How to treat chronic stress and whether it should be done

Many people today experience constant stress. It affects men and women, physical and mental workers equally. There are many causes of chronic stress, including family problems, professional activities, and old psychological traumas.

Symptoms and treatment of chronic stress depend on its depth. Sometimes you can’t do without the help of a psychotherapist.

They get rid of constant nervous tension with the help of specially developed psychological techniques, exercises, sedatives, and sports.

Chronic stress

Short and long term stress

There are acute and chronic stress. Short-term and long-term stress differ in origin, symptoms, and damage to the body.

Chronic stress - definition

Acute stress occurs with a one-time exposure to a negative factor. This could be betrayal, attack, robbery, death of a loved one, etc. The nervous system adapts the body after a negative impact with the help of the hormones adrenaline, norepinephrine and dopamine. The recovery time from stress depends on the depth of impact and the flexibility of the human nervous system.

Understanding what chronic stress is is not easy. This is a reaction to the continuous or periodic action of a negative factor. Permanent stress is accompanied by a stable increase in the level of glucocorticoids in the blood.

If short-term stress passes almost without a trace, then long-term stress leads to dysfunction of the body.

The symptoms of long-term stress are not as pronounced as those of acute stress. Its result is nervous exhaustion and loss of interest in life. The severity of the consequences depends on how long the stress lasts.

Causes

Chronic stress develops when:

• a person cannot cope with deep emotional shock for a long time (more than 2-3 weeks);
• short-term and superficial stressful situations are repeated too often (almost daily);
• there is no professional help (consultations with a psychotherapist or at least a psychologist);
• there is no desire to fight destructive thoughts and feelings.

Stressors (provoking factors) can be a variety of circumstances.

Psychological:

• overload: long working hours, overtime assignments, lack of days off and vacation;
• constant conflicts in the family: quarrels and misunderstandings with a significant other or relatives, betrayal, betrayal, lack of warm and trusting relationships, indifference;
• difficult separation, divorce, unrequited love;
• dangerous illness or death of a loved one;
• lack of money, unfair or unexpected dismissal, lack of work;
• repairs, moving, loss of apartment, poor living conditions;
• chronic information stress is diagnosed in most students and worsens during sessions;
• personal qualities determined by the type of nervous system: excessive sensitivity and emotionality, vulnerability, egocentrism, pessimism, perfectionism, increased demands on oneself.

Physiological:

• long-term chronic illness requiring constant use of medications, regular examinations and planned hospital stays;
• living in environmentally unfavorable conditions or areas regularly exposed to natural disasters;
• daily excessive physical activity is becoming a common cause of chronic stress in athletes;
• severe pregnancy, childbirth with complications, health problems in the newborn;
• taking medications on an ongoing basis;
• long-term diet.

Often chronic stress is the result of a whole bunch of difficulties and insoluble contradictions. There is one stressor at home, another at work, a third in relationships, and even in terms of health, modern people constantly face problems. There are daily quarrels with my wife, a child is doing poorly in school or is sick, a boss is nagging, a colleague is setting him up, his heart is playing pranks - each circumstance becomes the cause of worries and obsessive thoughts. And there is no time to fight them - so the water begins to sharpen the stone drop by drop.

Often a person does not even suspect that he is in a chronic state of stress. He may not experience any worries or anxiety, but eventually a diagnosis will be made. This happens with athletes: from childhood they get used to unbearable daily loads and do not think about their destructive effect. Or with those who live next to a chemical plant: yes, the head hurts, allergies began to appear often, shortness of breath was tormented - this is probably due to age. But no, this is a consequence of chronic stress due to the constant exposure of the body to harmful particles in the air.

This mechanism for the development of the disease can be compared to medieval torture, when water was methodically dripped onto the head of a bound person. As a result, he went crazy or died.

Causes of Chronic Stress

The problem of constant stress is relevant in both developed and developing countries. Main causes of the condition:

• Low social status, financial situation. Man is in a constant state of struggle for a place in the sun.
• Lack of harmony in the family. The atmosphere in the house does not allow relaxation; scandals create a tense environment.
• Professional activities, relationships in the team. Unloved work, difficult tasks, constant pressure from superiors, gossip from colleagues, envy, lack of career advancement - these are just a small part of the factors of professional stress.
• Diffidence. Constant doubts, fear of mistakes, social condemnation make a person unstable to negative influences.
• Lack of communication. Conversation is not only an exchange of information, it is necessary for emotional relief.
• Intrapersonal conflicts. These include cognitive dissonance, negative self-talk, and conflict of beliefs.

Chronic stress in the family

Each case must be dealt with separately. For many, the reason for the tense state lies in deep childhood, old psychological traumas that led to inferiority complexes. A pessimistic attitude towards life and a conservative character reduce the body’s resistance to irritants and increase the depth of negative influence.

Why does stress become chronic?

It is difficult to name all the causes of chronic stress, since everything can be very individual and depend on the character and personality of the person, but most often this condition appears due to:

• traumatic events
• prolonged psycho-emotional overload,
• financial difficulties,
• everyday problems,
• family troubles,
• lack of proper sleep and rest,
• hormonal imbalances,
• genetic predisposition.

Symptoms of Chronic Stress

Constant nervous tension is accompanied by unpleasant symptoms. They are associated with the action of hormones, which affect the body of men and women differently. There are universal signs of prolonged stress:

• frequent headaches, dizziness;
• pain in the stomach, liver;
• lack of appetite or gluttony;
• hair loss;
• memory impairment;
• fatigue, chronic fatigue;
• sleep disorders (insomnia, nightmares).

Against the background of physical and psychological exhaustion, a person’s resistance to infectious diseases also decreases.

Symptoms of Chronic Stress

Symptoms in men

If a man is constantly in a state of psychological stress, this greatly affects his health. Glucocorticoids reduce the sensitivity of tissues to sex hormones, so one of the symptoms of stress in men is decreased libido and weakened potency.

Decreased sexual function is an additional stress factor for men. There is anxiety, anxiety that impotence will develop, etc.

Symptoms in women

In women, hormonal imbalances due to stress affect the menstrual cycle. Delays, bleeding in the middle of the cycle, etc. may occur.

Glucocorticoids reduce protein anabolism, and fat synthesis, on the contrary, is activated. One of the manifestations of chronic stress in women is excess weight gain. Fat appears on the stomach and buttocks. Muscle mass in the legs and arms decreases.

Stress in children

Treatment

Psychotherapeutic treatment of chronic stress in adults is a course of regularly attended sessions (1-2 times a week) using autogenic training, role-playing games and even hypnosis. Each specialist, depending on the situation, determines which method will be more effective.

Family psychotherapists most often work with children with this diagnosis. Parents, relatives, and the child’s teachers (or educators) are actively involved in the sessions. In such cases, the main thing is not just to cure, but also to eliminate further harmful consequences. Otherwise, the psychotrauma suffered will determine stable patterns of behavior throughout life.

Psychotherapeutic methods

What methods can effectively treat chronic stress:

• art therapy;
• autogenic training;
• behavioral psychotherapy;
• breathing practices;
• body-oriented therapy;
• role-playing games;
• family psychotherapy, etc.

To identify the underlying stressor, hypnosis is often used in initial sessions.

Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy is an excellent way to cope with prolonged stress. Procedures are prescribed that increase physical and cognitive performance, reduce fatigue, and restore inhibitory-excitatory processes in the central nervous system:

• soothing massage;
• acupuncture;
• magnetic therapy;
• balneotherapy;
• thalassotherapy;
• hydrotherapy;
• hirudotherapy;
• meditation, yoga;
• Healing Fitness;
• laser therapy.

Since most of the listed procedures belong to the field of alternative medicine, the patient’s permission is taken for their use.

Vaccination against stress

Often in practice, the technique of stress-vaccination therapy, developed by the Canadian psychologist and psychotherapist Donald Meichenbaum, is used. It involves three phases of working with the patient:

1. Conceptual - searching for a stressor, reconsidering the problem, developing a solution strategy, increasing self-esteem.
2. Formation of new skills and abilities to overcome stressful situations
3. Reinforcement of skills through role-playing games.

Since 1976, Maichenbaum's method of self-instruction has been considered one of the most effective techniques in the treatment of chronic stress.

Drug treatment

The best sedatives for chronic stress:

• Barboval drops and capsules;
• Validol tablets;
• Valocordin drops;
• Valerian tincture;
• Motherwort forte tablets;
• Sympathil tablets.

Sedatives for chronic stress
Nootropics:

• Piracetam injections and capsules;
• Glycine tablets (allowed for children);
• Vinpocetine tablets and infusions;
• syrup, tablets, capsules Pantogam;
• Actovegin tablets and injections.

Psychotherapists may also prescribe central nervous system stimulants, tranquilizers, antidepressants, and antipsychotics. Each drug is prescribed by a doctor depending on the individual characteristics of the body and the stage of the disease.

Serious consequences of prolonged stress

Life in constant stress does not pass without a trace for a person. A stable increase in the concentration of glucocorticoids in the blood affects metabolism, the state of the cardiovascular system, and brain function.

What does stress lead to:

• Cardiac disorders.
• Skin diseases (eczema, psoriasis).
• Peptic ulcer of the gastrointestinal tract, gastritis.
• Depression, the appearance of suicidal thoughts.
• Obesity or, conversely, severe weight loss associated with anorexia (loss of hunger).
• Autoimmune diseases.
• Degradation of brain cells, decreased intellectual level.

Constant stress often leads to the development of addictions. A person gets rid of nervous tension with the help of alcohol, soft drugs, tranquilizers or sleeping pills. These methods help, but only until the effect of the drug wears off.

Impact of Chronic Stress

To avoid the serious consequences of prolonged stress, it must be treated.

If the reasons for your worries are known, you can try to solve the problem yourself. Otherwise, you need to seek help from a psychotherapist.

Types of stress

Short-term stress can be both negative and positive. In the second case, it is called “good”, or eustress. It can be triggered by any pleasant events and conditions (winning the lottery, creative inspiration) and almost never harms health. Only in isolated cases can high positive emotions cause problems, for example, cardiac dysfunction.

Chronic stress can only be negative. In medicine it is called “bad”, or distress. It is provoked by various sad and unpleasant events in all aspects of human life. Distress almost always leads to poor health.

“Good” and “bad” stress are divided into three types:

• biological;
• psychological;
• emotional.

How to get rid of chronic stress

Treatment of permanent stress can be complex and lengthy, requiring daily work on yourself, your lifestyle and consciousness. To rule out serious consequences of long-term stress, you first need to be examined in a hospital. You can contact a therapist, cardiologist, endocrinologist, or psychiatrist, depending on the external manifestations of stress.

There are several ways to treat chronic stress; they are best used in combination:

• psychotherapy;
• auto-trainings;
• physical therapy, yoga;
• herbal medicine, aromatherapy;
• drug therapy.

Creative or scientific activities also play a very important role. They distract and mobilize the nervous system.

Treatment will be effective only when there is awareness of the problem and its root cause is known - the stress factor. It is not always possible to eliminate it; then work is done on the worldview in order to learn not to react to the stimulus.

Gluttony due to chronic stress

Psychotherapy

With deep, protracted stress, you cannot do without professional psychological help. Working with a psychotherapist includes several areas:

• search for causes of stress, analysis of stress factors;
• diagnostics of the type of reaction to a stimulus;
• development of stress resistance.

Methods that help cure chronic stress and depression include gestalt therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and hypnosis.

Hypnosis is the fastest way to get rid of nervous tension, but finding a good hypnologist is very difficult. For treatment using Gestalt therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy to be effective, the professionalism of a psychologist is not enough. The patient's self-discipline plays an important role.

Calming tea for chronic stress

Exercise to relieve stress

With prolonged nervous stress, muscle spasms, stiffness of movement, and physical discomfort occur. Sometimes a state of constant stress, on the contrary, is accompanied by weakness. Combat discomfort with physical exercise.

How to get out of a state of prolonged stress with the help of physical education:

1. Easy breath. Stand up straight or sit on your knees. Inhale slowly (4 counts), hold the air in your lungs for 7 seconds, exhale slowly (4 counts). Repeat 2-3 times.
2. Upward movement. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Raise both arms up and reach for the ceiling, stretching all the muscles of the body. Repeat the exercise 3-5 times.
3. Tilts. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, raise your arms up and connect them together, stretch up. Slowly tilt your body forward - backward - right - left.
4. You also need to return to the starting position slowly. Repeat 5 times.
5. Rocking. Sit on the floor, bend your knees and clasp your arms. Roll on your back to a lying position. Straighten your arms and legs, lie relaxed for 5 seconds. Grab your knees again and return to the starting position. Repeat the exercise 5 times.
6. Drawing. Lie on the floor, raise your legs. Use them to draw a circle, a square, an infinity sign in the air.
7. Strike the enemy. Exercise guarantees a release of negative energy. Take a feather pillow and imagine your stress factor (person, fear, etc.) instead.
8. Alternately and slowly hit the pillow with your hands. With each blow, you need to imagine how the cause of stress disappears. It is both a physical and psychological exercise.
9. Yoga is a good cure for nerves. Yogis know exactly how to relieve stress and harmonize the state of mind and body. Meditation, especially using incense, also helps you relax and let go of annoying thoughts.

Drug therapy

The effects of chronic stress can be eliminated with the help of medications. It is recommended to use sedatives and vitamin-mineral complexes.

You need to take herbal sedatives when anxiety, panic, fear arise, and your heart rate increases. The use of insomnia medications requires caution, some of them are addictive.

Medicines are prescribed only

The use of a complex of vitamin B6 and magnesium will help stabilize the nervous system. Potassium and carnitine are needed for normal heart function. Vitamins C and E work as a single antioxidant complex that improves the overall condition of the body.

You cannot take any medications on your own. Your doctor will help you choose the right drug.

Herbal medicine and aromatherapy

The use of herbal ingredients is one of the reliable ways to independently combat nervous tension. You need to choose herbs and aromatic oils carefully and carefully so as not to cause allergies.

Tea with chamomile, mint, lemon balm, drunk in the morning, will help you react more calmly to irritants. Oregano relieves insomnia. St. John's wort has an antidepressant effect.

Many people come out of a tense state with the help of aromas. For aromatherapy you need to choose essential oils of lavender, hops, and bergamot. They have a calming effect. Ylang-ylang, mint, cypress, and rose oils are used to treat insomnia. They also help relieve anxiety. Aromatherapy will be effective if you like the smell of the oil. You can choose any scent.

Aromatherapy for stress

How to cope

Chronic stress is much more difficult to get rid of than ordinary stress. It is almost impossible to do this without outside help. Therefore, the first step on the path to recovery is making an appointment with a psychotherapist.

At the same time, while undergoing psychotherapeutic treatment, you need to work on yourself, otherwise the sessions will not give any results. At the same time, you need to be patient, since you will have to fight the chronic course for more than one week. With the help of a specialist, a whole rehabilitation program is organized. What can be done in such a situation?

Relax

Take a vacation

You cannot cure chronic stress with any tranquilizers if you continue to work in the same mode, continue to go to a dusty office and conflict with bosses and colleagues. Since in the new ICD-11 this diagnosis is listed under a special code (6B60-6B65), the psychotherapist can give an official sick leave, which will allow you to take a break from everyday work and restore health. As a last resort, you can take a vacation - planned or at your own expense. Moreover, for 2 weeks. It is unlikely that you will be able to get rid of such long-term tension in less time.

On topic: Stress at work

Change the scenery

Since environmental conditions are most often the causes of stress, they need to be changed. Leave. And it doesn’t matter where: to the dacha, to grandma’s village, to another city, on a trip around the world, to a resort. The main thing is not to return to your usual life for the same 2 weeks (this is the minimum). Where you went, there should be no reminders of past experiences.

Calm down

At the time of diagnosis, chronic stress has already sufficiently weakened and undermined the nervous system. Therefore, the main work in this direction is carried out by a psychotherapist. But the patient himself must make efforts to help him.

Get rid of worries

To do this, you need to learn to switch from negative thoughts to positive ones, and nip any negative feelings in the bud. Do you often worry that you didn’t turn off the gas or the iron when leaving the apartment? Get into the habit of taking photos of the gas and ironing board before leaving. Does it throw you off balance when something breaks? You need to stop attaching too much importance to things, find an alternative for each item, or have a financial safety net that will make up for such losses. In such trivial ways you can cope with any experience.

Eliminate the main stressor from your life

Chronic stress is based on either deep psychological trauma or a tangle of psycho-emotional problems that exhaust you every day. In the first case, you should understand what happened and why this or that event plunged you into such a state. Realize that it is already in the past and move on.

Each of us has our own main stressor.

If the problem is small but frequent difficulties, they need to be eliminated separately. Is your child constantly sick? Finally, find the money and make an appointment with a good immunologist to get rid of frequent colds and viruses once and for all. Is your wife nagging and demanding attention? Try to fall in love with her again, buy a gift, go to a movie or a cafe together - in a word, improve your relationship. By consistently sorting out this petty household rubbish, you will gradually get rid of stress.

Find a way to relax

In a state of chronic stress, this is the most difficult thing - to find what will bring pleasure. Sometimes you have to sift through a lot of known methods in order to find the only one that will pull you out of the abyss of apathy and indifference. What options are most often effective: new acquaintances (including relationships with the opposite sex), playing sports, changing your appearance (manicure, hairstyle, beauty salon, updating your wardrobe), shopping with friends, relaxing at sea, hobbies (beading, making homemade soap or tilde, patchwork). The main thing is to get carried away and enjoy it.

Join the healthy lifestyle

Chronic stress takes root not only in the psyche. Physical health is also under serious threat. To recover, you will need rehabilitation, many points of which are borrowed from a healthy lifestyle:

1. Exercise daily and move more.
2. Give up bad habits and addictions.
3. Learn to take a full break from work.
4. Eat a healthy, balanced diet, following a meal schedule.
5. Strengthen the immune system (by hardening, for example, or vitamin therapy).
6. Observe personal hygiene rules.
7. Treat all diseases in a timely manner.
8. Maintain a good emotional and mental state.
9. Get enough sleep.
10. Stick to a single daily routine.

Many people underestimate the introduction to a healthy lifestyle as a component of complex psychotherapy. However, when faced with unexpected problems every day that throw you out of your usual rut, the body needs just peace and stability. This will reduce the risk of stressors.

We also recommend that you read our previous article (link below), which will teach you how to react correctly to stress.

We recommend: Stress resistance: no stress - no problems!

How to avoid stress

A person who correctly perceives the world around him and leads a healthy lifestyle does not face prolonged stress. Simple recommendations will help you avoid nervous tension:

• Daily regime. You should try to wake up, eat, and go to bed at the same time every day. The ideal time to sleep is 23:00 – 7:00.
• Physical activity. Daily moderate exercise mobilizes the work of all body systems and prevents stagnation.
• Diet. The diet should be balanced, rich in vitamins. It is necessary to stop drinking alcohol.
• Hobby. Any creative activity distracts, inspires, and develops intelligence.
• Communication. You definitely need to talk to your family members, talk about yourself, listen to them. The support and participation of loved ones increases self-esteem and gives vitality.
• It is not possible to avoid stressful situations, but the factors that provoke chronic nervous tension must be eliminated. If you leave a job you don’t like, stop communicating with unpleasant people, life will become easier.

Mechanism of stress

The stress reaction itself is divided into three stages:

• anxiety stage
• resistance stage
• stage of exhaustion.

When a stimulus appears, the body experiences anxiety, and the mobilizing function is activated. If the stressor is strong, then already at the anxiety stage the body can die, for example, from a heart attack from fear. If there are enough resources in the body, then the stage of resistance begins. Here, signs of anxiety are no longer present, and the body’s resistance increases.

Weak and short-term exposure to a stressor leads to the fact that the body at some point adapts to the situation and acquires new knowledge, skills and abilities. That is, its adaptability increases.

Characteristic manifestations

Constant stress can be accompanied by both depression and outbursts of aggression

Let's look at what the symptoms of chronic stress are:

• sleep abnormalities (insomnia or, conversely, constant drowsiness);
• presence of headaches, migraines;
• increased fatigue, lack of strength;
• need for privacy;
• the inability to keep your emotions under control, outbursts of aggression and anger, increased tearfulness, apathy - all these are psychotic manifestations, individual for each individual person;
• attachment to bad habits may arise, which, according to the individual, help relieve stress (smoking, alcoholism);
• Women often develop a need for shopaholism;
• a person’s ability to process and perceive information decreases, difficulties with concentration appear, memory deteriorates, and performance decreases.

Stress can also be accompanied by symptoms of depression:

• loss of interest in life - a person ceases to enjoy everything;
• lack of a hobby that previously occurred;
• procrastination - when an individual puts things off until later, finds other activities just to avoid doing what he needs at the moment;
• constant lack of energy (from the moment a person wakes up and energy does not appear throughout the day).

Constant stress can affect appetite problems, and there can be two extremes: either a lack of desire to eat, or a constant need for food.

Alternative Treatment Options

If a psychologist has identified signs of chronic stress in a patient, the specialist begins to collect an anamnesis. It is important for a physician to determine the most dangerous stressors for a person, their strength and effect on the body. The psychotherapist undertakes to treat the patient only after familiarizing himself with the clinical picture of the patient. Having learned about what worries a person, what he experiences in stressful situations, etc., the specialist determines possible ways to solve the patient’s problems.

Chronic stress can be treated with medication or with psychological help and therapy. In severe cases, complex methods are used. The following medications will help you get out of a severe psycho-emotional state:

1. Adaptogens. These include substances of plant origin - lemongrass, rosea radiola, sea buckthorn, etc., as well as animal substances - “Apilak”.
2. Sleeping pills (“Sanval”, “Relaxon”, etc.).
3. Light tranquilizers (Grandaxin, Rudotel, Atarax, etc.) and antidepressants (Fevarin).

It is important to strictly follow your doctor's instructions. The patient can be cured only if the medications are taken correctly and the specialist’s additional instructions are followed.

You can speed up the healing process with the help of art therapy. Its large selection of techniques will allow you to choose an option for each case. The peculiarity of this method is that the treatment of the patient’s psycho-emotional state occurs through the pleasure that he receives as a result of the exercises. The patient can do his favorite activity for several hours a week, which will calm him down. You can choose one of the options proposed by the psychologist (drawing, clay modeling, embroidery, music or dancing, etc.).

The drug "Grandaxin" is a mild tranquilizer

Constantly facing nervous tension, you need to find an opportunity to relax. Chronic fatigue, nervousness, sleep problems, and other signs of psychological exhaustion are treatable. You can relieve the unpleasant symptoms of stress on your own, without turning to doctors for help. How to treat chronic stress:

1. Properly organize time for work and rest, especially for sleep.
2. Make soothing herbal infusions. People suffering from insomnia need them. An hour before going to bed, you should drink one glass of a decoction of valerian, lemon balm and St. John's wort. The drink will act as a sedative.
3. Take warm baths with lavender, fir or pine oils.

Such measures will remove the most acute symptoms of chronic stress. If they are ineffective, you should change your lifestyle or change your job. It is necessary to exclude the influence of stressors on the body. How long it will take to restore the patient’s psycho-emotional state can only be answered by a psychologist or psychotherapist. Professional diagnosis and treatment will quickly get rid of the painful signs of chronic stress.

Melissa tea is an excellent sedative

Other methods can be added to traditional treatment. How to get rid of chronic stress using alternative options? It is important to combine treatment with a specialist and other methods. An integrated approach will allow you to get out of a state of chronic stress and establish a fulfilling life.

1. Physical exercise. According to some studies, moderate physical activity relieves symptoms of prolonged stress in 40% of cases. Aerobics, dancing, walking, working out in the gym and other activities relieve anxiety and excitement. Exercises allow you to relieve irritation and aggressiveness, and improve your appearance.
2. Breathing exercises. Learning breathing techniques is an effective way to cope with anxious emotions. If you do them regularly, anxiety goes away and immunity to traumatic situations appears.
3. Autogenic training. Exercises include self-hypnosis formulas and muscle relaxation. With the help of training, calm is achieved and anxious thoughts go away.

In most cases, it is very difficult to cope with the chronic course of stress on your own, and the consequences of prolonged anxiety require therapeutic procedures. If most symptoms are present, treatment should not be delayed.

In some cases, immediate help is required, which a person can provide to himself. If the first symptoms appear, you should quickly relieve tension. Stretching, hand and temple massage will help with this. You can tense and relax all the muscles one by one, starting with the feet and moving towards the head.

Treatment of chronic stress

To prevent and eliminate stress, you should move more. The following sports are considered the best helpers: fast walking and running, aerobic exercise, yoga, swimming, tennis. Proper breathing is important. At the moment of experience, breathing becomes shallow; you should take deep, long breaths and slow exhalations for 2-3 minutes. This will allow you to calm down.

How to cope with chronic stress? This problem can be solved with the help of medications. In certain situations, medical assistance cannot be avoided. It is worth remembering that only doctors can prescribe medications. The following groups of remedies are used to eliminate the symptoms of stress.

1. Tonics and sedatives. These are antihistamines, antispasmodics, antihypertensives that regulate metabolism. They calm or stimulate the human nervous system, providing a mild sedative effect. But this is rather a side effect of drugs of this group.
2. Synthetic sedatives. Among the variety of these medications, calcium gamma hydroxybutyrate is isolated, which blocks the transition of stress to more severe forms of nervous disorders. It reduces vegetative manifestations of tension.
3. Herbal preparations are considered folk remedies against stress. But they are also actively used in traditional medicine. Over-the-counter products are made based on extracts and extracts from plants. But you should understand that natural remedies also cause side effects.
4. Homeopathy, dietary supplements. These substances have proven themselves to be effective in people who are easily suggestible. And although their therapeutic effect has not been clinically proven, the placebo effect does work. Dietary supplements and homeopathic remedies are considered harmless.
5. Mineral and effective vitamin complexes. They are prescribed during periods of increased mental or physical activity, during nervous tension, to maintain the vital functions of the body. During periods of stress, their shortage is acutely felt. They reduce fatigue and eliminate anxiety.
6. Tranquilizers, antidepressants, and antipsychotics are prescribed by a doctor and are available only by prescription. They have many side effects and serious contraindications.

You can help yourself recover from stress using simple methods, most of which are available to each of us. Let's figure out how to relieve stress and calm down after a nervous breakdown.

The main thing in the fight against stress is to relieve tension, try to distract yourself and relax. You can use these methods at home.

We remember the old worldly wisdom and put off solving the problem until the next day. It is important not to torment yourself with endless worries about what happened and how to live on, but to try to free your head from annoying thoughts.

The best way to do this is to do breathing exercises. A few simple exercises will relieve muscle tension and help you calm down. You can distract yourself by watching your favorite movie or talking with loved ones.

If obsessive thoughts just won’t leave your head, then don’t hide them, but entrust everything to paper. This will actually free your mind and maybe even look at the problem from a different perspective.

↑ Air!

Go for a walk. Just take a walk, and not run headlong from work to home or to the store. Go to the park, just walk along the streets, look at houses, passers-by, listen to the sounds of nature, breathe deeply. A walk can be considered a meditation if you focus your attention on some details: look at the leaves on the trees, shop windows, clouds in the sky, etc.

In addition, during a walk, the flow of oxygen to the head increases - you can take your mind off your worries and find the right solution to your problem.

↑ Listen to music

Music you love can lift your spirits. According to psychologists, classical music is best for relieving stress, but if you don’t like it, then just pick up any compositions that your heart responds to.

When playing sports or performing any physical exercise, the body produces the hormone of happiness - endorphin. He is responsible for a good mood. The influx of endorphins can be achieved in different ways, but the most reliable effect can only be achieved through physical exercise. You can go for a run, go to the gym, dance to your favorite music, or just do simple exercises - even a few squats and simple stretching will help relieve tension and fill you with energy.

↑ Water

How else can you relieve fatigue at home and relax? The easiest way is to go to the bathroom. Water can cleanse not only the physical body. It washes away all our troubles and sorrows and copes well with emotional stress.

Take a contrast shower or a warm bath with aromatic oils or salt. If possible, go to the pool or... to the bathhouse. Hot steam will relax your muscles and increase the flow of endorphins. You will feel rested and renewed.

↑ Folk remedies

Traditional recipes for herbal infusions are very helpful in relieving stress. A decoction of valerian root or motherwort herb is very soothing and helps to relax. These plants have a strong sedative effect and are often included in sedative preparations.

Warm tea with chamomile, mint or thyme and a small spoon of honey will cope with insomnia, relieve headaches.

Other folk plants are also good cures for stress: hawthorn berries, peony flowers, verbena. Only, as in the case of medications, you should use them carefully - in some cases, even taking herbal teas can cause negative reactions.

Health implications

If the body is exposed to stress, it does not have time to recover and is gradually depleted. Constant stress that depresses the mind and body destroys the immune system. A person begins to get sick and is susceptible to various infections.

The main consequences of a long-term traumatic factor:

1. Digestive problems. A person goes to a gastroenterologist, undergoes drug treatment, but the main cause is not removed. If you eliminate the source of the problem—chronic stress—treatment by a doctor becomes effective and productive.
2. Reduced adaptive capabilities. This includes the inability to get together and solve an ordinary life problem. A person becomes vulnerable and does not know what to do during simple situations.
3. Mental vulnerability increases. If an extreme event occurs, the condition may worsen to an acute, critical stage. The consequences in this case are a nervous breakdown, suicidal thoughts, and refusal of usual activities.
4. The harm of prolonged stress affects the skin and general physical condition. A vulnerable person begins to look older than his age, external beauty and grooming are lost.

Thus, the consequences of prolonged stress negatively affect social life and general well-being.

Chronic emotional stress

According to both doctors and physiologists, it is this type of stress that affects the increase in mortality. Humans developed emotions during evolution as a component of their survival. Human behavior is focused primarily on the manifestation of joyful and pleasant feelings. However, rapid scientific and technological progress leads to disharmony in a person’s mental state, which causes negative emotions. All of them have a detrimental effect on health. Thus, anger destroys the liver, anxiety destroys the spleen, fear and sadness destroy the kidneys, jealousy and envy destroy the heart. Factors that cause emotional chronic stress are as follows:

• inability to realize one's desires;
• expanding the spectrum of communication in society;
• lack of time;
• urbanization;
• an inexhaustible flow of unnecessary information;
• disruption of one’s own physiological biorhythms;
• high informational and emotional stress at work.

In addition, many people constantly relive in their souls already experienced situations in which they were unable to avoid misfortunes or defeats. Very often, chronic emotional stress is accompanied by depression, which is a state of extreme emotional depression of an individual. A person becomes indifferent to himself and others. Life loses value for him. WHO data says that depression currently accounts for 65% of all mental illnesses.

How stress affects your health

Paradoxically, short-term episodes of stress can even improve your quality of life. A stressful impulse stimulates hormones, sharpens cognitive abilities and triggers a reaction. In a word, it gives you the strength to connect your brain and deal with the situation.

However, constant exposure to stress exhausts the body. Changes can affect different areas of mental and physical health.

Eating habits. In some situations, stress suppresses appetite and leads to exhaustion. In others, the body, on the contrary, looks for Why stress causes people to overeat any opportunity to replenish energy reserves. This leads to “seizing” problems and weight gain. In addition, stress changes eating habits: the brain's craving for instant gratification increases, so a stressed person leans on sweets and fatty foods.

Muscles and tissues. The body sees a stressor as a threat to survival, even if it is a simple deadline or traffic jam. Therefore, it triggers a defense mechanism: it directs oxygen to the muscles and keeps them tense. This leads The Effects of Stress on Your Body to muscle hypertonicity, headaches, and body spasms.

Endocrine system. Constant stress keeps cortisol and other hormones high. These changes disrupt hormonal balance and lead to endocrine disorders, which may result in weight gain or inability to conceive.

The immune system. Changes in hormones inhibit How Stress Affects the Immune System's ability to resist viruses, infections and inflammatory processes in the body. All efforts are spent trying to defend against an external threat.

Digestive system. Stress interferes with The Effects of Stress on Your Body's ability to digest food, increases stomach acidity, and can lead to diarrhea or heartburn.

Psyche. A constantly elevated stress hormone and the resulting imbalance lead to Stress and Depression, depression, impaired concentration, emotional burnout, and chronic fatigue syndrome.

Dream. Insomnia, problems falling asleep, shallow interrupted sleep - Stress and Insomnia is the body's reaction to prolonged stress. Often people who lack sleep begin to stimulate themselves with coffee or energy drinks, only aggravating the problem.

The cardiovascular system. Chronic stress increases The Effects of Stress on Your Body blood pressure and stress on the heart, increasing the risk of stroke and heart attack. The connection between two parts of the nervous system is disrupted: the sympathetic (“gas pedal” of the body, which gives an impulse to action) and the parasympathetic (“brake pedal,” which allows you to slow down and calm down). The balance of the nervous system directly affects the functioning of the heart and is even measured through heart rate analysis.

Chronic psychological stress

This type of stress differs from others in that it is “triggered” not only by those negative factors that have already happened or are occurring at a given time, but also by those that (according to the individual) can only happen and which he is afraid of. The second feature of this stress is that a person can almost always assess the degree of his capabilities in eliminating an unfavorable situation. No matter how severe psychological chronic stress is, it does not cause obvious damage to the body and does not threaten life. The causes of psychological stress are only social relationships and/or one’s own thoughts. Among them are:

• memory of past failures;
• motivation of actions (“cheating” oneself into the need to get everything at the highest level);
• own life attitudes;
• uncertainty of the situation and prolonged waiting.

A person’s personal qualities, character and temperament have a great influence on the occurrence of psychological stress.

Diagnostics

Signs of stress can be deceiving because they also accompany other illnesses. You should see a therapist. He will determine the need to redirect the patient to a psychotherapist or psychologist. Physiological signs observed in patients suffering from chronic stress often require consultation:

• endocrinologist;
• gastroenterologist;
• cardiologist;
• neurologist.

Consultation with these specialists allows us to exclude options for diseases of organs and systems that are not associated with stressful situations.

Symptoms

Signs of prolonged emotional stress can vary. Most often, a person experiences chronic fatigue, which can be accompanied by other symptoms. Chronic stress affects not only the physical, but also the emotional and behavioral state. Main symptoms:

1. Withdrawal, aggression, anxiety and irritability.
2. Emotional indifference. A person exposed to chronic stress stops enjoying life. He begins to feel depressed.
3. Sleep problems.
4. Lack of sexual desire, aversion to intimacy.
5. Problems with memory and concentration.
6. Slowing down of mental activity. Solving simple work or household tasks takes more time and effort.

The development of a prolonged stressful state leaves an impact on a person’s well-being. Permanent stress leads to decreased immunity. Pathological changes occur at the hormonal level. With the influence of each stressor, there is a surge in adrenaline and disruptions in the functioning of internal organs. Problems with digestion, blood vessels and heart may begin. Stress can lead to endothelial dysfunction, i.e., problems with vascular homeostasis.

Symptoms of chronic stress and short-term stress may include fever, headaches, nausea and vomiting. The body is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, signaling danger. Often people susceptible to chronic fatigue feel unwell before important events in their lives.

Sleep problems are one of the symptoms of the disorder

If stress is left untreated, the consequences

Comprehensively. The important thing here is to start attacking stress from all sides.

• First, start getting enough sleep if you were constantly sleep-deprived before.
• Give yourself time to relax and enjoy your favorite hobby.
• Do yoga or breathing exercises.
• Go for a massage or sauna.
• Talk to positive people and don't watch the news (85% of it is negative).

All these measures are aimed at creating favorable conditions that will allow your body to recover and regain strength. To this list you can add any activity that brings you positive emotions, but not too strong.

As mentioned earlier, positive events that make you experience strong emotions are also stress. And in this case, in order to return to normal life, it is better to avoid any stress, both positive and negative, for some time. As they said in one famous film: “calm, only calm.”

And then you won’t have to rack your brain for a long time on how to get rid of chronic stress. But if, no matter what you do, it doesn’t get better, you should seek professional help and undergo a course of therapy. A person can be in a stressful state for years and make unsuccessful attempts to get out of it on their own over and over again. The doctor will help you sort everything out much faster, and you can return to normal life without any consequences.

Any nervous breakdown is, first of all, energy that requires release. If this does not happen, it accumulates in the body and can lead to serious consequences: severe depressive conditions and diseases such as hypertension, heart disease, and neurological disorders.

In addition, this seriously complicates a person’s social life: a person experiencing constant nervous overload cannot normally concentrate on work or study, he is very unsure of himself, irritable and suspicious, and it is difficult to communicate with him. This leads to frequent conflicts with family, friends and colleagues.

With constant impact on the human body, stress causes changes in its functioning. Tension forces all organs and systems to be on alert, and the level of adrenaline, insulin, and hydrocortisol increases. This contributes to the development of heart and vascular diseases, diabetes, and decreased potency.

Medicines for chronic stress

Exhaustion occurs gradually, the body does not have time to recover. Changes occur not only on the physical plane, stress causes mental disorders. Adaptive abilities decrease, a person’s vulnerability to external factors increases. The critical point of stress is a nervous breakdown, unjustified changes in a person’s life, and suicide.

Long-term stress affects appearance, physical condition, and social life. The consequences of chronic stress are unpredictable, but one thing is clear - it weakens and slowly kills the body. Therefore, it is important to know the symptoms of stress in order to notice the problem in time and take protective measures.

Read more about the topic: The dangers of constant stress

↑ How to recognize stress

The release of adrenaline and cortisol is the body's first protective reaction to increased stress. They are responsible for the physical symptoms of stress that you may feel. These include the following signals:

• headache;
• high blood pressure;
• rapid breathing;
• exacerbation of gastritis or development of peptic ulcer or other gastrointestinal disorders;
• chest pain;
• muscle tension;
• feeling of discomfort, tension or pain in the spine;
• fast fatiguability.

But not only physical, but also emotional changes accompany stress. Psychological symptoms of stress include:

• depressed mood;
• increased anxiety;
• absent-mindedness - it is impossible to concentrate on doing something;
• irritability;
• sleep problems.

If you notice similar changes in yourself or someone close to you, you should definitely start treatment.

↑ How not to relieve stress and fatigue

Many people believe that the best remedy for fatigue and stress relief is alcohol. It will help you relax and forget about your problems. However, in reality the effect is the opposite. Alcohol puts additional stress on the body, which is already physically and emotionally exhausted.

If you are very tired, you should not use stimulants or energy drinks. Coffee, strong tea, chocolate, energy drinks only have an invigorating effect for a while, after which the situation only gets worse. At the same time, they further overload the nervous system and reduce the body’s natural ability to deal with stress.

Stages of stress

According to the theory of Canadian physiologist Hans Selye, chronic stress develops in three stages:

1. Anxiety reaction. A person begins to be visited by annoying thoughts that something is going wrong in his life or is about to happen, that he is not being taken into account, that he is not being understood. Depending on the type of stressor, a person may also feel discomfort from environmental conditions (noise, heat) or feel pain that is easily relieved with medications, but causes concern. At the first stage, the sympathetic nervous system becomes excited, the hypothalamus excites the pituitary gland, which, in turn, produces the hormone ACTH, and the adrenal glands produce corticosteroids, which increase the body’s readiness to withstand stressors.
2. Resistance. Hans Selye conventionally called it “flight or fight.”
3. Exhaustion. The body usually reaches this stage under chronic stress, when negative factors affect a person for too long or there is a constant change from one factor to another. At the stage of exhaustion, the resources and capabilities of the body are sharply reduced.