For those of us that experience severe asthma attacks on a regular basis, we realize that there is nothing that is quite as stressful. Even when we are not currently experiencing an asthma attack, it is probably something that we have on our mind and we may worry about the next time one comes along. After all, these asthma attacks can be life-threatening and even if they don’t take our life, they can stress us out to the extent that we are left feeling rather helpless. What you may not be aware of, however, is that the two of these different things may be related more than you realize.

Stress is something that all of us deal with and it is something that is built into us to help us to handle situations that may be a little bit uncomfortable to us. Some of us are able to handle stress rather easily and that we can get through the situations and then let the stress go. In the world in which we live, however, this is becoming increasingly difficult to do and many of us find that we are stressing out regularly over things that we don’t even have any control of. This can be very damaging to us, both mentally and physically. Why is that the case?

Researchers are coming to realize that stress plays a large role in how our overall health is going to react. It releases different chemicals into the body that are rather damaging and can cause a number of different illnesses. If a person is dealing with a serious illness, such as asthma, the stress that they experience may make the condition much worse. As a matter of fact, high levels of stress have been shown to be a trigger in causing an asthma attack which may add additional stress to us.

One of the things that you can do for yourself that will help you to deal with asthma effectively is to teach yourself how to deal with your stress effectively as well. This can be difficult to do but it is by no means impossible. Exercising regularly and making sure that you eat a proper diet are two things that you can do which will ease your mind and a lot of problems that you’re experiencing. You can also schedule time every day in order to relax and meditate. If you are able to overcome your stress, you may just experience less asthma as a result.

Author: Caroline Bourke

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Do You Stress over Your Asthma

Understanding that stress can cause hives is a good way to understand what exactly is happening to you when you notice yourself breaking out in hives. You can look at it as an early indication that your current stress level is a little too high and you need to hurry up and cool down to stay healthy. Knowing that stress can cause hives is a reason that some people take extra steps to keep themselves calm because of embarrassment that comes along with having hives all over you.

Handling Stress Hives

When you notice for the first time that you are one of the people who see that stress can cause hives all over them, you may panic wondering how to get rid of it all. The best thing to do is to remove yourself from your current situation so that you can allow yourself space to relax and calm down. There are cases where particular places or certain people cause an intense increase in stress levels, which means that this stress can cause hives. By removing yourself you are able to clam yourself and then the hives will lighten and go away after a little bit of time.

Once you get used to exactly what it is that is causing you stress you can begin to avoid it because it can cause stress hives for you. The best way to maintain control over these hives is by understanding what sets you off and making sure that you are avoiding those situations all together. If what can cause stress hives for you in completely unavoidable, then you may want to speak with your doctor on other ways to handle the situation to where you do not blow up and break out and you can still stay in control of everything going on.

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Can Stress Cause Hives

Since understanding stress is a critical concept, there are virtually wide numbers of definition of stress documented in different psychology and medical journals. The definition of stress has thus different shades, different perspectives. With the help of this article, let us explore few of them. Here we go.

Stress as Separation Anxiety

When we search for the definition of stress, where stress is perceived as an outcome of separation anxiety, we can define it as an emotional response occurring as a result of early separation from mother. Stress as separation anxiety may lead to the development of depression and substance abuse in adult life.

Stress as Post Traumatic Reaction

The definition of stress occurring as a result of post traumatic reaction is explained as post traumatic stress disorder, which is characterized by an intense fear regarding personal safety without any specific cause, recurrent thoughts of traumatic events, nightmares and poor quality sleep, feeling of detachment, emotional numbness, etc.

Stress as Biopsychosociological Reaction

The definition of stress as a biopsychosociological reaction is first explained by Hans Selye, an Austro-Canadian endocrinologist. In his explanation, he adopted a stress model, popularly known as General Adaptation Syndrome or GAS model during 1936. He explained that the stimuli of stress or stressors are perceived through three individual stages alarm, resistance and exhaustion. While stress is perceived at alarm stage, body breaks down during exhaustion stage.

Stress as Eustress and Distress

In 1974, this definition of stress was proposed by Richard Lazarus, a psychology professor and cognitive-mediational theorist from University of California. In this definition stress was explained as either of two types eustress or distress. While the definition of eustress suggests a perception of healthy stress, distress is characterized by unhealthy one.

In the definition of eustress, all the good stress experiences are documented such as preparing for examination, meeting a goal, marriage, buying a new property, receiving the news of promotion, etc. On the other hand, the same event can be listed under distress if those incidents are perceived from a different angle, say, taking excessive pressure before examination.

There are many other definitions of stress as well. However, the above-mentioned definitions are widely known and perceived by many people around the world. Since the understanding of stress needs an in-depth study, so the definition of stress can be too complicated. These are only intended to give a general overview of the definition of stress.

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Definition of Stress

When holiday season comes, many people pack up their luggage and become ready to go to their favorite destination, but not all of them truly enjoy as they dreamed of. In fact, a holiday destination is an ocean of joy and comfort on one hand and anxiety and restlessness on the other. Quite obviously, this results in an insatiable stress experience without any doubt. Holiday stress can be very intensive in some cases, during which it may even lead to fatal cardiac attacks.

However, it is quite possible to deal with holiday stress, if you know the tactics. By knowing how to deal with holiday stress you can truly enjoy your experience in your favorite holiday destination without any possible emotional as well as physical hazards. In this article, we will discuss some tips from different psychologists and holiday experts on holiday stress. Go through it if you have planned for a vacation.

Set Your Priorities

Holiday is a time when you may become simply overwhelmed with too many activities. It is a time, when you can not simply limit your actions with any daily chores. As a result, you may not take all the advantages of a holiday season that you actually have desired the most, which inevitably brings holiday stress for you, since you can not simply avoid the situation. What you can do is to set your priorities by examining and planning your favorite activities, while simply ignoring the rest.

Know Your Limitations

Some people simply do not accept their own limitations, especially when it comes about moving to a holiday destination. Many people expect an overwhelming level of togetherness even when it is not actually so. Holiday stress knocks you down when you expect irrational closeness with your partner or family members simply because you are on vacation. Apart from that, many people do not set their limit at the time of holiday shopping, and quite obviously, this only brings holiday stress at the end with all possible worries.

Care Your Health

Do not tax much. Many people forget to take basic care of their health especially when they are on vacation. Travel only as much as you can. Even when you are on vacation, try your best to follow a healthy lifestyle, such as sleeping on time, eating healthy food, drinking purified water, etc. Many diseases come from contaminated water and food, so be very careful about your diet, especially if you are traveling in other countries. So be rational, set your realistic goal and know how to handle situations simply by understanding your own limitations.

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Holiday Stress

An individual having PTSD may be a victim of rape, accident, disaster, child abuse, tortured, mugging or anything that offers a fear-provoking stimuli. In this article, let us focus on the important information on post traumatic stress disorder including its prevalence, symptoms and treatment.

Prevalence

To date, over 7.7 million American adults are affected by post traumatic stress disorder. There is no specific age for the onset of this anxiety disorder. It can even occur during childhood. Although PTSD may occur to both male and female, there is still a gender difference, female are at higher risk for developing PTSD compared to male.

In fact, the likelihood of this disorder in women (10.4%) is twice than men (5%). Research has shown that this disorder may have been linked to genetic predisposition as well. In most of the cases, PTSD is overlapped with certain other conditions like depression, other form of anxiety disorders or substance abuse.

Symptoms

Since the experience is truly personalized, few symptoms may vary from person to person. Common symptoms may involve emotional numbness; lack of interest; being easily frightened; poor quality of sleep; lack of concentration; recurrent, dramatic, distressing memories; flashbacks; intense fear about personal safety without any apparent cause; not being able to explain the problem.

Many individuals with post traumatic stress disorder may experience nightmares at the time they are sleeping. Not everyone develops full-blown symptoms of PTSD just after the incident, in fact, the problem progresses within 3 months and emerges even after long years. Even an ordinary incident may trigger out the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder.

Treatment

Post traumatic stress disorder can be treated with a combination of medication and psychotherapy. Medications once started can not be terminated abruptly. Abrupt termination may lead to severe complications on time. In order to improve the effectiveness, individuals with post traumatic stress disorder must join self-help support group, where he or she will be able to receive support from people suffering from the same complication.

Different stress management techniques like relaxation, breathing therapy, meditation, yoga can offer benefit. Recovery from anxiety disorder of any sort including PTSD needs sensitive cooperation from family members. So, if you have someone in your family going through the same crisis, take action now to offer a friendly hand.

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Post traumatic Stress Disorder

While most relationships, whether sexual or non-sexual, have their share of conflicts, relationship stress is far from healthy. Normal fights in the context of a relationship are healthy; they relieve tension, let both individuals get their opinions out and prevent anger from being suppressed. However, when fighting becomes too much, or when conflict is too volatile, relationship stress can develop, a situation that is dangerous for everyone involved. No stress is healthy, and in the end, preventing it from occurring is important, even if it means leaving a relationship behind.

The Dangers of Relationship Stress

Relationship stress, like most other forms of stress, primarily lowers the immune system of the suffering individual. Ongoing conflict can quickly lead to numerous other illnesses, from the cold and the flu to severe mental debilitation. However, most relationships and families do experience conflicts; sometimes the acknowledgement of a global camaraderie can prevent everyday fights from turning into stress. However, when those conflicts become to great, or when the fights become violent, there is nothing beneficial about the situation.

Above all, relationship stress, outside of a lowered immune system, can lead to other physical ailments. In a sense, the part of the brain that processes emotional pain is in the same area as the part that processes physical pain; the idea of a broken heart is somewhat true, it would appear. A relationship plagued by relationship stress will involve an awful lot of broken hearts, both metaphorically and literally.

As stated before, sometimes the worst kind of relationship stress is the unexpressed kind. Relationships void of fights are often not healthy relationships at all; when individuals suppress anger and never express their disagreements, the internalized problems quickly develop into stress. Fights foster understanding and can bring people together, at least in moderation. Couples who never fight tend to die younger and live unhealthy lives, while their counterparts who are open to disagreements live longer, happier and free of relationship stress. Above all, however, conflict must be expressed in the right way. While suppressed anger can lead to stress, anger expressed in a vindictive, condescending manner can lead to worse relationship stress. Whether a couple or family simply needs to sit down and talk or needs to employ the help of a therapist, conflict and fights should always be resolved as peacefully as possible, in a respectful manner that does not belittle anyone. Otherwise, the anger might as well be suppressed, as it is not going to help the situation in any way.

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Relationship Stress

What it is

The term repetitive stress injury is one that is given to a group of conditions that are caused as a result of too much stress being placed on a joint. This occurs when an action that is stressful to a joint is repeated frequently and when the area is not given the necessary time to recover. In turn the area becomes irritated and inflamed and feels painful and sore.

There are certain warning signs that may present themselves at the onset of a repetitive stress injury, but having pain in one specific area is usually the first telltale sign that there is a problem. The area on the body will usually be red and swollen and uncomfortable to move, and it may even wake you up during the night.

How to Deal With it

A repetitive stress injury can be agonizingly painful and so it is important to learn how to properly deal with this condition. The first step is to have a physical examination performed by your doctor, and treatment will then be done as promptly as possible in order to reduce the pain and swelling and keep the problem from getting worse.

This will allow you to carry on with your day to day activities rather than having to put a hold on your life just to stay out of pain. The goal of treating repetitive stress injuries is to relieve the pain and swelling and prevent future problems, and it is going to be essential for you to have an active involvement in terms of the treatment of your condition.

There are also certain prescription medications that are commonly recommended for the treatment of repetitive stress injuries, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs being the most popular. These are drugs that help to reduce inflammation, irritation and swelling, and although they are very effective at relieving symptoms of the condition they are not suggested for long term use.

Cortisone is often prescribed if the swelling does not go away and you are still experiencing problems, the most common form of cortisone being prednisone which is taken in pill form. There are many possible side effects however which is why persons taking this drug must be carefully monitored and the only reason this drug is prescribed is to help ease the pain until a long term solution is found and the condition itself has been properly treated.

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Repetitive Stress Injury

Seizures can be triggered by many things. Actually, a person with epilepsy is on a hair trigger as to what can trigger the seizures that accompany this condition. Stress causing seizures has always been in the forefront of many individual’s minds. This idea of stress causing seizures has basis and many medical practitioners acknowledge this. Relief may come in traditional medicine or herbal remedies.

Stress Causing Seizures: The Reality

Epilepsy is a condition that affects a lot of people in the world. This condition is characterized by seizures that may occur anytime with no apparent reason. Epilepsy is a neurological disorder and the seizures are recurring. There are some medications that aid in managing the condition as well as reduce the risk of seizures happening randomly.

The concept of stress causing seizures in an epileptic patient can be contributed to the fact that many research and studies have logged that the condition reacts to anxiety and other mental pressures. This is most likely because mental pressure such as stress can cause our brains to overload to an extent that it affects our neurological state. So, stress causing seizures is a fact and not a myth as some people may claim it to be.

Since stress causing seizures is common knowledge, individuals who have epilepsy must make sure they experience less stress than other people. Seizures can affect a person not only in a mental level but also physically. People who experience seizures can attest that they bang their body and head on a lot of things that will hurt once they recover. Some even have bruises, cuts and wounds after a seizure, even concussions.

Stress causing seizures is a delicate thing to handle especially for epileptics who work in stressful areas and companies. This is where medication and drugs come in to help manage and control the condition. Stress causing seizures in epileptics needs to be addressed properly because these days stress is a way of life, inherent in our daily lives and work.

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Stress Causing Seizures

Searching for Relief

For many people, a stress headache is a regular afternoon visitor, a sign of a larger chronic cycle. For others, the headaches occur infrequently, but even these rare episodes can be painful. A stress headache is not hereditary, nor is it a stand-alone issue. Many of these aches can be caused by tightened muscles in the neck, while others cause those muscles to tighten. The one common denominator among all tension headaches is their undeniable tie to the environment. As the name states, a stress headache is caused by stress. From family and social relationships to work and school, stress weighs heavily on the body, and when the body breaks, the head is the first to feel the pressure. When the stresses mount up daily, occasional headaches can quickly become chronic.

A stress headache can last from 30 minutes to 24 hours, and is usually experienced as a constant, painful pressure. While migraines can lead to throbbing, vomiting and sensitivity to sound and light, tension headaches are rarely as severe. A stress headache is characterized by muscle aches, fatigue, insomnia, irritability, disturbed concentration and sometimes some mild light sensitivity or occasional dizziness. In some cases, an individual may wake up with a stress headache, but they usually develops during the day.

While pain relievers are often used to treat a stress headache, the best medicine is prevention. Stress management and therapy can help individuals deal with the issues in their lives that lead to tension headaches, and hopefully, over time, when those problems are solved, the headaches will disappear as well. Remaining in the cycle of chronic tension headaches is unhealthy; while the headaches themselves may not cause further damage, the other symptoms can. With lack of sleep and irritability comes more stress, and with more stress comes more headaches; once in this pattern, an individual can quickly spiral into more severe depressions.

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Stress Headache

Everyone is different but each person has more in likely suffered from each of the four types of stress at least once. There is eustress, which is a short-term stress and is most often found when someone is in competition and it is often helpful. Now, there is distress, which is discomfort because of a routine being altered often. Then there is hyperstress where someone is overloaded with work or tasks that is just too much for them to handle. And then lastly there is hypostress, which means a person does not have enough to do and are suffering because of being unchallenged.

Solving The Problems

Even though we all understand that stress happens, not as many people truly understand how to go about solving their stress related problems and how to treat it. Most people think about medicine when thinking about medical issues but there are a lot of non-prescription ways to treat the stress that you are suffering from. There are a lot of minerals and vitamins that work wonders for stress management and work for all of the different types of stress. A lot of the different things that can be used for the different types of stress and the management of them are herbal alternatives such as SAM-e, Kava Kava, and even St. Johns Wort.

There is also the good old-fashioned remedy of talking through your different types of stress with friends and family. There is a lot to be gained by taking advantage of their friendship and concern for your well being. The people in your life who are supportive of you are the ones who can relate the best to what you are going through. Being able to talk about what you are feeling when you are experiencing different types of stress is something that cannot be beat. Talk to your friends, your family, and your doctor and you may be surprised at how well just talking about it really works.

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Types Of Stress