Illness Due to Stress

Illness due to stress

There are times in everyone’s life where they go through some kind of stress. Whether it be school, work or something personal, everyone experiences some kind of stress. What some people do not know is too much stress can actually take a toll on your body, mind and emotions.

Having severe amounts of stress can cause very much cause you to have complications on your body, more specifically, your immune system. It has been studied that the immune system is weakened during times of severe stress, causing you to be more vulnerable to viruses. According to Coon & Mitterer, Immunity is also lowered by divorce, bereavement, a troubled marriage, job loss, poor sleep, depression, and similar stresses (Coon & Mitterer, 2012). Stress also triggers your body to release substances that increase inflammation. You usually find these substances that your body releases as a response to threats, but it can also prolong infections and delay healing.

It is possible for one to experience a burnout during stress. A burnout is when you are physically, mentally, and emotionally drained at the same time because of stress. According to Mark Gorkin, a licensed clinical social worker also known as “The Stress Doc”, there are 4 stages of burnout. The first stage is physical, mental and emotional exhaustion, where you just have no energy to do anything. The second step is shame and doubt. The best way to describe this step is to put yourself in a position to where you take on a task that you do not think you can do and just pretend everything is fine. For that reason, this step is mainly a psychological or mental step. The third step is cynicism and callousness. This step focuses on your emotions and how you have to convince yourself that everything is fine and try to ignore the reality. The fourth and final step is Failure, Helplessness and Crisis. In this step you finally come to terms with the reality of you failing or having things not turning out the way you wanted it to (Gorkin, 2016). I believe that these stages are somewhat relatable to most people. My only question is what if someone goes through this same stress and stages, but actually succeeds at what they wanted? I would think that they would have to re-think the final step since all it does is set you up for failure.