3 Dangerous Side Effects Of Feeling Stressed

Pretty much everyone goes through periods of stress during their life. Some of you reading this are probably stressed right now because of one thing or another. Some of you might be able to empathize with these people as you’ve been through some pretty stressful times.

The worst thing about stress is that it can hit you from so many different angles. Every part of your life, whether it’s your love life, your career, your children, even your health, can cause a great deal of stress. It can be very hard to avoid and leave you in a very dark place.

To make matters even worse, the side effects of feeling stressed run incredibly deep. If you’re stressed, the chances are you’re a lot of other bad things too. This is what I want to talk about today as a way of showing you all how bad stress is for our health. Each heading will show you a side effect of feeling stressed and provide information on the devastating consequences this can have.

Depression

Many people think that depression is just a state of sadness. This isn’t true, it’s a proper mental illness that’s rooted in your mind and can make even the bubbliest of people feel bad about themselves. There are many reasons someone can become depressed, but stress is a huge factor in this issue presenting itself to you. When you’re stressed, you feel like the world is against you and nothing is going your way. Every day becomes a battle, to the point where you just wish you could lie in bed, close your eyes, and sleep forever. The things causing your stress play on your mind 24/7, and it has a real negative effect on your mental health.

It gets to the point where stress can cause you to become distant from others, wish you could be alone, not want to do anything, and hate the life you’re living. All of these things are common symptoms that people feel when they’re depressed. The two things are so linked to one another, it’s scary. If you feel stressed and start beating yourself up about life, it’s time to get help. You don’t want to fall into a spiral of depression as it can be hard to find a way out. Depression destroys your mental health, but it can also destroy your physical health too. People die every year because of it, you can’t let stress cause this horrible thing to happen to you.

Addiction

Addiction and stress go hand in hand with one another. People who are severely stressed will be much more susceptible to having an addiction. When you’re stressed out, you want to find ways of relieving this stress and having a break from your thoughts for just a few moments. So, it’s only natural that you might turn to alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs. Stressed people often drink and do drugs to cover up their own feelings and avoid tackling the cause of their stress. Likewise, smoking has long been associated with stress relief from those that do it. People like the act of smoking as it can feel therapeutic, the only problem is you’re filling your body with something toxic, and you’re addicted to doing so.

Having an addiction is clearly bad for your health on many levels. While it may make you feel like you’re de-stressing, you’re never actually getting rid of any stress. If you’re stressed, take a look at yourself right now. What are you doing? Do you find yourself drinking frequently or smoking loads of cigarettes? If so, you might have an addiction, or at least be at risk of having one. Don’t be afraid to call for help if you need it. Tackle your addiction, then get started tackling the cause of your stress. Stop trying to cover up stress with things that are bad for you. It will only make things worse and give you more work to do to become healthy again.

Weight Problems

If you notice the first two side effects are very much related to your mental health and well-being. Depression is a mental illness and addiction comes from your mental state too. However, stress can also cause problems with your physical health too. Specifically, it can have a huge role to play in your weight. Stress is strange in that it can cause excessive weight gain and rapid weight loss. Neither of which are healthy and they will lead to all sorts of health problems for you.

Let’s talk about stress and weight gain for a moment. How are the two linked? In many ways, it goes back to what I said about people looking for things to cover up the pain that stress is causing. Some people choose to eat a lot of junk food. They choose to stuff their face and get really fat. Not only that, but stress can make you feel so down that you don’t want to go out and do anything. Consequently, any fitness regime goes out the window. You eat to feel better and don’t exercise because you feel sorry for yourself, which causes excessive weight gain.

What about stress and weight loss? A lot of people deal with stress in different ways and have different types of stress. For some, it can mean they’re constantly busy and never have time to rest. As a result, food becomes a low priority. They’re so stressed out they can’t even begin to think about food as they have loads of other issues. As a result, they eat less and less, which causes dramatic and unhealthy weight loss.

The whole purpose of this article is to show you how dangerous stress can be for your all-around health and wellness. It creates so many different side effects that are extremely damaging. Anyone that’s reading this and feel stressed needs to find ways to relax and de-stress. Search for the cause of your stress and address it. If you can get things under control and feel less stressed, then you can avoid these dangerous side effects.