plained that such substance abuse only prevents meeting the problem "head on." He recommended evaluating eva-luating your alternatives and then doing "some constructive problem solving." Finally, talk to others about your frustrations. "Your ability to cope with stress is related to your relationships re-lationships with others," said Kocherhans, adding that we should not keep stress bottled up inside. "Connect with others, laugh and talk it out," he said. The male driver of this 1 968 Volkswagen was injured Saturday night when his car left 1-1 5 and rolled three times. The driver was thrown from the vehicle and sustained severe head injuries. He was transported to LDS Hospital by helicopter. Investigating officer, Trooper Greg Orr of the Utah Highway Patrol, said the driver has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. |