Stress Consequences and Eustress Distress Management

Stress consequences can be serious. Whether it's eustress, caused by positive events in your life, or hopeless long-term feelings of distress, stress consequences can affect your physical and mental health.

Actually, stress consequences are the most common cause of disease in our society, accounting for at least 75 to 90% of all visits to doctors.

And although you can learn to handle stress, eustress distress management requires making changes. Whether you change your lifestyle, thoughts, feelings, circumstances or your reactions to circumstances, to reduce negative stress consequences you must make changes.

Stress Consequences from Eustress and Distress

Some forms of stress, such as eustress, are healthy. For example, exercise is a beneficial eustress, providing positive stress consequences.

And in the face of danger, it's your fight-or-flight stress reaction that causes an adrenaline rush that keeps you alert and helps you protect yourself.

But the eventual wear-and-tear on your immune system from prolonged distress plays a significant role in almost all illness and disease – both physical and psychological. Early stress consequences include:

•    Lethargy with diminished sex-drive,
•    Clenched jaw and grinding teeth,
•    Breathlessness or chest pain,
•    Weight gain or weight loss,
•    Headache or migraines,
•    High blood pressure,
•    Chronic tiredness,
•    Skin problems,
•    Indigestion,
•    Insomnia.

And when short-term stress turns into long-term distress, your immune system goes into a constant state of exhaustion. And the tired-all-the-time feeling you get is the first symptom of all degenerative diseases.

Negative stress consequences of long-term distress include:

•    Obesity,
•    Depression,
•    Type 2 diabetes,
•    More flu and viruses,
•    Heart disease and strokes,
•    And many other serious diseases.

Stress Eustress Distress Management

Is there one single solution for stress consequences? No, but here are three temporary solutions for handling stress consequences.

•    Walk it off
•    Talk it out
•    Or let it go

But since lack of regular exercise, eating unhealthy food and persistent negative thinking about your circumstances are the most common ongoing causes, when it gets right down to long-term stress, you must make long-term lifestyle changes for effective distress management.

Actions necessary to reduce your negative stress consequences are:

•    Have more fun.
•    Eat for great health.
•    Increase physical activity.
•    Accentuate positive thoughts.
•    Be grateful for the good in your life.
•    Get plenty of rest, relaxation and sleep.
•    Reach out, get support and interact socially.
•    Use biofeedback or other relaxation techniques.
•    Make more time for personal interests and hobbies.
•    Let it go. What difference will it make 10 years from now?

You can also set more reasonable goals, stop over-committing, give up perfectionism and eliminate many unnecessary sources of stress.

The Bottom Stress Line

With good distress management, you can eliminate negative stress consequences. As the Serenity Prayer recommends, change what you can change, accept what you can't change and learn to tell the difference.

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