Stress is an integral part of life. Although most people view stress as something that is bad for them, that is actually not true all of the time. In fact, there are times when stress can be good for you especially when it helps you deal with situations that call for fight-or-flight response. However, much of stress, especially when not processed properly, can be bad not just for your mental health but for your physical health as well, and the first part of your body that gets affected by stress is none other than your heart.
Stress is your body’s way of responding to situations that make you feel threatened or cause you to lose your focus and balance. While, at first, most stress can feel alien to you, there would come a time when it would start feeling as something that is normal. What you may not know is that it is already wreaking havoc to your body. Fortunately, there are ways to determine if you are already experiencing stress overload. Some of these sign and symptoms would include:
- inability to focus and concentrate
- memory problems
- constant worrying
- persistent negative thoughts
- irritability and mood swings
- depression
- frequent colds and flu
- chest pain and rapid heartbeat
- loss of sex drive
In most cases, the chest pain and rapid heart beat could lead to either heart attack or a cardiac arrest. When that happens, there is a high risk of death especially if there is no one around to administer CPR or make use of an AED. This makes it all the more important for someone to make sure that he is able to manage his or her stress in a more productive manner.
Although it is impossible to lead a stress-free life, there are actually a number of things that you can do to keep it at a minimum. For one, you need to make sure that you keep a calm outlook in life. This, however, might require a lot of effort and practice so do not fret if it something that you are unable to master overnight. As much as possible, if you are faced with a stressful situation, take a deep breath and just let a big sigh while cleansing your mind of any worrisome thought.
Make sure that you start and end your day with positive thoughts. For most people, getting depressed typically leads to a cycle of negative thoughts. If you find yourself trapped in such, make every effort to get out of it. This can easily be done if you have a dependable support network made up of family and close friends. You also need to keep a firm belief that, sooner or later, everything would be all right. Keep in mind that there is nothing permanent in this world and whatever you are experiencing right now would, some day, go away.
Make yourself prepared to handle any type of situation by learning CPR. Citywide CPR can give you a hand in mastering this technique so that you can give much needed help when the situation calls for it.
