stress and illness

[Guest guest]

Yes, it is documented that stress is related to onset of illness, even major

life threatening illness.

Many years ago I helped some friends gather info for parents of ill kids, trying

to educate the parents to keep in mind that the parents needed to take care of

themself or they might get too ill to take care of their ill kids.

This is a major topic of discussion in many of the support groups I belong to,

both online and in person. And I do belong to more than a couple support

groups.... a few for parents of disabled kids, a few for spouses for wives of

terminally ill, mentally or physically disabled spouses, some for friends of

terminally ill people, some for caregivers whether paid or volunteer or for

family or friends. It is not going to far to say stress CAN kill you. Stress

can prevent cancer treatment from being successful. Stress can trigger major

illness. Stress can also leave you open to minor illness.

Stress can be caused by many things, financial or legal difficulties, illness in

yourself or a loved one, poor diet, poor sleep, lack of rest, lack of " down

time " all kinds of things.

Even some medications can cause stress, so many many things can cause stress.

http://www.bpinfo.net/caregiver_stress1.htm

Here is an url to a website with a daily stress inventory and a life events

stress test. Go peek at them....

Incidentally, I took the one test of life events 6 months before I got slammed

super hard by RA. My score was SO high, I took the test in nursing school, my

nursing teacher encouraged me to drop out of school, predicting my score was so

high, I needed to dramatically change the things I did have control over. I did

not listen and 6 months later I was fighting literally for my very life, the RA

struck so hard and in such places, my life hung in jeopardy for 2 years.

My best friend waas diagnosed with MS 6 months after a child nephew died, and 10

years later she was diagnosed with melanoma stage 4 after her father in law died

and her mom was diagnosed with cancer. my friend is currently dying. Sadly her

anxiety over being so ill causes her major anxiety and panic attacks that are

counterproductive to all the treatments they try for her.

Stress is NOT just some unpleasant thing, it is real and it has serious and very

real health consequences.

Also - depression is not only just a blue mood. clinical depression is when

your body has become altered physically and certain body chemicals become out of

balance and your body is different than a non depressed person, physically and

chemically. Depression is as real and as physical as diabetes. Depression is

also not always benign. Depression can complicate treatment of many illnesses

by causing people to not have the energy to do what they need to do, depression

affects the immune system, depression also can lead to suicide. It is NOT

something to take lightly or fool around with.

http://www.bpinfo.net/caregiver_stress1.htm

It IS a real and basic human need to feel loved, to feel a sense of worth and to

feel useful.

Living beings have needs other than water food elimination and sleep.

We need other people, too. Without that we CAN die, that is what " failure to

thrive " is..... if you have ever witnessed a newborn or an elderly person, you

might know failure to thrive is deadly.

Please examine your life and your stress levels and do what you can to meet

these kinds of needs for yourself as well as your medical needs. Your life can

depend on it, seriously. Stress can and does kill, many many people every

single days, in many many ways.