The first symptom I noticed was intense pressure. It began near my breastbone, shot up into my shoulders, neck, and jaws, and surged down again through both of my arms. It was as if an elephant had plopped down on my chest. I could barely catch my breath. I started sweating. I began getting bowel cramps and then overwhelming nausea.Later, as the nurses helped me into a hospital bed, I remember saying with astonishment, ’Im having a heart attack, I was only 24 years old.’
I read a great book called Stress to strength, by Dr. Robert S. In his book he describes his brush with death more than 20 years ago. As Dr. Eliot’s experience illustrates, stress can have life threatening consequences. The effects of stress can accumulate quietly over time and then surface without warning.
Just as there are different degrees of stress, there are also different types. Acute stress results from the strains of everyday life. Often, it involves unpleasant situations that need to be resolved. While acute stress is temporary, chronic stress is long term. The sufferer sees no way out of a stressful situation, be it the woes of poverty or the misery of a despised job, or no job. Chronic stress can also result from ongoing family problems. Caring an infirm relative can bring on stress as well. Whatever the cause, chronic stress grinds away at its victim day after day, week after week, month after month. The worst aspect of chronic stress is that people get used to it. Traumatic stress is the impact of an overwhelming tragedy, such as rape, accident, or natural disaster.
Stress can be managed by taking care of yourself, and maintaining healthy relationships. There will always be stress in life, and really what we have to look at is our reaction to it rather than trying to make the stress go away.