Worried Sick?

Is my Stress Normal?Photo Credit Bernard Goldbach

Or has our society collectively acquired a new norm of a stressful behavior? The underlying omnipresent knowledge of our “to do list” can vampire the enjoyment out of the very moments we are working on that “to do list” or trying to relax. Our bodies get tired and we just want to relax, but feel guilty to when there is so much unfinished. What will people think of me? Am I irresponsible? Am I a bad person? Maybe as long as I stay busy and “Do” I actually momentarily get some relief from self judgment. 

Deeper than Anxiety

Energetically Anxiety is fear of making an incorrect decision or mistake. This causes the person not to move in any direction, which in turn makes them feel stuck and trapped in their circumstances (which they may have created themselves from fear of making decisions). This may also manifest in the tendency to over research to find answers, feeling confused with conflicting information, and not making a quick decision to action. This keeps you longer in your unfavorable circumstance. 

Anxiety is also related to fear of abandonment, which can manifest in feeling a need to “Do” something, in order to keep other people happy and therefore “like you” and not abandon you. There’s a sense anxious people feel, that their world is not safe, so worrying is somehow a twisted way to make them feel temporary relief. Why is that? 

How does the Brain Interpret Reward?

Feel a low level of guilt or shame over small things in life? For some, it’s the guilt or shame that you feel, that gets interpreted as stress. We have a reward center in the brain called the nucleus accumbens. This part of the brain regulates how we feel pleasure associated with reward for a behavior. If you got rewarded with food when you finished your homework as a kid, you may link food to reward as an adult, perhaps over eating to emotionally feel good. If you got punished when you did not do homework, that punishment also registers in the nucleus accumbens, the reward center. This is why people oddly get addicted to guilt, shame, or punishing themselves. This may be why it’s so hard to break the cycle of worrying and just let go. 

How does Stress Make you Sick?

In a journal published by the Immunology Allergy Clinic of North America Titled “Stress and Allergics Diseases”, it is estimated that over 75% physician visits in America are stress related. Stress increases susceptibility to infections, autoimmune disease, allergies, and inflammatory bowel disease, and negatively affects the outcome to cancer and aging. Studies show that maternal stress while pregnant increases the child’s risk to developing asthma and allergies.

Stress impacts the immune system by increasing the secretion of cortisol and catecholamines. The stress hormones increase stimulation of TH2 type T cells, increasing the production of IL-4, IL-10 and IL-13, which favors an allergic inflammatory response. Cortisol unfortunately suppresses TH1 type T cells and thus IL-12 which is important for natural killer cell function, which decreases susceptibility to viral infections and cancer. 

Stress stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, which increases the release of Substance P (SP) which is related to pain and inflammation. Stress also increases the release of Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide (VIP). VIP increases vasodilation, secretion of water (which may increase edema, bloating, or diarrhea), and smooth muscle relaxation (may increase GERD symptoms). According to the British Journal of Medicine, increased VIP and VIP nerve receptors are associated with some inflammatory bowel disease. 

Stress definitely can make you sick, and takes away your enjoyment of life. Stay tuned and I will share some strategies to help you overcome stress in the next newsletter. In the mean time, remember the good things in life and laugh a little.