How Is Stress Related To Mental Illness?
Stress is a normal part of life
and we all deal with stress in our own way. However, stress is
actually on two different levels in some cases, since mental
illness fits into the equation. Everyone has to deal
with stress and even so-called “normal” minds have the
potential to break mentally.
This doesn’t mean a person
has a mental illness, rather likely means the person is
dealing with a complicated problem that isn’t a common part of
their day. When someone has a nervous breakdown, it’s a
temporary state of mind and that person is often capable of
returning to a normal lifestyle upon receiving temporary
treatment. Therefore, we see that no mental illness is
involved.
On the other hand, if you’re
suffering stress on a daily basis and it affects your life
dramatically, then it’s possible there is an underlying mental
illness involved. Stress can cause us to think
suicidal thoughts, flee from normal thinking patterns
temporarily, cause us health problems, impair our judgment,
and even cause delusions and paranoia as well as other mental
health related symptoms.
The difference between
common stress and abnormal stress is that the symptoms of
stress from a common view is temporary, while the symptoms of
mental illness is ongoing. Even the so-called normal
person might require medications to treat stress, but most of
time when a mental illness is involved, the person will need
long-term medicines.
Stress affects both the body and
mind and can lead to a series of problems. Stress is a force
that compels one part of the mind against another part of the
mind, pulling and pushing against the positive forces or
compressing emotions and thoughts. When this occurs, a person
feels as though they’re losing control of their life. This
will often lead them to lean on their emotions to try to solve
their problems.
When a person leans on the emotions
within them that create anger or sadness, often leads to
negative thought patterns. Now it’s up to that person to
decide when they’ve had enough and take charge by doing
something to resolve their problems.
If a person fails
to initiate this decision-making process in their mind and
instead dwells constantly on negative emotions, then that
person is subject to mental illness, providing it lingers for
longer than a few weeks or even months. What happens
is stress changes the equilibrium in the brain and this
applies pressure to the mind. When the equilibrium is
not reinstated, then the mind is subject to chemical
imbalances, tumors, and diseases.
If the mind has a
faulty area, it makes it difficult for a person to cope with
their stress. This creates additional thinking patterns,
including suicidal tendencies or thoughts, and consistent
negative thinking. When a person feels negative or suffering
and is unaware of the cause, it often creates a higher level
of stress for the individual, decreasing the persons coping
mechanism. However, a person may not have a disease, chemical
imbalance or tumor and still suffer beyond normal
stress.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
for example is a psychological reaction that reoccurs
consistently after a person has witnessed or experienced a
high level of trauma. This person will suffer anxiety
attacks, depression, reoccurring nightmares, night sweats,
flashbacks and they’ll do everything in their power to avoid
social gatherings and triggers that link their minds back to
the tragedy. This person will also suffer abnormal stress on a
daily basis and do everything in their power to avoid stress
at the same time.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is a
mental health issue, because this person has endured extreme
trauma. This marks the person as a candidate for heart
attacks, strokes, high-blood pressure and other medical
related illnesses.
As you can see, there’s a fine line
between common stress and mental illness and stress. The
levels of stress for the common society are often tolerable,
while the mentally ill have to fight a million times harder to
avoid stress and/or cope with stress.
If you or someone
you love is suffering stress, you may want to consider stress
management techniques that can benefit everyone. There are
many techniques that help a person relieve stress, including
techniques for high-intense stress levels.
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