paler. There may be involuntary urination or defecation, due to an over-reaction of that part of the nervous system responsible for restoring the status quo (the parasympathetic nervous system); normally, however, the sphincters controlling these functions close to prevent any further activity until the crisis is past. Other aspects of the body’s defence capability, the immune system, become less active during such arousal. This makes infection more likely at such a time. Since the muscles are tense, they will be producing lactic acid break-down products, which have the effect of reinforcing the anxiety and tension felt.
This listing of the chain reaction set up by stress is by no means fully comprehensive, but it gives an idea of what a devastating effect prolonged stress can have on normal body functions.
General Adaptation Syndrome
In the initial stages of arousal, most systems adapt to and accommodate such changes. After arousal there is a return to the status quo, especially if the response is adequate. However, if arousal is repeated over and over again, then some of the changes mentioned above stop being temporary and become chronic. The term employed to describe this process is the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). As your body adapts to repeated and constant stress factors, and as chronic symptoms become an accepted part of life, the general level of health declines. Such symptoms include headaches, dizziness, insomnia, blurred vision, swallowing difficulties, aching neck and shoulder muscles, high blood pressure, heart problems, circulatory problems, palpitations, asthma, allergies, indigestion, ulcers, backache, skin rashes, excessive sweating, colitis, sexual problems, depression, phobias and irritability.
Disturbances occur in the blood-sugar balance, giving rise to wild swings in energy levels and mood. If this is accompanied by the excessive use of sugar in the diet, and of stimulants such as tea, coffee and chocolate, the body’s ability to maintain a normal blood-sugar level can be severely damaged. (Some researchers see this as a major cause of diabetes.) There is often a tendency to underperform; self-doubt and insecurity become apparent, and there is a tendency for the defence mechanism to break down, making allergies and infections more likely. Personal relationships may become strained, libido often disappears, and all these changes lead to further anxiety and stress. A vicious circle of declining health, resulting from stress, is the bleak picture which is all too familiar in modern society.
Accompanied, as it often is, by poor nutrition, lack of exercise, and the debilitating habits of drinking (tea and coffee as well as alcohol) and smoking, the formula for disaster is well under way. Treatment by drugs and other medication results in nothing but a possible alteration of superficial symptoms. Indeed, by neglecting the underlying causes, symptomatic treatment may well do further harm. Masking and disguising a problem will never provide an answer to it.
This adaptation stage is critical in as much as most, if not all, of the symptoms are still reversible if the underlying stress factors are dealt with, and attention is paid to nutrition, exercise and structural integrity. How long this stage lasts depends upon many variables, including inherited factors, as well as the degree of stress, basic health habits, and the degree of emotional support available.
After a period of years (ten, twenty or more) the exhaustion stage of the GAS may be reached, and at this time the body simply ceases to be able to cope, and there is a collapse into one or other disease state. Break-down finally occurs, when even minor stress factors are not dealt with satisfactorily. At this point there may be collapse into a catastrophic illness, such as coronary heart disease, cancer, etc.
Knowledge of the signs and symptoms of stress, and of some of the ways in which the body copes with stress, can be seen as a necessary step towards understanding the enemy. Without being able to recognize and become aware of stress, it is possible to delude oneself that ‘it just won’t happen to me’.
The combination of prolonged stress and chronic fatigue has been put forward by some researchers (Drs Poteliakhof and Carruthers, in their report: Real Health: the III Effects of Stress and their Prevention) as a major factor in the cause of such conditions as rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and hypertension. Lack of sleep, persistent overwork and chronic anxiety is thought to result in hormonal imbalance, notably adrenal exhaustion or sluggishness. This is thought to interact with constitutional and inherited factors to determine the type of disease which develops.
Heart Disease
In the field of heart disease, research by Dr Peter Nixon at London’s Charing Cross Hospital (detailed in Stress and Relaxation by Jane Madders) has shown contributory causes to be sustained and inappropriately high levels of arousal. This is mainly the result of the following factors, he suggests:
1 Pressures exerted by people from whom there is no escape.
2 Unacceptable time pressures, deadlines, etc.
3 Sleep deprivation.
4 A high score in the lifestyle changes list (see page).
Dr Nixon states that drugs are unsatisfactory in the treatment of hypertension, since the underlying causes are not dealt with.
Neurological Disease
Among other stress-induced conditions are those that mimic more serious conditions. ‘Symptoms suggesting serious neurological disease are common in patients suffering from anxiety states, or depressive illness, partly, or wholly, attributable to the effects of stress’, states Dr Richard Godwin Austin, consultant neurologist of Nottingham General Hospital. ‘The most common example seen in the neurological out-patient clinic is the patient suffering from recent onset headaches … Patients under physical or psychological stress, frequently develop tension headaches. These may occur in the setting of a depressive reaction, with symptoms of agitation or phobia. The headache often fails to respond to any form of simple analgesic.’
Cancer
There has also been a good deal of research into stress and its relationship to the onset of cancer. The German researcher Dr W. Herberger has noted that chronic anger, disappointment, fear and inability to cope with misfortune often play a role in its development. It has been found that the majority of cancer sufferers have a tendency to dwell on past misfortunes, real or imagined, and they have little sense of the future. Dr Hans Moolenburg, a noted Dutch physician, has described cancer patients as people who have been ‘battered by fate’. It has also been noted that in the U.K., where six out of ten members of the general public acknowledge some belief in God or some spiritual agency, that nine out of ten cancer patients had no such belief. Cancer might therefore be described as, in part, a disease of ‘spiritual deficiency’.
Load, Strain and Stress – Harmful and Helpful Factors
Before looking at some of the conclusions that have been come to concerning the relationship between personality traits and disease states, I want to touch on the possibly surprising healing potentials of some aspects of controlled stress. First, I want to be sure that you truly understand what is, and what is not stress.
Any reaction of your body or mind in response to an environmental or psychological demand is commonly termed a stress reaction. However, the total process of adaptation can be divided into three major phases, termed load, strain and stress.
Load is that part of the process in which an interaction takes place between you and any factor (physical, chemical or psychological) which is capable of disturbing you, or which demands a response from you. Strain is the term applied to the change(s) which result in your body/mind after the application of that load. It is the defensive (healing or normalizing) phase which
